when the weather is fine, you know that its time, for swimming around with some Whale sharks!

6am wake up and some Mexican scrambled eggs later me Ceri and Isabelle (our new German friend) headed off out to catch our boat for a dip with some Whale sharks.

On arrival at the jetty well were greeted by our guide Sho - with his curly hair and huge smile he knew what he had in store for us and clearly loved his job. On boarding the boat my more sensible self started to question what I was about to do but I pushed through and found my seat in the boat. There was ten of us in the group, a couple from Belgium and couple from Barcelona and some college students from Virginia. At first the ride was smooth and chilled and I started to relax, however as we got our of the houbour our captain cranked up the the two big Yamaha engines and before I knew it we were bouncing over waves and flying off our seats getting further and further away from shore. Best off all I look around to see that Ceri is actually full on asleep, having a little snooze, as the rest of us were bouncing around. 

We were in the boat at full speed for around 1 1/2 hours before the engines slowed and the first of our group shouted look there's one..... I couldn't believe my eyes - it's funny really as although I'd booked a trip to see whale sharks I hadn't actually anticipated the moment where I'd actually see them!!! There must have been 30-40 whale sharks, they were in every direction........huge, yet so graceful. Our instructor gave us numbers and I was number two..... he told us that we needed to be ready to jump when our number was called and we would need to be donning our flippers, masks and snorkel and get straight in when we he called. Then the crew positioned the boat directly ahead of an oncoming whale shark which had its mouth fully open, gathering plankton. 

Considering I've never snorkeled before I was kind of craping my pants and thinking maybe this wasn't the best idea I've ever had, but I decided to 'go with the flow' and before I knew it I was on the side of the boat, flippers and mask -check - next thing I heard go go go!!!!! 

I just jumped off the side and put my face under the water straight away and right before me emerged the most incredible view I've ever seen.....the sharks mouth full open guzzling plankton only metres from me.....aside of him were a few other smaller sharks catching his left overs......it was such an insane and exhilarating experience and as I was shrinking and grabbing hold of the instructor the shark turned and as it came round it's tail touched along my legs and stomach. I was over run with adrenaline and then the instructor grabbed my hand and pulled me to swim right along side the shark. It was by far once of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. All I kept thinking of was having seen whale sharks on blue planet (the david Attenborough documentary) and that every time I stuck my head under the water it was like watching tv!!!

We had three dives each before saying goodbye to the sharks and making our way to the island where we had our dinner of fish freshly caught that morning and nachos with guacamole. 

After lunch we made our way back to the mainland where we guy from our hostel was already waiting - ready to take us to watch the World Cup Final. I'm glad I got to watch it with Isabelle as it made it much more fun to watch with someone from the country who were playing.
Tomorrow we're off to Chichen Itza to see the Mayan ruins, admirer early start as the bus is coming at 7. Tomorrow's trip also includes going to a water hole which I'm pretty excited about.