Miguel and Katie… swimming with whale sharks!!!

So Madhu, Mike and Alan aren’t the only ones having amazing aquatic adventures in cool spots around the world… so are Miguel and Katie!!!

LOSTies, Miguel and Katie are on their belated honeymoon in La Paz, Mexico… and naturally they found time to get in a bit of open water swimming… which included swimming with the largest fish in the world… the whale shark!!!

Note that the whale shark is a fish… and is commonly over 40 ft long and weighs over 66,000 lbs… but eats plankton… thankfully.

As much as I love racing and marathon swims… one of the real benefits of being a swimmer is being able to explore the water.  I really believe that people who aren’t swimmers are missing out on something incredible.

You know when you are running and you see a deer or a fox or even a rabbit, you think “cool, that made my day”… well that’s why swimming is so awesome.  Can you imagine how cool it would be to be swimming along and see a whale or a dolphin or a sea turtle or yes, even a shark?!  And it is totally different, because you are in their environment.  I’ve only swam with a few things in the wild… a few huge fish, Tarpon, in Key West… and Spotted Eagle Rays in St Martin… some dolphins in Naples, Florida… a large Grouper on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia… but I would love to swim with the whale sharks, like Katie and Miguel did.  Wow.  Some day.

That’s livin’ life.

Check out the pics.  Have a great time, Katie and Miguel… and Congrats again!

Cheers,

Rob

from Miguel:

Yesterday, we had one of the most amazing open water swimming experiences we have ever had while swimming in our entire life.  Words can’t describe it so I will only attempt and hope that the photos give you a sense of how awesome this was. Katie and I went to La Paz looking for places to do safe open water swims and thinking about possible training camps in the future, so we asked around and found a tour by an awesome french guide named Yann and our boat captain Juan. They took us to a place not even 2 km out of the city. You could see land all around you so we jumped to have an easy swim close to shore in shallow water of the Sea of Cortés.  We were happily swimming along when a big shadow appeared from the bottom… we were swimming over one of the biggest fish known to man!  This gentle giant magically allowed us to swim beside him for about 16 minutes! Some times we had to swim very fast to keep up, some times we almost stopped. We got as close as we wanted without touching him.  Neither Katie or I had never seen one except on documentaries.  Swimming beside a whale shark is truly an incredible experience. We were really blessed with this opportunity.

Cheers,

Miguel