Swim with Whale Sharks Mexico

“Look at the whale shark!” he shouted to me. “I see it!” I screamed back. In a flurry, I moved out of the whale sharks way, still gripping onto the guide’s arm. I watched the whale shark’s long body curve to the side as it continued feeding. It’s wide mouth, it’s long body covered in grey fingerprint size spots and its strong tail was incredible to look at as it moved through the water. I felt like I’d been staring at the whale shark for a life-time but in reality it must’ve been only around 30 seconds. The guides told us that whale sharks swim so fast that snorkelers struggle to keep up with them, so I was lucky to get such a long look at one. I pulled myself back on the boat feeling elated, overwhelmed and exhausted.”

“I pictured really deep water and chillin whale sharks that we could slowly snorkel next to, but no way jose this was not the experience whatsoever. We take the boat out and our guide stands at the front looking out for dark shadows. When he sees one we throw on our mask and fins, the boat speeds up and we all jump off and swim as fast as we can. The first time I jumped out of that boat was TERRIFYING. I didn’t know where the whale shark was or what it would do if it saw us. But what an incredible experience. Amelia and I quickly saw the beautiful creature and swam alongside it, trying to keep up. We looked back for our guide and he was gone and it was just me, Amelia and the whale shark. I thought maybe we should go back or stop because we didn’t know how long we were allowed to swim with it but we couldn’t stop because it was such a magical moment. Finally he out swam us and we headed back to the boat, where everyone else was.”

“We sat on the edge with our snorkel gear on, waiting for the signal to jump in. Once you're in the water, the goal is to kick hard and fast to keep up with the shark. Because if you hesitate, you might miss it. They swim effortlessly, but are much faster than they look. Swimming next to a 30 foot long sea creature, the size of a small bus, was a wild experience. It's a bit intimidating to be honest... they're huge! It looks like they could swallow you whole... But the world's largest fish won't try to eat you. It's just slurping up tasty plankton and expelling excess seawater through its gills. The white-spotted shark kept her eye on us, but didn't seem to mind our presence.”