Pamilacan Island Dolphin and Whale Watching Tour
Ten years ago you could’ve found many boats with fisherman standing at the front, a harpoon in their hands, scanning the horizon and looking for dolphins to hunt. At the time, dolphin hunting was the only way of survival for the people of Pamilacan Island.
Several years back an organization formed to help the local island people become stewards of nature, showing tourists the beauty of the spinner dolphins and welcoming strangers to their beautiful island.
Pamilacan Island Dolphin and Whale Watching Tours is working hard to provide former dolphin and whale hunters jobs, to work as professional dolphin spotters in their tours. We always get so excited to support local eco tours that help change communities for the better and protect the ecosystem. We were assured this organization makes sure the money spent on their tours goes to the local community and helps protect the local marine life.
Dolphin Watching
We were picked up nice and early at 5:30am from our hotel. After driving to the pier we got into a local boat and headed out to search for some dolphins. We were the only tourists in our boat but there were two other boats that were doing the same tour. After going for some time we came to the spot where the spotter started looking out for the dolphins. We finally saw them! It was our first time seeing dolphins in the wild and it was an incredible sight! The entire time it felt so unreal and we were tempted to just jump into the water to swim along the playful dolphins. After spending around 45 minutes following the dolphins, admiring them and trying to take pictures, we started heading over to the Pamilacan Island. The waves were pretty rough the entire time.
Pamilacan Island
As we stepped onto the island we were greeted with beautiful Plumeria leis. We were then given some tea and water to get refreshed before going out snorkeling off the island. The reef was so beautiful and the water so blue and clear! We saw many different types of fish and different types of coral.
After about an hour and half of snorkeling we went walking around the island with our local guide. He spoke great English and really took time to show us different areas of the island and explain what it was like for people to live there. We met many locals and happy children who wanted pictures of themselves.
The Most Beautiful Eyes
We were walking around the island when we saw this young girl. She was with her mother laying in a hammock. She had the most beautiful and unique blue eyes we’ve ever seen. I thought Alex’s eyes were blue but hers were an intense deep blue color. There’s something about eyes that lets you peak into their soul. They let you in to their heart or shut you out. We can say so much with just a gaze. After talking to her mother for some time and interacting with her I asked her if I could take a photo of her. She had a very beautiful smile but had a hard time smiling for the camera at first. After some time of Alex making silly faces and making her laugh we were able to get her smiling again.
Island Life
We saw people hanging up their laundry, chickens and goats running around, a group of young people filling up buckets of fresh water from the well and a man cleaning coconuts. He was super sweet and offered to climb up the coconut tree to treat us to some delicious coconuts from his island. When we asked his name he said we could call him the “Pamilacan Tarsier”. He climbed so fast and without any effort. We each had like three coconuts, he just kept giving more and more to us.
Walking around the island was one of our favorite experiences because of how much we got to interact with the locals.
We finally had a small lunch and went to the beach to do some more snorkeling. We headed back to Bohol around 3pm and arrived at our hotel happy and tired.
It was a very fun day full of experiences!
A few things to keep in mind if you are thinking of going:
- We went during the off season so we were only able to see dolphins. We saw many of them but we didn’t see any whales. Also, the waves get pretty rough during the off season so you want to be conscious of that as well.
- If loud sounds bother you, you might want to bring ear plugs for the boat ride. It gets loud and its a long ride to the island.
- Bring a rain jacket for the morning boat ride if you tend to get cold. There’s a slight breeze and splashing water.
- Bring sunscreen, a hat and a towel if you’re going to snorkel.
- If you have your own mask and fins bring them, you won’t regret it!
- Lastly, we didn’t have breakfast and we only had lunch around 12-1pm so make sure you bring a snack or ask them to provide breakfast, otherwise you’ll be very hungry.
We’d love to hear what you thought of this post. Have you been dolphin watching? Are you thinking of going? Let us know in the comments below.
-Katie + Alex
Disclaimer: Pamilacan Island and Dolphin Watching Tours gave us a free tour in exchange for working with them. This means that we featured them on our Instagram, Stories, and agreed to write this post about them. None of the content was dictated by them, and all opinions, and experiences are our own. If you would like to read about our experience working with them check out our Patreon account where we write about it in our post titled Working with Pamilacan Tours.
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