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THE
Philippine Department of Tourism (PDOT) for the Bicol
Region has announced the start of the butanding season
from January until May of this year for the Whale Shark
Watching and Interaction tours in the rustic town of
Donsol in Sorsogon province.
Bicol
Tourism director Nini Ravanilla confirmed that all roads
and transportation as well as accommodations are ready
for local and foreign visitors who would like to
interact with the “gentle giants”—the butanding or whale
sharks—in Donsol, Sorsogon.
DONSOL’S
PRIDE
DONSOL
Mayor Salve Ocaya beams with pride as she reveals that
the butanding interaction tours by local and foreign
visitors have brought a 75 percent increase in the
livelihood of the townsfolk since 2004. “We would like
to let people know that Donsol is one of the best known
and best equipped places in the world where you can have
a ‘blind date’ with one of the ocean’s genuine
leviathans. Every butanding interaction will be an
experience that is unlike any other—and one that will
never be forgotten,” Ocaya enthused.
“There
have been more than 11,000 visitors who have joined the
butanding interaction tours since these were instituted
in 2002. Moreover, boat rentals and registration fees
for the interaction tours have reached P50 million once
we add the income from the resorts, restaurants and
transport services,” Ravanilla revealed.
‘BUTANDING’ FESTIVAL
THE
municipality of Donsol has also come up with a
month-long festival in April to honor the butanding and
as thanksgiving for the townsfolk’s additional jobs and
livelihood derived from local and foreign visitors’
interaction tours with the ‘gentle giants’. During the
Butanding Festival, the local people and visitors
participate in a celebration of the holy mass,
motorcade, trade and beverage fair, beer plaza, band
concert, marathon and swimming race, regatta, sividan
pumpboat race, basketball, mural painting, bingo,
fashion show, fireworks display and the “Butanding Extra
Challenge,” where local and foreign participants compete
for the most number of butanding sightings during the
day. There is also a job fair, cooking demonstration and
a film showing on how to save the leviathans.
The
festival culminates with a regatta exhibition and
maritime parade consisting of more than 50 boats with
banners and giant images of the butanding along the
Donsol River. There is also a street parade along the
town’s main thoroughfares consisting of life-sized
images of the butandings on floats accompanied by
barangay delegations, brass bands, drum and bugle corps,
and the festival street-dancing contingent winners from
other Bicol provinces.
SORSOGON’S ACCESSIBILITY FROM
MANILA
SORSOGON
is an hour away via excellent roads from Legazpi City,
which in turn is 12 hours by land or an hour by air from
Manila.
Tour packages under “The Philippines: Explore.
Experience. Return.” program can be downloaded in the
travel planner of the program’s portal (www.experiencephilippines.ph),
where interested travelers can directly book with agents
in the US and Canada.
For
individual travelers, there are several vans for hire at
the Legazpi Domestic Airport as well as passenger vans
and public utility buses at the
Legazpi
City bus terminals going to Donsol, Sorsogon. Resorts in
Donsol, which have been accredited by the PDOT, include
Amor Farm Beach Resort (0917-8233802), Vitton Resort
(0927-2330364) and Woodland Beach Resort (0921-9699544).
For more
information, check the PDOT web site at www.wowbicol.com,
call (63) 52 435-0085 or e-mail dotr5@globalink.net.ph.
The Donsol Tourism Office in Dancalan headed by Salvador
Adrao Jr. can also be contacted (0927) 233-0364.
Snorkeling gears can be rented from the resorts. |
