π
2017-12-03 01:01
in Diving
So, we arrived the previous day from our boat departure, got picked up at 06:40 for the 2H+ drive to La Paz, and joined the tour. Sadly, they just introduce a reservation system where only 2 or 3 boats are allowed in the area at a time. While this makes sense since you don't want all the boats dropping people at the same time on top of a few poor whale sharks trying to feed, sadly the current system works by having boats leave the harbour, and then wait in the middle of the water, burning gas, for their turn to enter the area. For us, that was a 1h30 wait before we were allowed to finally enter the area, which was annoying given that we had gotten up at 06:00. But once we got there, finally, it was great. Several juvenile whale sharks were feeding at surface level, and our boat sent people 3 at a time with a guide just next to a whale shark feeding. Sadly, the first 2 we got dropped by, were way too fast for me to keep up with just the small fins they gave us (apparently bigger fins don't help at the surface). You could barely keep up with them if you swam with your hands, but with a camera with each hand, that was not possible for me, so I had to let them go.
Thankfully they picked a slower one for us for the 3rd and last one, and I was able to keep up with it just with my fins and get some good shots. Here is a summary video:
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