**Disclaimer: The first photo in this blog is a picture from the internet. It is not from our trip today. I am merely posting it to show you what a Whale Shark looks like.***
If it is possible to have the best experience of your life and the worst experience of your life at the same time, that is what today was. Let me paint you a picture...
Last night neither of us slept well. We had to be down in the lobby at 6:30am to meet with our guide for our Whale Shark Adventure, and both of us were scared we would oversleep. So to be safe, I set the alarm for 5:40am, and requested room service for breakfast at 5:45am (Yes, that is the 4th time for anybody who is counting) just to make sure something would wake us up. Of course when my alarm went off at 5:40am, I hit the snooze button so fast and went back to sleep. Then our breakfast came and the knock on the door woke us up. Along with breakfast the worker gave us a typed note that read "Mr. Bravo, you have an important message, please contact the front desk." We thought it might be an emergency so we called right away, but nobody picked up. By the time we finally got a hold of somebody, it was 10 minutes to 6, and the message was that our tour pick up time got changed to 6:00am. Well, that put us both in a panic and bad mood, because we had 5 minutes to get ready, because it takes about 5 minutes to walk to the lobby from our room. The guide even called our room asking where we were. We had just enough time to throw on our swim suits and run to the lobby to meet our guide.
Jaime and I were already kind of grumpy due to the fact that we woke up with such urgency and had to rush to get ready. We didn't even have time to eat our full breakfast. We had to stop at 4 other hotels to pick up more people for the tour before we got to the marina to get ready to board the boats.
So now, an hour later everybody is crammed into this van, and our guide proceeds to tell us that it is now too late to put on sunscreen because the sunscreen washes off in the ocean and causes oil to come off and it is not safe for the animals. Well, I can comply with that, but we were not informed of this beforehand, and we were told last minute we had to be picked up early and couldn't put on sunscreen before getting in the van. So basically we were told that we would just have to get burned. On top of that, the clouds actually cleared today and it was blue skies and the hot sun just beating down on us. They said they had breakfast for us at the marina, but there were other tours there too and it was pretty much picked over by the time we got to the table.
So here Jaime and I are, grumpy and upset about the lack of communication. And hungry on top of all of that. We see these super nice huge luxury boats all over the marina, and our guide leads us to this rickety looking tiny boat that was just big enough to hold the 10 of us in our group and the three tour guides.
We had to ride for about an hour at full speed to get where the Whale Sharks feed. The boat ride was not so bad, a little bumpy, but nothing that caused any sea sickness. It was a little uncomfortable just because the hot sun was right above us and I could just feel my skin burning, even though I did my best to cover up.
All of a sudden about an hour into our ride out into the middle of nowhere, I mean, there is no land to be seen in any direction, we see two fins pop out of the water. These Sharks were just swimming along the top of the water, eating plankton, not caring one bit that we were there. They have these huge mouths, and are just about as long as boat we were on. To say it was overwhelming and a little scary to see these things so close is an understatement. There are no words.
The captain turned the boat around and told the first set of people to get in the water and get ready to swim. They turned the motor off and with the swells happening in the water, we were just sitting in the open sea rocking up and down, side to side. And Jaime and I weren't going in the water for a while. The boat was making us feel nauseous, but because we could already see the Whale Sharks swimming around us, we were too excited to realize that we were getting incredibly sea sick.
Here is now it worked. They gave us flippers, a snorkel, and a face mask, and when we got close enough to a Whale Shark, they would tell us to jump in. A guide came in with us and would lead the way and tell us in which direction to swim. To get ready, we had to sit with one leg outside the boat, and one leg inside and when they said jump, you had to jump. Right in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Alongside a 15 foot long Whale Shark. And we did.
When it came time for Jaime and I to do our first jump (we were able to do 3) we were revved up and ready. There was a huge Whale Shark parallel to our boat heading the opposite direction. The captain yelled "Jump!" and we got right in. We had our face masks and snorkels on but we didn't just put our heads in right away, we didn't really know what to do. I just realized that holy ****, here I am alongside this shark, and the guide was like "Put your face in! Look at it!" So I did. Now when I jumped in, the shark was pointed away from me. But for how big those things are, they turn fast and in the moment I put my face in the water, it turned to face me and my first encounter with experience a Whale Shark underwater was its giant open mouth about 3 feet in front of my face. Needless to say that was a bit mind-numbingly terrifying. Jaime said that he was trying to swim alongside it and by the time he put is face under, he was almost on top of it, and he looks down and was thinking, "Oh, ok there is a Whale Shark UNDERNEATH ME!" but again, we didn't have time to think about that because they were yelling "SWIM! SWIM!" So Jaime and I did. (He was on the other side of the Whale Shark (I think, I could not see him due to the giant you know, Whale Shark between us). So there we were. Swimming alongside a Whale Shark. We had life jackets on and were just on the surface. But the Whale Shark was too, and the three of us just swam alongside each other like it was no thing. I could even look into its eye. Well, the Whale Shark thought it was no thing, but Jaime and I were a little bit in disbelief.
So here is where it got less fun. We get back onto the boat (they only allowed for two of us in at a time) and it is ROCKY. Jaime and I both started to feel extremely woozy. To the point where it took all of my energy to not just puke off the side of the boat. It was even a little hard to enjoy watching the Sharks from the boat because we felt that sick. Luckily, it was soon time for us to jump back in again. We did our thing again, but sadly got very little face time with this particular Whale Shark. It swam away. So we are there just floating, no Whale Sharks to be seen at the moment, when I see something right below me so I decide to put my face in the water and am greeted by a HUGE Manta Ray. (Which I only knew what it was because the guide was like "hey look, a Manta Ray," and Jaime and I were like "What the heck is that?!" The funny part was I swam closer to get a better look (and luckily and amazing picture) and Jaime swam away from it. It eventually swam away too. The first thought that popped into Jaime's head was how the Crocodile Hunter died from a Ray, that is why he swam away. But as a disclaimer, Manta's are different and cannot hurt you like the Sting Rays can. So we were in no danger. Just a little odd, because our guides did not mention it was possible to come across something other than a Whale Shark.
Now we are back on the boat waiting for our third jump. Let me rephrase that, we are back on the boat silently praying this tour would end because being on the rocky boat became unbearable. No, we did not take Dramamine, because we were not warned it would be so rocky. We were sunburned, sea sick, and hungry, and for how cool the Whale Sharks were, we could not stand being on the boat anymore. Jaime couldn't hold it in, he actually got sick off the side of the boat, which made him feel weak at first but then better. About 5 minutes after that, the guide is telling us it in our last chance to jump, and poor Jaime is just trembling from not having food in his tummy, having gotten sick and still having to deal with the rocky boat, and having the 80 degree sun in the sky with no cloud coverage continuing to burn. I was mere seconds away from joining him in being sick, but luckily they called me to jump my last time. I made sure Jaime was ok, and he was, but I got in alone this time. Well, me and the guide.
My third time I was able to swim alongside this particular Whale Shark for a good while. We were told to stay about arms length away from it and by its head, because if the tail whipped around, it could seriously injure somebody. And no, we were absolutely not allowed to touch them. So I did my best to keep up with the Shark as long as I could. I had my head in the water, and swam alongside it and just looked at it. There is no cooler feeling. Being in the water was much better than being on the boat, so while the last two did their final jump, I got to float in the water with the guide. When we all got back on the boat, we drove back into shore. Jaime felt normal at this point, but I was still feeling sick. It was not until we got to our docking point for lunch that I felt 100% again.
We stopped at Isla Mujeres, a beautiful island off of Cancun and we got to get out and swim in the super clear, super turquoise water. It was so beautiful and amazing, and a great way to relax and recover from the rocky boat. We just chilled in the water and had some lunch.
So, I tell you this story in such detail to tell you this. Even though today was one of the most uncomfortable, upsetting days I have ever had, it was also one of the best. For both of us. Yes, we were hungry, boiling in the sun, grumpy from not eating, and puking off the side of the boat. But we were literally face to face with several Whale Sharks and got to swim alongside them. We saw a Manta Ray. We were snorkeling in the middle of God knows where with the biggest Shark in the world. And it made it all worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.