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Isla Holbox is just over and
around on the north side of the Yucatan peninsula
The island is long and narrow, the town is on the
west end.
The marker shows where we
were at on
Sunday with the whale
shark...about 25 miles from the town
and 15 miles offshore.
Hotel Casa Sandra - Isla Holbox,
Mexico
Nicely Decorated Rooms (the
distortion is due to my fisheye lens)
View from the hotel balcony -
very nice beach, but insect repellant needed!
AND NOW...THE STARS OF THE
SHOW! :) First...the manta ray I saw.
And here is the pair of whale
sharks I swam along between...only lightly touched
by the tail of
one, and
not worried at all. There
was no sign of aggression from
these huge
fish. They moved
slowly
and gently,
indifferent to our presence for the most part.
On the shots taken the first
day, I used a fisheye lens that gave me a chance to photograph
nearly
the full length of the
whale sharks. Unfortunately, the water visibility still made
it
difficult to
see that much of
them. Here is a surface shot from the boat and another
while
snorkeling, the
whale shark
being probably at about the same depth in both photos.
The best photos for me came on
Sunday, with the water more clear and the one big
whale
shark just slowly moving
around, occasionally diving deeper and out of reach,
but returning
to shallower
depths over time. It was really amazing to just swim
right
alongside it. For some
of the photos here, I basically rested my hand against the
body
of the fish while holding my
camera for the photo. First, my favorite shot just for
that
big "smile"....which I got by
swimming
over the shark's head, and then down, taking the
photo upside down. That
was easier than
swimming out in front and then down below
the fish, before running out
of breath.
While not the best photos for
"show", I wanted to get some photos from various angles of
the
whale shark to help
illustrate its size. I think I was pretty
successful.
Oddly enough, I don't recall
if this is the whale shark's right eye or not, but I'm pretty sure
it
is.
But, it looks more
scarred up on this side. I guess I didn't really have the time to
fully
absorb
exactly what I was
looking at. Clearly though, the eye is visible on the left side in
the
2nd
photo and looks more
"healthy".
And yes....I really was there, taking these photos
while found in none.
But, here's proof, courtesy of a fellow u/w photographer in our group.
 That's all for now!
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