Swimming with Whale Sharks
Published Thursday, January 9th 2020Swimming with Whale Sharks is a great family experience if you are visiting the Cancun/Riviera Maya Area of Mexico.
Most tour groups offer hotel pick-up and will take you to Playa del Carmen, where you board a small boat and head out to sea. Groups are usually limited to 10 people.
After an hour+ boat ride you can observe the calm waters surrounding Isla Contoy, Holbox, and Isla Mujeres for whale sharks. Once the guide has spotted the whale shark, you put on your snorkeling gear and plunge into the water to snorkel alongside the fascinating fish. We each got to get in the water two times to swim with the whale sharks. You don't have to be physically fit to do this encounter but, it does require some endurance. It can be exhausting swimming in the open ocean back to the boat, after the whale shark encounter. In our group there was a couple in there 60's, that was able to do the snorkel/swim.
They discourage the use of sunscreen as it is bad for the coral reefs and encourage you to use rash guard, the tour company we used(EcoTours) also sold rash guard at the dock before we boarded the boat.
After we were done snorkeling with the Whale Sharks the boat cruised towards the sands of Isla Mujeres, to a blissful beach known as Playa Norte. While we were relaxing at the beach, our boat captain made us some amazing ceviche to enjoy once we were back on board. Along the way to the island we spotted dolphins and sea turtles.
Pricing is not cheap, with prices starting at around $144 per person but it did include, pick-up/drop-up, sandwich lunch, water and tour guide.
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