My Oslob Trip

Three hours away from the city of Cebu is Oslob. The town of Oslob had gained its popularity from the gentle giants that lives into its waters – the whale sharks. Everyday tourists, locals and foreigners, flock to Oslob to have an encounter with the whale sharks. Like them this is also the main reason we travelled to Cebu aside from beach bumming.

We went to Oslob after our Badian Canyoneering activity. It was already late afternoon when we reached the pension house where we have booked our stay. It’s a house that was transformed into a pension house. Maybe the owner realized the need for cheap places to stay and business would be good as long as there are whale sharks in their place.

The pension house was a bit cheap however it wasn’t that near to the whale shark center. It will take around fifteen minutes by private vehicle to reach the center. Our stay in the pension house includes free breakfast for two however their breakfast includes only two slices of bread, one egg and a coffee. The owner helped us get a tour guide to assist us in our Oslob trip. She refers us to a councilor who arranges our whole trip and gave us information on the costs.

We woke up at around 5AM to prepare for our trip. The first part of our itinerary is the encounter with the whale sharks. Since it was a long holiday, many tourists are on the place. Our guide told us that the queue of tourists for the whale shark encounter reached at 200 the previous day. Getting to the place early is important so that we can get accommodate and to ensure that we can also visit our other destination.

The whale shark center was already full of tourists. All tourists must attend the orientation before heading out to the sea to see the whale sharks. It didn’t take us that long to ride our boat and head out to the sea. The whaleshark encounter would last for thirty minutes which is enough for you to get a closer look of the gentle giant in the sea.

After the whaleshark encounter, our second destination is the Tumalog Falls. It is a wide falls that is just near the Whaleshark Center. We arrived at the falls at around 8AM. We stayed a bit longer since the place was just beautiful especially that the falling water sparkles on the rays of the sun. The water wasn’t also that cold. There were a lot of people on the falls but it is no as crowded as the Kawasan Falls. The towering rocks block most of the light so the color of the water is not as blue unlike Kawasan Falls.

We went back to the Whaleshark Center for our trip to Sumilon Island; our last destination in our Oslob tour.  Sumilon Island is just a small island and is already visible from the Whaleshark Center. We ordered our lunch from the restaurants in the center that we would bring in the island.

We reached the Sumilon Island before 11AM and the place was full of people. There were no spot for you to enjoy its sandbar. It was also high tide so there was part of the sandbar that is still submerged in the water. We looked for a shade to leave our belongings before we run to the sea. We took some pictures and swam on its cool water before we had our lunch. We didn’t stay long since there is nothing much to do and there is no shade in the island. My friends tried snorkeling but there were only few fishes near the island.

These are the common destination in Oslob. Their tourism revolves on these three places so its important that the locals protect and preserve the beauty of these places.