#25 Swim with a whale shark

Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea!

A flight sale deal to Cancun, Mexico inspired me to take the plunge for #25 Swim with whale sharks. The shark season in this area lasts from June to September, so our anniversary in July was the perfect occasion for a weekend trip!

We were picked up from our resort at 7:15am and endured a very choppy 1.5 hour small boat trip out to the whale shark feeding area. From there, you could see the exact same little boats all around on the hunt for them! As we searched, we happened across dozens of cute spotted dolphins riding bow waves and jumping in groups of 3, 5, and even 10. They truly were putting on a show!

Atlantic spotted dolphins were dancing in the waves all around us

Finally, a solo whale shark was spotted, so we got in a line of boats dropping snorkelers nearby in pairs, letting them swim a few minutes, picking them up, then looping around to the back of the boat line for another turn. I was getting nervous since PA and I were assigned to be the 3rd couple to jump off our boat, and I didn't want the shark to disappear before we had a chance to see it! I decided to forgo setting up my old GoPro and just live in the moment as I jumped into the open ocean with a mask and snorkel.

Our first view of a whale shark was exactly like this!

Our first view was something like the photo above - immediately upon entering the water, swimming straight at us is a giant shark, easily 10 meters/32 feet long, with its mouth closed and tiny wide set eyes staring placidly back at us. Startling me in its size and sudden closeness, I felt like I was flailing at the surface, unable to contain my excitement and wonder. It so very gently dipped under us, still close enough we might accidently touch its fins. 

We quickly did an about face at the surface in order to stay directly above it - I felt our local guide shove my fins forward to remind me to move. At first, it was still so close below us that I couldn't see its whole body at once; I had to pan my eyes from its head down to the tail and back again repeatedly! I grabbed PA's hand and held it as we kept swimming forward.

So very slowly, it moved deeper to the point where I could look down and see its whole form in my field of vision. Its tail seemed to barely wave back and forth to propel it forward, slow enough that we could keep up. Their spot and line patterns are each different, like fingerprints, and I remember thinking this shark had lots more open gray spaces that I imagined. 

I couldn't tell you if I was in the water for one minute or five, since time seemed to stop as I focused on staring down at the full body of this amazing creature - how wild that across the wide open ocean we stumbled upon this shark? With my ears underwater, it was completely silent. In the light tropical blue sea, streams of light shimmered down from the surface all around the shark's form, dancing like the northern lights around it. That last image will be burned in my memory forever.

We loved our weekend stay at Majestic Elegance Costa Mujeres outside Cancun

I swam back to the boat completely smitten, having seen exactly what I came for! From there, we had another long boat ride back to Isla Mujeres, just off of Cancun, where we swam by a lovely beach and ate fresh ceviche and guacamole before being dropped off back at our resort.

We did the whale shark tour on the first day of the trip, and since it was successful, we got to spend day two just enjoying the beaches, pools, spa, restaurants, and bars of our all-inclusive resort, Majestic Elegance Costa Mujeres. It was a quick but perfectly balanced weekend trip of both adventure and relaxation (including PA's first massage and spa experience!)

9 custom shots (at least) from Alvaro at the Lobby Bar to celebrate 9 years!

Item 25 Completed 7/9/23
45/54 items complete = 83.3%