James takes on the world!

Since my last update I took a flight from what seemed like the worlds smallest airport on Busuanga Island to Manila and then another flight to Legaspi City in South Luzon, Philippines. I made my way to a small town called Donsol which is famous because it is a well know location for spotting Whale Sharks from November to May who come to feed on the abundant plankton. They can reach as big as 12.5 Meters, although there have been unconfirmed sightings of ones as big as 18 Meters and they are the largest living fish species.

I went out on a boat trip with an American girl, 3 Swedish guys and a French guy called Guillaume that I had met back at the rice terraces and then bumped into again here. We then got to snorkel with these gentle giants for around 3 hours and within this time we swam with 5 individual Whale Sharks.

This is sadly not my picture as I don’t have an underwater camera but it gives you an idea of the size of a small one.

The following day Guillaume and I went back to Legaspi City and took a trek up Mount Mayon which is a 2400 Meter (8000 ft) high volcano which is regarded as a ‘the perfect shaped volcano’ because of its perfect cone-like shape.

It is still an active volcano and the last eruption was in December 2009. We took a guide with us and he navigated us off the trail to the lava bed which is the result of the 2009 eruption. The lava is still steaming however it was safe for us to walk across. We then proceeded up to Camp 1 which is at an altitude of 2500ft.

Today we headed to a nearby black sand beach. On the way to the beach we were invited by a local person to have some lunch with them on our way back. We took him up on the offer and the family of 5 cooked us some great fish, pork, rice and various spicy sauces. They were so kind and they insisted that we should come back again and that they would teach us how to make a local specialty called Bicol Express. We were extremely appreciative of their hospitality, especially as it was evident that they were not at all well off. When we tried to offer them some money as a thank you, they strongly declined and told us to promise to either come back to visit or to show them around if ever they were lucky enough to come to England or France. The Father then took us to his small Coconut plantation where we drank and ate Coconut which he chopped from the trees around us. He then suggested that he would take us to the local cockerel fight (a very popular betting sport in Philippines) however I declined as I decided that a ‘to the death’ cock fight was not something I really wanted to see. However he was not entirely disappointed as my fellow French traveler accepted his invitation. Before leaving he attempted to marry us of to various local Filipino girls and once again, obviously, I had to decline this offer

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