The Butandings' Picnic Zone



Amirasolo and Other Essays                        

Part 3. In my Book

Essay 40. THE BUTANDINGS' PICNIC  ZONE

The painting at the top of the photo collage above is a composite where I used as references several pictures taken at different locations and occasions. I wasn't even at sea when my picture was taken. I was inside our house and wasn't wearing around my head any 'antipara' or wood-carved goggles at all. The rocky island behind is Sumilon, way back when it was still undeveloped and hasn't become the high-end tourist destination it is now. The distant mountains and the white shoreline at left is Oslob, Cebu, where our branch of the Mirasol clan hails from. The characters of course are me and Carina with our two sons, and their cousins and friends. I painted Bahgee into this picture thrice and Kai twice.

The event depicted in this painting happened in 1994, when whale sharks as tourist attraction were still unheard of. The sea behind Sumilon Island became famous as the whale sharks' "picnic zone" beginning 2010. From that time on, Oslob experienced a steady rise in the number of tourists visiting it. The tourists, both local and foreign, arrived in droves to experience for themselves how it was to watch and swim in close proximity with the giant yet gentle fish. I was one of them. 

Below is the essay I wrote the day after I went swimming with the whale sharks in 2014:

THE BUTANDING EYEBALL REPORT 

Well, it finally happened---my close encounter with the whale sharks or butandings, that is. I am writing in Oslob, Cebu. I and my Papa Nene were in Barangay Tan-awan early yesterday morning. We went straight to the briefing area for the short lecture on the dos and don'ts of whaleshark watching. The briefing was conducted by a girl who looks like only a high schooler to me, but who to my surprise delivered her spiel in straight and American-accented English. 

After paying the 500 pesos snorkeling fee, I was handed my life-vest and was ushered to the boat which will take me to the whale shark watching area about two hundred meters away. I didn't ask for a pair of diving fins because  I brought my own Scubapro Seawing fins with me. Visitors are required to wear life-vests while on the boat, which the competent swimmers can remove when they want to snorkel.

I wasn't able to take pictures underwater because I don't have an underwater camera. You could rent one, but I chose not to because I find the 500 pesos camera rental rather steep. I don't know about the others, but I also feel short-changed every time I think of the 500 pesos I paid for the mere 30-minutes I spent snorkeling there. That amount of time was too short for a sea freak like me, who can spent hours snorkeling without getting bored. Some whale shark watchers and snorkelers may have felt short-changed, too, especially those who've come all the way from Western Europe, Russia, Korea, and other foreign countries, who are being charged 1000 pesos each. 

But then again, perhaps, it was only the penny-pincher in me speaking. It's possible that the other snorkelers actually found the snorkeling fee cheap: and if ever they find 30-minutes too short, well, no problem they might say, we'll pay another 500 pesos, or even one thousand, for another 30-minutes of snorkeling time.

Although I was only about two hundred meters away from shore, I can see that I was in deep waters. It was at least 20 feet deep there. I saw in the area where I snorkeled at least four different butandings. There are others circling the other boats. The butandings looked juvenile, because they are just about 10 feet in length. Big Mama, who's said to be as big as a bus, and who is probably the matriarch of this group of whale sharks, wasn't in sight. 

The butandings are gentle all right. They didn't mind the snorkelers swarming about and only focused on eating the baby shrimps (uyap) provided them.

Brief though it may be, my close encounter with those would-be leviathans was an unforgettable experience all in all for a sea freak, to whom seeing even tiny aquarium fishes in their natural habitat is already worth the hours spent at sea.

(Top image in the photo collage above: "The Swimming Class"; 2004; acrylic on paper; Dr. Manolet and Mari Tan-Delfin collection.(

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