Alighting out of a bus from Dumaguete, I arrived in the quaint town of Bais at the first flinch of sunlight. This idyllic municipality is a bastion of nineteenth-century barons who spearheaded the raw sugar boom Negros Oriental came to be known for. As I took my first strides around the town, I quickly noticed the miscellanies of its storied past, evidenced by the weathered but charming pre-war colonial homes.
A Theater of Tañon Strait: Dolphin Spotting in Bais, Negros Oriental
I would have explored the town further on foot toward the old factory of Central Azucarera de Bais—the pioneers of the sugar industry in the country—had I not had one primary objective on my mind that day: dolphin watching.
Master Show-pins
Buoyed by my enthusiasm for seeing dolphins out in the wild, I hustled to reach the port by taking a twenty-minute tricycle ride. Since I was traveling solo, I took the opportunity to wait for other tourists so we could split the boat rental fees. Just as the skies gifted my journey with fine weather, a group of four arrived a few minutes later and inquired about chartering a boat.
After standard introductions, we quickly boarded a spacious motorboat. Under the bright shimmer of the morning sun, we stared toward the open sea while our boatman stood at the forward edge surveying the horizon. Using hand gestures to direct the boat captain, we sailed straight into the waters of Tañon Strait—the narrow sea channel that separates the islands of Cebu and Negros.
Declared a protected seascape, the hundred-mile-long Tañon Strait serves as a vital resting, breeding, and feeding marine environment for eleven species of cetaceans, including spinner dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and rare pygmy sperm whales.
Dolphin Watching is ON
It didn’t take long before I started hearing our boatman whistling to call our attention. Just a few feet from our outrigger, a pod of dolphins began showing off their spinning flair. They were distinctly identifiable as spinner dolphins due to their long, slender muzzles.
As if surveying us for the first few moments, the dolphins maintained a steady distance by darting over and under the water. I was already satisfied seeing them up close, but what happened next elevated the dolphin spotting experience to an entirely new level.
It started when one spinner dolphin suddenly shot out from underneath the surface and somersaulted mid-air with complete aplomb, eliciting cheers from our group. That single display turned out to be a cue for the others to start displaying their acrobatic skills.
For the duration of our more than one-hour cruise around Tañon Strait, we witnessed the dolphins executing all sorts of aerial maneuvers. They leaped and curled through the air before diving back into the water with gusto. The sight of their raw playfulness in the wild served as a powerful reminder of the beauty of undisturbed marine ecosystems.
Fulfilled by what we witnessed that morning, we decided to cruise back for a pit stop at the nearby Manjuyod Sandbar. As our boat sailed away from the core waters of Tañon Strait, I looked back to see a few remaining dolphins slapping their tails against the water before diving into the blue depths. Dolphins remain some of the most intelligent, self-aware creatures on Earth, making a visit to these waters a profoundly humbling encounter.
This trip is part of a solo-backpacking series across the Philippines. You can plan and book regional transport and accommodations easily using online booking engines like Traveloka.
