They are beautiful. Impressive. Gentle but powerful. We had an absolutely wonderful experience this morning in Oslob, Cebu. I am not that fond of swimming in the deep ocean. Having watched the movie “Jaws” at least a dozen times on the big screen in my pre-teens, I can hear that classic “OMG, the shark is coming soon” musical score that the movie used so successfully. So even if the rational mind explained that whale sharks don’t eat humans, the sheer size of them ignited the irrational part of the brain. The Teen had been down to Donsol on a class trip several years ago, without parents, and she had seen the sharks then, but in murky, somewhat difficult conditions. She was impressed, but somehow didn’t get us so excited that we jumped on the next plane to Albay. But when we heard that there were whalesharks in Oslob, some 120+ kilometers south of Cebu city, we decided to check them out… We are extremely ecstatic that we did.

We left our hotel in Cebu at 4:12am. Driving on nearly deserted roads, we made our way swiftly to Oslob, arriving there just 2 hours and 15 minutes later. Most folks had warned us of a three hour drive (which it can be, or longer, if there is traffic or you go during the day time), so we were pleasantly surprised to get there just 15 minutes or so after locals were ready to take tours out to see the whales. We stopped at the first of three official sites to board regulated bancas and we were thrilled once more to find out we were amongst the first in line. They pointed to two bancas out on the water and said the sharks had just shown up — you could barely make out the shapes when they broke water, a bit of a loch-nessy feel to the set-up, if you ask me. Their presence is by no means guaranteed, but they have been returning to this particular spot less than 100 meters from shore for most of the last 6 months or so. Word has spread like wildfire and on a busy Saturday, some 1,000+ people line up for a viewing period from 6am to 1pm, and waiting time can be close to two hours, but this morning (a Thursday) we simply paid our fees, took a 5 minute seminar on proper shark viewing etiquette, rented some required life vests, and returned to our take off point.

Despite the clear skies, the waters were a bit rough, so we were thrilled when our guides said we had one of the bigger bancas, for 5 people. Hello!?, this was the banca… :) Paddled (no engines allowed)by two local fishermen/guides, we made our way out to the spot in just 5 minutes or so.

Within seconds, this was our first glimpse of the butanding, here a medium sized one at say 5-6 meters, just breaking the surface and looking pretty ominous to the uninformed. If I were on a little raft at open sea and this passed a few meters away, I would have been seriously freaked out. But here’s some trivia from Mrs. MM in case you do find yourself bobbing up and down on open seas… if the tail has a vertical fin, it’s a fish/shark. But if the tail fin is horizontal, then it’s a whale/mammal. Whale sharks are a misnomer, as they are not whales really, they are sharks, albeit the non-frightening kind. :)

Local fishermen apparently helped several foreign divers who wanted to film the butandings and they thought to try and lure them with uyap or krill, and it worked, and since then, they have been “feeding” the whale sharks who drop by often for their free food. It is not without controversy, as some are screaming that this is messing with the natural habits of the gentle giants. On the one hand, I can see the strict naturalists/conservationists point of view. On the other hand, I like the fact that locals are now friends and not foe to the beasts, and they are getting an income from the tourism aspect of the situation. It seems much better regulated now, and the jury is out on the long term effects on the whales.

Here, a snapshot of the krill, on the ice box in this banca that has guys in green t-shirts, that feed the whales and paddle about and between bancas with tourists. There are those who say the feeding will destroy natural migration habits, but quick googles show opposing views on how far these whales actually do migrate. Also, I have fed fish in El Nido, Amanpulo, Cebu and Bohol, and no one seems up in arms with that, perhaps because the fish don’t “migrate”? And what about folks who put out bird feeders on their lawns with birdseed from the local hardware, is that wrong too? I haven’t picked a side, I just want you to know that there is some controversy involved. We recognized that, but still wanted to see the whale sharks, so we did…

As soon as several sharks had passed by our tiny banca, all apprehension disappeared, and I donned my prescription face mask and quietly slipped into the water. For nearly blind folks like me that can’t wear contacts, a pair of pricey prescription googles or snorkeling mask is a luxury, but TOTALLY WORTH IT if only to experience a morning like this one 3-4 times during the life of the mask…

The ill-fitting life vests were more bothersome than anything else, but we kept them on as “required” and just in case, as the currents were quite strong in that area. After I saw several whale sharks pass close by, and exclaimed with glee, Mrs. MM joined me in the water and we stayed close to our outriggers so as not to break the suggested perimeter or recommended distance from the sharks, some 5 meters or so if possible. The waters, were nearly CRYSTAL CLEAR, and it was just amazing to watch these creatures in close proximity. AMAZING.

Thinking the sharks would keep their distance from the banca, we were proven dead WRONG. :) This is a photo of one whaleshark that siddled right up to our banca, and in this photo above, I think just managed to catch one eye of the shark in the frame. The shark was an inch below the surface of the water, say a foot or two away from my hands. You are not supposed to touch them… The last time I was anywhere near this close to a large shark was in 1976 or so when my brother-in-law took us out on a deep sea fishing trip (on a relatively large modern fishing boat) off of Montauk, New York and a humongous mako or great white shark came right up to our boat while we were chumming (throwing out fish guts and parts into the sea water to attract marlin, swordfish, etc.) for large gamefish…

Here, another photo of the whale shark pushing right up to another banca, one with the guys feeding the sharks. There is a video link at the bottom of this post, you must click on it if this topic fascinates you…

Here a photo of the shark with mouth agape, near the surface of the ocean… to eat, it filters thousands of gallons of sea water through its system to extract plankton and krill. Even knowing that they don’t go for human sushi, it’s still a bit intimidating to have one on your tail with mouth open wide…

…we saw perhaps 3-4 whale sharks this morning, all of them swimming around us for the entire 30 minutes allotted to our trip. The fee was PHP300 per person + PHP20 if you want to get in the water + PHP30 for a lifevest, and that covers the banca and guides. The bangkeros get PHP180 of that fee, a portion goes to the barangay and a portion to the municipality. I was impressed that it was quite orderly, if a bit of a rigamarole to pay all fees, sit through the seminar, and walk back to one of three departure points…

I don’t have an underwater camera or a waterproof casing for my cameras, so I have no snapshots underwater. However, please go to this link for amazing videos of the butandings in Oslob. The third video by Atmosphere Resorts near Dumaguete is amazing, but can take some time to download. I hear Atmosphere Resorts is very nice, btw, in case you would rather fly to Dumaguete and head to Oslob from there, rather than from Cebu City.

Here, a photo of one of the guides/feeder bancas with a whale shark behind it. Note how near the shore is in the background. All in all, a wonderful experience, and I hope to return in a few weeks with more folks from the office and their families if the whale sharks are still there… Hmmm, maybe I will fly into Dumaguete, catch the Malatapay market on a Wednesday, then head to Oslob, catch the Mantalongon Dalaguete market on a Thursday morning… then head back to Cebu City. :)

The post Swimming With Whale Sharks in Oslob, Cebu appeared first on Market Manila.

“Bago”. Huh?! That’s the answer to my question posed in Cebuano asking what these young, vibrant green leaves were. I thought she meant they were young leaves. But apparently they were called bago, as in the type of tree. Apparently used as a slight souring agent for soups, like nilangang baka or boiled beef, these leaves are also sometimes added to vegetable dishes, or blanched and eaten with dried fish. I have NEVER seen them or come across them before. Nor did I have any idea what they were called in English or Filipino. Until I googled them and amazingly found this site that lists bago as one of the things Aetas of Morong, Bataan consume! They are considered rather nutritious, and have the tongue twister of a scientific name Gnetum gnemon Linn. Gnetaceae, I kid you not. For me, the bago leaves were one of the more unusual things on offer at the roadside produce market in Mantalongon, Barili, walking distance from the livestock auction market. I almost always stop at provincial markets if they look promising, and this one was wonderful in its simplicity. Perhaps only 20-30 vendors were there the morning we passed by, and their goods were fairly limited, but exquisitely fresh. In fact, most of the sellers grew the produce themselves or were related to the farmers.

The root crops looked really fresh, but the colors, sizes and shapes of the kamote (sweet potatoes) and other root crops were, in many ways, soothingly inconsistent.

This basket of local tomatoes looked brilliant, and were so reasonably priced, that I bought the entire basket!

Bananas, beans, okra and chillies.

A nice pile of kamansi.

Gorgeous and enormous lanzones. I assumed they must have been brought from Mamabajao, Camiguin, but it turns out they were locally grown! And the vendor was so honest, and said “they look good, but aren’t so sweet, not like the Camiguin ones”, so unfortunately, she didn’t make a sale…

Bunches and bunches of green onions, under a make-shift stall.

A lady with baskets of landang, a key ingredient for Cebuano benignit or guinataan.

I noticed this older lady packing some coconut leaf containers with rice to make some puso, but there was something unusual about the rice she was using…

…on closer inspection, it turned out she was adding a few grains of sticky purple rice to the usual white rice, making the puso slightly fragrant with tinges of purple… a little innovation to a product that is otherwise so common in these parts. We purchased a dozen of these puso and cooked them at home.

And finally, after the produce marketing, we stopped to get several dozen freshly baked bibingkas or rice cakes from roadside vendors. We were snacking on them on the drive back to Cebu city, and less than half of the bibingka them made it back to the office! Next up, an answer to the chicharon poll…

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To market, to market to buy a fat pig (or two, or three)… I don’t think I have ever been to a livestock market, and with our recent need to identify more and more sources of traditionally raised pigs for the ZUBUCHON experiment, we decided to plan a half-day trip to the Mantalongon Livestock Auction Market in Barili, Cebu. Not to be confused with the other Mantalongon market, which is predominantly a vegetable trading center roughly 2.5 hours south of Cebu, this livestock market was about 1.25 hours away, and relatively near the town chicharon town of Carcar. This post is about the trade and sale of live animals predominantly for the purpose of feeding people. If that bothers you, then simply DO NOT read the rest of this post. I will delete any comments that I deem inappropriate. Just so that’s crystal clear before you click on “read post.”

The livestock market takes place only on Thursdays, and while we arrived at about 6:30am, I think the peak of the trading action occurs around 7am or so. Livestock from near and far arrive either on tethers led on foot by owners or hired hands, or on vans, trucks and jeepneys. It’s a pretty wild sight and an open grounds area is filled with vehicles, animals, people and a whole lot of POOP. :( Chickens, goats, pigs, carabaos and cows are all up for sale, and while I sort of expected an auction style arrangement with an auctioneer selling off lots of animals, in fact it is more like a huge open market with buyers and sellers milling around the animals striking their own deals.

I spotted these three little pigs in the back of a van that seemed less stressed than other animals being brought to market in crowded vans. So I quickly started negotiations with the owner and even before they were unloaded, I had purchased one of the three pigs for a lechon lunch the next day. At roughly 15 kilos live weight, the piggie was perhaps 6 weeks old, and much smaller than the ones we usually make into lechon.

This rather huge pig, a male or “barako” snorted up alongside me while I was bargaining for the young piggie, and frankly, he was one fat papa! Many insist that male pigs, particularly older ones, have an off-flavor to their meat, so we have ONLY been purchasing female pigs for lechons. I can’t imagine what happens to all the male pigs, either they are cooked young or there a whole lot of male meat for sale in some markets… And how would one explain the treatment of wild boar (presumably males) as a delicacy and its strong flavor as desirable??? Hmmm….

With so many pigs in the field, one rapidly realizes that there are differences… some certainly look happier than others, some are heavier for their age and size, while others look like they were on a South Beach Diet. It was a bit upsetting to see so many herded into this auction area, and when they were purchased, led off to the buyers vehicle to almost certain death, if not fattening before death. But I eat meat, so I deal with that.

I’m sure if you come to the market often enough, you would figure out who seems to have the best livestock on offer. And you get to know the individuals and ask how big their piggeries are, if the pigs are raised in their back yards, among a dozen other pigs, or only 2-3 at a time. There aren’t many folks here that come from large professional piggeries… this is a market for the rural folks, with several city buyers. In many cases, ladies of all ages bring one of two young pigs to market, selling them at say 2-3 weeks, for others to fatten for a month or two. These ladies often take the proceeds of selling one or two of their piglets to the market down the road to buy rice, vegetables, canned goods, etc. that will last them until the next piglet is sold…

This market is akin to what one might call the “wild west” and outsiders are not common here. Why, after all, would a tourist from cebu venture all this way to watch thousands of kilos of porky’s change hands? But we weren’t just there as tourists, we purchased several pigs that day…

The smaller piglets are kept in pens that looked like large produce baskets. These were the cutest cleanest ones in the market.

I was rather tempted to buy one of these, not to fatten, but to cook as a true lechon de leche. But these were rather pricey for their size, and the meat cost per kilo was much more expensive than buying a 24-30 kilo pig. And admittedly, their clean, cute, faces helped to spare them from the barbecue this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I know these pigs and other livestock are raised specifically to feed humans, and for the most part, I suspect they have led much more natural lives compared to their cousins in large commercial piggeries, poultries, goateries(?) and cattle operations, but there is still that slight tinge of guilt.

From the pigs, which seemed to comprise the vast majority of livestock changing hands, I also spent some time in the goat section. Here goats seemed to sold in little herds or congregations of the beasts…

And I know most goats are fine with jumping, leaping and generally kicking around their environs, but even I was a bit surprised how they were “thrown” into a truckload filled with goats. I just took the photo to record the event, not to make a judgment call on how the goats were being treated…

There were several calves on offer, older, tougher looking cows and bulls and a smattering of carabaos… At least now I know where to go if I ever decided to try my hand at a whole roasted calf…

And I must explain the photo above. I had not planned to go to a livestock market when I went to Cebu on a business trip. The day we left for the market, I realized I only had a pair of off-white jeans (my other pants were business slacks) and had no choice but to wear them to market. But in a bit of Pigman karma, probably for having roasted so many of their relatives, and despite taking great care during the first five minutes at the market, I got POOPED on by a pig in a passing truck! YUCK is right. But that was okay, I would understand if it was intentional. It doesn’t look bad in the photo above, but a big chunk of poop dropped down into the cuff of my pant leg, and it smelled vile all the way home… :)

So what do the vendors, buyers, traders and visitors eat when they have cut their deals? Roast pig, of course. It looked great, but the skin wasn’t crisp at all… :)

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