This weekend we went out swimming with the whale sharks.

These things are ah-mazing!

They’re huge! The ones we saw were anywhere from 10 to 30 feet.

Pics

Here’s a few pics from our tour. Click on any of the pics to view full size.

Video

One of the  tour guides captured this cool video of Elizabeth swimming alongside one of these gentle giants.

Logistics

We drove up to Cancun, and went with a tour company called Sea Friends. It was all arranged through Tomas at Lighthouse Tours here in Puerto Morelos. Tomas is great to work with – very responsive.

We left the dock around 10:00, and it was about an hour boat ride out to the spot where  the whale sharks were hanging out and feeding.

There was a bunch of boats out there, but there were a lot of whale sharks, so it didn’t feel crowded or annoying.

There was 10 of us on the boat, and we went in the water two at a time. This was nice, as we weren’t all jockeying for position at the same time.

We all got to swim a few times with the whale sharks, and one of the tour guides took pictures and video with  his GoPro.

Then we headed back in, and stopped at Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, where we hung out for a bit, and they made us fresh ceviche.

Then it was a short ride back to Cancun, We got back to Cancun around 3:00.

Hanging out at Playa Norte

Wrap Up

We went on a whale shark tour a few years ago, and it was a terrible experience. Really rough seas, and we only saw three whale sharks all day. It was at the end of the season, which was likely why we saw so few of them.

We also saw a couple whale sharks in La Paz a few years ago while we were on our way to a dive site, but it was nothing like this.

This experience was fantastic! It was a perfect day, calm seas, and whale sharks everywhere.

As an added bonus, we even saw a school of dolphins jumping on our way back into Cancun.

I would highly recommend doing this. There’s tour boats out of Cancun, and also out of Isla Mujeres.

Get out there and do this – you’ll love it!