Wild Planet

This Spring Break Ryan and I visited the Philippines. I was a bit skeptical about going because Manila is not my favorite city in the world, but I was blown away! The land and water are beautiful, the people are friendly, and the wildlife is amazing!

We started by flying into Legaspi and driving to Donsol.  Our main purpose was to swim with the whale sharks that feed in the waters just off the coast. We saw 2 different whale sharks and snorkeled with them (well, THEY weren't snorkeling) 5 different times throughout the morning. It was truly amazing! They were graceful, docile, and just gigantic! They seemed rather unperturbed by our group, which ranged from 5 to 15 people. (I can't say the same for Ryan, though, who at one point was thoroughly annoyed with a few rather aggressive fellow snorkelers who were photographing the sharks.)

The view from a beachside restaurant in Donsol. 

Afterwards we visited Bohol, home of the Chocolate Hills.  The limestone hills were coral deposits on a sea bed, and over time erosion created their 1,000 conical shapes scattered over 50 square kilometers. No trees can take root there, but the grasses turn brown in the dry season, thus giving the hills their delicious sounding name.

Bohol is also home to the tarsier, one of the world's smallest primates. Actually, its classification is somewhat problematic, but for the purposes of this non-scientific blog posting (sorry, Ryan), let's just call it a primate. Here are some fun facts about our cutest new friend....

• Each eye is bigger than its brain or stomach. 
• Its eyes look straight ahead, but it can turn its head 180 degrees.
• They are carnivores, eating mostly insects but also indulging in the occasional bat, bird, or reptile. 
• The name "tarsier" comes from its very long ankle bone.

Unfortunately, Ryan was under the weather for a good part of this trip. Having a cold and pink eye in a foreign country just isn't as fun as it sounds, but the good part is that we got to experience medical care in a small town in a developing nation (also not as fun as it sounds). Ryan was quickly treated by a doctor who laughs in the face of pink eye, and he had no qualms about using ungloved fingers to examine Ryan's eye. $12 and a bottle of antibiotic drops later, Ryan was cured!

One morning while the boys slept in, our friend Julie and I went out for a 6am boat trip. Our first mission: dolphins! We caught glimpses of a few dolphin pods swimming and jumping just meters from our boat, but unfortunately some of the boats liked to get a little too close, so the dolphins kept disappearing under the water. Snorkeling was our next mission, and Julie and I were more than impressed by the variety of fish swimming in the reef. It is some of the best snorkeling I've ever done (second only to Bali).

Here are some of the cool sea animals we saw in the tide pool right off the beach near our hotel.