Travel-Trotter

by Caroline

When we were in La Paz we went on a boat to go see whale sharks. We learned that the whale shark is the world’s largest shark although there are larger whales in the oceans this is the biggest fish. First we rented wet suits because the water in the Sea of Cortez is very cold. Then we took a boat to go see the sharks in a protected cove near the harbor of La Paz. Once we got to the protected area we spotted a shark in the water. Everyone else went into the water but I chickened out because I was too scared. The next time I got in I had to swim really hard to get close enough to see the shark, the water was freezing was not the very clear but we were able to see it because the whale shark was huge. The shark was gray and had white dots, there were only juvenile sharks in the area that were probably 15-20 feet long. A full grown whale shark can get to between 30-60 feet!!! Did you know that their eyes are the size of ping pong balls.

At first, I was so terrified that I wanted to go back to the boat. I also thought we were too close to it so I thought we were going to get hit by its tale. After a bit, I got used to the big shark. At the end my parents went into the water again to see a whale shark that was eating, and I could see it from the boat which was really cool. usually you should not swim with sharks when they are eating because they could eat you! but whale sharks only eat tiny plankton, also they have filters in their throat that filter out anything bigger than that. After we finished we ate sandwiches, and they were really good. On the way back it was windy and cold. This was super cool to do and I would totally recommend it.