morecowbells
Contributor
A lot of wonderful pics-my favorites being the turtle and octopus. I have heard so many tepid reviews of Playa Jeremy and therefore skipped it. Perhaps I will have to check it out when I return to the island.
Ongoing Curacao trip report.
- Thread starter Pinepig
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Been a couple of days, have some time to sit down a write some stuff down as I wrenched my knee pretty good today and will need to take the rest of the day off.
A couple of sites we have been to have been very nice with some jewels thrown in, don't get me wrong the house reefs in from of All West apt and Ocean Encounters west are nice but when you get out and explore some of the sites out of the way they start to look pretty poor.
So far my favorite site has been Playa Hundu, the drive may be a bit much for a low car but a two wheel drive pickup or anything with just a hint of ground clearance will make it no problem. 20 yards to the reef, steep profile, sand chutes, lot's of grogornians and staghorn coral, easy entry. Man that place is nice. A few others that we have hit, Playa Jerimi ( bit of a swim but healthy reef ) Playa Kalki ( same and close to Jerimi ), Cas Abo ( nice beach 10 gilders to enter ) good healthy reef a bit steeper profile than normal. Good Cheese burger and fries to be had for 12$ US when you get out.
I'd recommend all of these for folks coming here.
Been here a week driving all over and have used 40$US ( diesel ) in our truck so far, the distances aren't bad ( even though it's not Bonaire ). The roads aren't that bad and the drivers here are OK ( but when you run into a bad one they have went full retard ).
Some pics I've taken the last couple of days,
Staghorn Coral, ( playa hundu )
I have no idea what you are talking about so here is an Eel with a fish on his head.
I love these,
Frogfish ( front ) green sponge looking thing if you have no idea what they are
(side )
I see you in there,
This guy chased me for 20 yards just a foot or two back,
Smallest on of these I'd ever seen, total length was about 3 inches ( and I saw a 4 to 5 footer the day before )
There's a juvi Spotted Drum about 1/2 inch long hanging out under a little ledge on a rock right out front that I'm on a mission to get a good pic of ( no luck yet ) but I'll get him eventually.
Cya later.
A couple of sites we have been to have been very nice with some jewels thrown in, don't get me wrong the house reefs in from of All West apt and Ocean Encounters west are nice but when you get out and explore some of the sites out of the way they start to look pretty poor.
So far my favorite site has been Playa Hundu, the drive may be a bit much for a low car but a two wheel drive pickup or anything with just a hint of ground clearance will make it no problem. 20 yards to the reef, steep profile, sand chutes, lot's of grogornians and staghorn coral, easy entry. Man that place is nice. A few others that we have hit, Playa Jerimi ( bit of a swim but healthy reef ) Playa Kalki ( same and close to Jerimi ), Cas Abo ( nice beach 10 gilders to enter ) good healthy reef a bit steeper profile than normal. Good Cheese burger and fries to be had for 12$ US when you get out.
I'd recommend all of these for folks coming here.
Been here a week driving all over and have used 40$US ( diesel ) in our truck so far, the distances aren't bad ( even though it's not Bonaire ). The roads aren't that bad and the drivers here are OK ( but when you run into a bad one they have went full retard ).
Some pics I've taken the last couple of days,
Staghorn Coral, ( playa hundu )
I have no idea what you are talking about so here is an Eel with a fish on his head.
I love these,
Frogfish ( front ) green sponge looking thing if you have no idea what they are
(side )
I see you in there,
This guy chased me for 20 yards just a foot or two back,
Smallest on of these I'd ever seen, total length was about 3 inches ( and I saw a 4 to 5 footer the day before )
There's a juvi Spotted Drum about 1/2 inch long hanging out under a little ledge on a rock right out front that I'm on a mission to get a good pic of ( no luck yet ) but I'll get him eventually.
Cya later.
aquajon
Contributor
sorry to hear about the knee... last yr we hit playa manzalino and largu it is a bit off the beaten path but the diving was great and the reef was not that far of a swim at all. some how we missed Cas Abao but will check it out this time when we are there... also we thought playa hundu was good, very short swim off the beach and the steep wall with like ridges of coral and sand washouts between them...
Knee is feeling much better today after some ice, elevation and pharmaceuticals.
Thanks for the tips on two more places to check out, they are on now on the list.
Did a dive out front ( Allwest ) this morning and saw a nice spotted moray free swimming ( I have video
) Waiting for those to upload and the wife is BBQ'in some chicken. I'll post up some more a bit later.The vids,
‪freeswimee‬‏ - YouTube
‪snakeeel‬‏ - YouTube
Pair of stone fish,
On the swim out,
92 year old guy across has a dog, and the wife has been feeding him treats ( to my objection )
That juvi Spotted drum, ( after 15 pics that was the best one, the quest will continue )
‪freeswimee‬‏ - YouTube
‪snakeeel‬‏ - YouTube
Pair of stone fish,
On the swim out,
92 year old guy across has a dog, and the wife has been feeding him treats ( to my objection )
That juvi Spotted drum, ( after 15 pics that was the best one, the quest will continue )
More pictures.[]
Yesterday we took I day off and went into town to get some new sandals for Kelly, had some lunch. Also toured the Liquor place, and then hit the caves for a tour too. Nice day
We were off to Playa Marti, that's a nice place, cool little double reef. The guy that runs the dive opp on the beach is super nice, let us ( and everybody else ) bring the truck down to unload gear rather that schlepping it from the lot.
Here,
This is still one of my favorite fish ran into three different ones on this dive,
Kell looking at something,
This guy was a bruiser, at least 6 feet or better,
These little guys are in damn near every rock you come across, thinner than a pencil and about 2 inches long total.
Enjoy, more later.
]Yesterday we took I day off and went into town to get some new sandals for Kelly, had some lunch. Also toured the Liquor place, and then hit the caves for a tour too. Nice day
We were off to Playa Marti, that's a nice place, cool little double reef. The guy that runs the dive opp on the beach is super nice, let us ( and everybody else ) bring the truck down to unload gear rather that schlepping it from the lot.
Here,
This is still one of my favorite fish ran into three different ones on this dive,
Kell looking at something,
This guy was a bruiser, at least 6 feet or better,
These little guys are in damn near every rock you come across, thinner than a pencil and about 2 inches long total.
Enjoy, more later.
I think we have this place figured out, load the truck up in the morning with 4 tanks, gear, some water and snacks.
I have a little otterbox model 1000 that I throw in my front pocket, with about 40$ and some ID and we are good to go.
Find a little Playa beach something or other with a food stand of some sort and go there. Rig up for the first dive and have at it, finnish and back to the car to change back to topside mode and hit the food shack for a sandwitch or a cheeseburger and a soda or ice tea and relax for a few.
When sufficiently relaxed go put you gears back on and do a dive again, this time go the other way after you swim out, ( two different dives, one location ).
Head back to the place your staying and relax for a while, then take an afternoon or night dive/snorkle out front. Rinse and repeat.
The distances between sites make it a bit tougher to just hop from site to site in between dives, with a little planning it's possible because there are clusters of dive sites all over the place, but not one after another like on Bonaire.
We still have three more diving days and may repeat a few now, Playa mari will probably our destination tomorrow, the double reef there is fantastic to look at and navigation is a no brainer in a big way so it gives Kell a chance to lead some dives rather than just follow me around.
Today we stopped at Varrensenbaii ( I think that's how you spell it ) Karl and John ( trunk divers and writers of the second edition shore dive book ) are moving there dive op here and have been doing so for the last few weeks. It will be very nice. The dive site is good with the wreck off left that bottoms at 115' off to the right is pretty and you can run this one a bit furter out and the shallows coming back have lots of life rather than just sandy bottom.
Saw a turtle there today, Baracuda, and the frog fish again, he's about at 27 feet about 20 yards to the right of the marker rope that runs straight out from the dock.
Some pics ( and a turtle vid ) and then I'm going to eat my cinnamon and brown sugar beer bread that just came out of the oven.
Youtube turtle vid
I have a little otterbox model 1000 that I throw in my front pocket, with about 40$ and some ID and we are good to go.
Find a little Playa beach something or other with a food stand of some sort and go there. Rig up for the first dive and have at it, finnish and back to the car to change back to topside mode and hit the food shack for a sandwitch or a cheeseburger and a soda or ice tea and relax for a few.
When sufficiently relaxed go put you gears back on and do a dive again, this time go the other way after you swim out, ( two different dives, one location ).
Head back to the place your staying and relax for a while, then take an afternoon or night dive/snorkle out front. Rinse and repeat.
The distances between sites make it a bit tougher to just hop from site to site in between dives, with a little planning it's possible because there are clusters of dive sites all over the place, but not one after another like on Bonaire.
We still have three more diving days and may repeat a few now, Playa mari will probably our destination tomorrow, the double reef there is fantastic to look at and navigation is a no brainer in a big way so it gives Kell a chance to lead some dives rather than just follow me around.
Today we stopped at Varrensenbaii ( I think that's how you spell it ) Karl and John ( trunk divers and writers of the second edition shore dive book ) are moving there dive op here and have been doing so for the last few weeks. It will be very nice. The dive site is good with the wreck off left that bottoms at 115' off to the right is pretty and you can run this one a bit furter out and the shallows coming back have lots of life rather than just sandy bottom.
Saw a turtle there today, Baracuda, and the frog fish again, he's about at 27 feet about 20 yards to the right of the marker rope that runs straight out from the dock.
Some pics ( and a turtle vid ) and then I'm going to eat my cinnamon and brown sugar beer bread that just came out of the oven.
Youtube turtle vid
One more diving day to go. did a repeat of Playa Morti again today, that double reef is just so cool, and we've see more of a variety of life there than anywhere else so far. Saw a Tarpon today, a few Barracuda ( including one really large friendly fellow ) and a nice little battle between a big ol dogfish and that brute of a green Morey that I saw the other day. When he happened upon them chasing each other around the Eel had just found a hiding hole and my wife didn't see it yet, I was hovering there trying to point out both but she only saw the dog fish for a few seconds, see if you can hear what she said when she spotted the big green,
‪battle.AVI‬‏ - YouTube
A few pics, medium sized Barracuda,
Tarpon,
The big guy,
I did not crop this photo, he was about a foot and a half from my camera
I'll be on my way now,
Another little spotted getting his cleaning,
Not sure where we are going tomorrow, adventure time.
‪battle.AVI‬‏ - YouTube
A few pics, medium sized Barracuda,
Tarpon,
The big guy,
I did not crop this photo, he was about a foot and a half from my camera
I'll be on my way now,
Another little spotted getting his cleaning,
Not sure where we are going tomorrow, adventure time.
chauncy19
Contributor
Pinepig
Just curious but did anyone mention that a dive flag is required for shore diving on curacao? Was at AllWest this past November, really liked the place and the diving on Curacao. After was told about this "requirement" and it became a turnoff for me. not because of it but lack of truth telling.... anyway enjoying the pictures and it makes me want to go back.
Just curious but did anyone mention that a dive flag is required for shore diving on curacao? Was at AllWest this past November, really liked the place and the diving on Curacao. After was told about this "requirement" and it became a turnoff for me. not because of it but lack of truth telling.... anyway enjoying the pictures and it makes me want to go back.
Yes we were told of the requirement for a dive flag after our third day of diving, you do occasionally see someone using one ( I'd say less than 2% of the divers I have seen ). It doesn't appear to be enforced and I've seen most of the dive ops not using them either.
It might be a "requirement" but it seems more of a suggestion in practice and reality. Common sense should be your guide, if you are diving where boat traffic is not only possible but likely, drag one along with you.
Similar threads
