Whale sharks only eat plankton, so there is no need to worry about safety - you just swim along beside them! They feed at the surface, so you don't need scuba, you can just snorkel. We went out on the boat to look for the whale sharks twice a day, in the mid-morning and in the late afternoon, and we were lucky enough to find them every single time we went looking. The island where the sea lions lived was on the way to the main place where we would see the whale sharks, so after swimming with them, if we had time, we'd stop on the way back and swim with the sea lions for a bit. On the way back from the afternoon swim, we'd fish from the boat so we could have fresh fish for dinner.
Las Animas is in the Sea of Cortez, near Bahia de Los Angeles, which is about midway down the Baja peninsula. It's very isolated - you have to fly in a private plane from San Diego, then take a boat, which is about an hour or so, to get to the place. It's got round platform tents and a central area for eating and socializing. There is no electricity except in the central area for a few hours a night.
I absolutely loved it! It wasn't uncomfortable at all, the food was amazing, and it was sooo peaceful. I was there by myself (which is kind of a bummer because when you are alone, you end up with no photos of yourself) and it was a very meditative, centering experience. Swimming with the whale sharks is awesome - in the literal sense of the word, it filled me with awe. The two that we saw mos often weren't the huge ones - the bigger one was maybe 30 feet long or so, the smaller one only about 10 feet. They are very slow-moving, and not afraid of people. At once point, I was just floating in the water face-down, watching the bigger one, and as it surfaced it brushed by my hands and let me run my hands all down its back as it came to the surface. Amazing.
At first I was worried about going, because I was afraid that it would be a situation where these animals would be trying to go about their business and we would be harassing them, but the way it worked was that when they were either done eating or simply didn't want to deal with people anymore, they would do a deep dive. As soon as they did that, we were done for that session and would get out of the water and leave. Since they are sharks, not whales, once they go down they don't have to come to the surface again until they feel like it. But they would hang around, basically ignoring us, for a long time - sometimes as much as an hour.
One of my best memories, though, isn't about the whale sharks at all! Because it was hot, I slept outside on the wooden porch of my tent instead of inside it. My tent was way up on a sort of bluff, facing the ocean, far away from the other tents, and every morning I'd wake up as the sun came up and just sort of lie there watching the water change colors as the sun rose, suspended in complete silence. One morning when I woke up and was watching the water, I heard this shushing noise, like a soft sighing, repeating every minute or so. I couldn't see it but I knew the sound... it was a blue whale, breathing. Lying there in the sunrise, listening to the whale, who was also lying at the surface of the ocean, maybe also watching the sunrise...? It was a magical moment.
Here are some photos:
Swimming with Whale Sharks 
