Philippines: The sights of Donsol

When you hear about Donsol, in guidebooks they almost always mention the whale sharks that come to this area in huge numbers for 3 to 4 months out of the year. The locals call them Butanding and the best time to see them is between December and January. The massive fish come in huge numbers and, with the help of locals, you have the chance to get up close and personal.

This is not the only thing to see here though. If you are a diver, you can rent a local boat for a day and head out to an undersea mountain. There at 100 feet, you can see swarms of hammerhead sharks and giant manta rays. We also heard that on rare occasions, you will run across a sea cow, an animal that few, even locals, knew existed in the area.

When not in the ocean, the main island offers beautiful beaches and an unforgettable trip up the main river in the town of Donsol to look at swarms of fireflies at night. It is hard to spend only a few days here; there is just too much to see.

Quick Tips:

At the local Department of Tourism station, you can arrange to see the sharks, to dive, and plan any other activities you might have. This is the only place you can make arrangements as the sharks are protected and the tourism is closely monitored. The Department of Tourism office is the only place to get reliable information on anything in the area if you have not been there before. They will even help you find a place to stay.

This area is not very developed in terms of tourism, so you may find yourself having to plan your own trips on the fly with locals helping. Just be prepared to be flexible.

If you do go swimming with the whale sharks, try to go as a group. You pay for the boat and not per person, so it is much cheaper with more people. However, you are not allowed to take more then seven people on the boat at a time and once a whale shark is seen, only one boat is allowed to follow it at a time.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can get to Donsol from almost anywhere by bus. Once in the town though the best way to get around without walking is by motorized tricycles. They run in the same manner as a taxi would. The town of Donsol is small enough that the best way to see it really is to walk. The harbor and town center are both within walking distance from each other, so you never really need to walk far. However, to get from the town center to the beaches where the department of tourism is, you will need to take a tricycle, as it is about 10km out of town.

One interesting way to get from Donsol to the beaches and to some of the nearby islands is to rent a boat for the day. You can do this at the harbor area and all prices are negotiable there.

If you have your own car, you can avoid the hassle of public transportation, but you lose out on much of the local flair. There are so few tourists there that the locals seem to really enjoy interacting with outsiders.

The whale sharks of Donsol were just filmed in 1998 by a team of divers and it is only since then that they have been attracting tourists. Today there is no diving allowed in the area where the whale sharks congregate only snorkeling thanks to the protection of the World Wildlife Fund. This allows the sharks a bit of privacy if they get upset with tourists swimming a few feet away from them. They simply dive deep and you are left swimming all alone. With this said though, you will probably get many chances to swim the massive fish if you go at the right time of year, but there is no grantee. When I was there, I saw 17 different whale sharks on the first day and 10 the next. However, another tourist on another boat saw none during the same two days.

The first thing to do is get a good boat crew at the Department of Tourism. Get a boat driver and a spotter that is experienced enough to get you perpendicular to the shark so that it is swimming towards the boat when you jump out. If you do this, you will only have to tread water and the sharks will come right to you. If your driver just pulls up along side of the sharks, you will have to do a lot of extra swimming to catch up. On the rare occasion, the driver will only go behind the shark and any chance of catching up is very slim.

Typically, the sharks hang out alone on the surface feeding on plankton and don’t seem to mind humans only a few feet away. While you are not allowed to touch them, you can take all the pictures you want. One problem for viewing is that the whale sharks stay close to shore, feeding at the river mouth, and this silt makes the water very murky. Once the whale sharks dive deeper then 20 feet, it becomes a challenge to see them. So be prepared to only get a few minutes with some if they do not like you near. Some, though, will let you swim with them as long as you want.

This is an experience that is not to be missed. There are only two other places in the world where the whale sharks come together in such numbers: the Galapagos Islands and Australia.