What should I do with 10 wonderful days in Curacao?

[adpfam]

we spent three weeks there one year awsome trip my only regret is that only dove fifteen times . the joys of child care . if you are comfortable shore diving is where it is at in curacao there are only a couple of dives worth spending the cash to boat dive . Mushroom forest for one . we dove up and down the island on the south side . take a trip to the north side and you will see why not to dive the north shore . i understand there a drive for advanced divers when the conditions permit. the whole island can be driven in about 1 1/2 . lots of beaches have dive ops right at the beach . gas and weights, a locker and shower afterward ranged from 6$ us to 10$ a tank . the views PRICEless . on a sobering thought while diving leave nothing in the car you value and the windows down ( saves on the glass) we found on couple of occasions the locals are curious they didnt ransack the car but poked about fair enough its there island . our fav dive was directors bay oposite side of island from you . nearer to you playa kalki was also a fav beach for us as well . had great amenities i beleive it is run by ocean encounters . this is where we saw our first hamerhead shark albeit small at 8 ft . there is a great site for shore diving called " wait for it " shorediving.com we found the info helpfull
hope it helps

 

[chauncy19]

just to add my enthusiastic endorsement for the dive at All West by far my favorite dive this past November.I'd go either north or south from ALL West. Also we liked Kleine Knip, its had the best clarity during our stay but its a "long" swim to the reef. Only boat dive we did was a wash out at Watamula and okay dive at Playa Hulu. Did though see LARGE moray els here otherwise I'd just do the shore diving thing imho.

 

[gustele]

http://www.de-gouverneur.com/

Monuments Policy | Monuments of Curaao

Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Curaçao, N.A.

http://www.curacao-diving.com/index...water_line/historical_buildings/scharloo_east

Sorry, the last link is broken. It has moved to its sister site:
Scharloo - Historische gebouwen - Curaçao Pictures

 

[tarponchik]

Watamula is great indeed, but I always preferred Rediho City and Scooter. Even if the resident seahorses should have moved on in the meantime, imho you will still find the most diverse and beautiful underwater landscapes there. Elvin's Plane Wreck also has beautiful, rather watamula-ish reef around it. So it is always worth adding some more boat diving to your schedule. For shore diving in the area, Playa Largu and Playa Shon Mosa - both @ San Juan - along with All West house reef (Playa Piscadó), Alice in Wonderland, and Playa Lagun have always been my favourites.

Get Sunshine's famous notes (still not available in German, because I am just not able to translate them ) here: BEACHES AND SITES AROUND WESTPUNT, and you receive some valuable if chaotic extra information on what to do during surface intervals.

Greetings from Cologne
Andreas

Hi Andreas,
I was told you were in Germany when we were diving at AW in Dec. We did some dives at San Jose (Pl Mansalina) and liked it, but there were plenty of bugs there. Luckily, we had a ton of Natrapel with us, but I have to mention this as a warning for anyone who goes to San Juan area. Next to it, Cas Abou was pretty good (though you pay for beach access). There, we witnessed some interesting events on our 2nd dive, when all of a sudden vis became low because of some whitish stuff in the water. The reef fish became very excited. There were thousand of small fish, mostly brown chromis and wrasses running low between the coralheads above the reef, as if they were in a rush to eat something. They were soon joined by bigger fish like schoolmasters and greysbis, equally agitated. Pity I did not talke my camera for this dive.

Dived also at Habitat, and were not much impressed with their reef quality. Porto Marie is interesting cause this is a double reef system, but the quality of corals was again unimpressive. Overall impression was that all sites from San Juan to the North are very good. Even Pl Forti, where the reef is littered with old tires, is very rich with sea life. I've never seen as many flamingo tongues in one place as at the sandy slope oppsite Pl Forti. Longer swims in deep bays like Pl Lagun were also interesting, cause we saw turtles, large schools of silversides and flying gurnards.

The drawback was lack of large turtles, groupers, and even large barracudas were few.

Cheers,
Yuri

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

Ahh, Andreas.... An old copy of "the notes". I wasn't aware I could attach them. Let me try the new and wordier (just when you didn't think it was possible) version.....
How about translating just one page a month?

 

[Korsu]

Diving Curacao|Underwater Photography Guide
This may help a bit, but I always yield to Sunshine.

Underwater Curacao - sbysshe.smugmug.com
And here are some things to look for!
Have fun, which shouldn't be hard to do on the West end.

 

[Diver OnLu]

Ahh, Andreas.... An old copy of "the notes". I wasn't aware I could attach them. Let me try the new and wordier (just when you didn't think it was possible) version.....
How about translating just one page a month?

Hi Sunshine,

If you keep on adding 2 pages per month, that's still going to be a never ending story But at least get Mr Moggy to put the newest version on your homepage.

Hugs but no fishes (couldn't see any in the river Rhine around Cologne, so far...)

Andreas

 

[Diver OnLu]

There, we witnessed some interesting events on our 2nd dive, when all of a sudden vis became low because of some whitish stuff in the water. The reef fish became very excited. There were thousand of small fish, mostly brown chromis and wrasses running low between the coralheads above the reef, as if they were in a rush to eat something. They were soon joined by bigger fish like schoolmasters and greysbis, equally agitated. Pity I did not talke my camera for this dive.

Hi Yuri,

I've seen quite often what you are describing there - biologists may correct me, but I had the impression it's the Brown Chromis laying eggs, while the other fish try to steal some for food.

Greetings from Germany
Andreas

 

[curious2dive]

Hi Apelton,

we are located at the center of the Banda Ariba Area. We also dive in West-point area and almost all our dives are shore dives. Here we have some very beautiful spots. As I always say it's the diversity of all the divespots that makes traveling to them worthwhile.
But we travel around is small groups max 4 and during our traveling we pass by historic sites but also the scenery part. So if you're interested send me a PM.

 

[apelton]

Sorry I haven't been responding but microsoft updates put a damper on my internet access. Among other things. I'm truly lookin forward to my visit to the island. Sunshine I hope to met you when we are there. We will have your guide info with us.