The
whole story started when I wanted to go diving with the manta rays in Tobago.
Unfortunately, at that time, the trip for a family of five like mine proved out
to be a little bit too pricey for my shallow purse. It is then that the owner of
Aquadreams, the very professional Gene Dold (Aquadreams
which has its web site on www.aquadreams.com, is a travel agency based in Miami
and specialised in diving packages, with a focus on Caribbean islands; its
prices are very much lower than comparable England based travel agencies and the
service offered is first class [e.g., a specific email is sent to you to give
you the UPS reference of a parcel that has been sent to you; the tickets for the
trip came with a lot of documentation on the island and on the diving there; all
questions are answered at once]), came with a suggestion which sounded
more or less like “Why not try Curacao, one of the best kept secrets of the
Caribbean islands?”
After
some investigations (among other things, best thanks to Nigel Turner and Iona
Hill who made a very comprehensive answers to some of the questions which I had
put on a divers’ forum), I decided to give it a go and I must say that I have
not had any single regret about it at any time.
If
I were to describe the diving in Curacao at the Sunset Beach Waters Resort in a
few words, it probably would be: “Easy relaxed diving on a magnificent
resident reef, best dived at nights when all other divers are asleep, leaving
you free to focus on what you want”.
But
to give some inner feeling about diving in Curacao, let me try to make you share
the sensations during one of these night dives:
“It
is 9:00 o’clock p.m. and the beach is completely empty and pitch dark, except
for the projector light and for the spare bulbs that are kept running at all
times around the diving club, just to help the divers get ready. My buddy and
myself are strangely silent, probably due to some primal nocturnal fears. When
we arrive at the diving club, as agreed upon with Harry, the Dutch owner of the
diving club, two tanks are waiting for us, bright yellow against the surrounding
darkness, our own little lighthouses. We retrieve our equipment from the club
locker and we gear up without exchanging a word, focusing on the “task”
ahead.
After
the usual checks (strange how at nights, such routine checks are even more
important than during daytime to keep your mind from wandering onto more
sinister thoughts), we walk the few meters of white sand that separate us from
the sea and easily enter the refreshing waters within the boundaries of an
artificially made lagoon. After taking our compass bearings, we hover over the
ripples of the sand to the open sea, encountering in our way some ghostly gray
snappers (Lutjanus griseus) which quickly swim out of sight.
Soon
after, we come across the remains of a small plane sunk on purpose for
try-dives. In the light of our torches, it comes out brightly lit in orange by
all the orange cup corals (Tubastraea
coccinea) that festoon it and only open at night to reveal their striking
colour. This a truly magnificent sight!
But,
it is time for bigger things and we swim away to deeper grounds. A couple of fin
strokes take us to the edge of the shallow waters and we peep into what we know
to be almost infinite depths (during daytime, we have been able to get a glimpse
of what lies down there and it seemingly goes down forever and ever, up to…150
meters, according to the local divers). We glide effortlessly down until we
reached the agreed upon depth of 20 meters where we adopt a more horizontal
course.
The
first thing that strikes me is the variety of corals: although I am not an
expert, I can easily make out more than ten different varieties in terms of
forms, colours or shapes. Everywhere around them, hundreds of marine creatures
are busy finding their way and food, from small, transparent larvae that hover
in the open and which you can only notice at night when your torch lights them,
up to some very large specimen of Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus
argus) and hairy clinging crabs (Mithrax
pilosus), very similar to spider crabs. In between these two extremes, when
looking carefully in all nooks and crannies and waiting long enough to detect
movements, I can see little banded coral shrimps (Stenopus hispidus) which are commonly seen at cleaning stations,
some Pederson cleaner shrimps (Periclimenes
pedersoni) with their transparent bodies and their purple legs, several
blue-eye hermits (Paguristes sericeus)
as well as a delicate banded clinging crab (Mithrax
cinctimanus) in the middle of a giant anemone (Condylactis gigantea).
Then,
all of a sudden, a startling spot of bright turquoise colour catches my eye and
I see a specimen of a juvenile Caribbean Reef octopus (Octopus
briareus). For some unknown reason, he likes my torch and decides to spend
some time playing like a young pup with me, swimming back and fro between the
reef and me. Eventually, it disappears in the darkness below, changing colour at
the very last moment from its original turquoise to a dark orange.
Then,
something more sinister then slowly edges its way in the area lit by my torch
and a hunting purplemouth moray (Gymnothorax
vicinus) comes to investigate all interstices to find its “catch of the
day”. The way this moray thoroughly and methodically investigates all
potential hides, one after the other, leaving no ground unexplored, gives me the
creeps and leaves me sorry for the fish that have hidden there. All of sudden,
it does not seem a good idea anymore for a fish to hide in the reef during the
night, especially if you consider the number of morays that hunt there and their
methodical hunting process: one day or the other,…. 
Other
morays like the spotted morays (Gymnothorax
moringa) which I observed during the same night dive, also seem to hunt in a
similar pattern, gliding stealthily and deathly from one hole to the next, up
and down. Later, I even get the chance to watch one when it catches a prey: in a
split second, it is over. The frenetic moves stop, the water calms down and the
moray resumes its quest for some more food.
By
the time we have seen all these things, we have to get back to shore : using the
shallow wreck of the airplane as an indicator to the way out, we are soon back
to the club where it is difficult to acknowledge that already an hour and a half
has gone by in what had seemed to be a ten-minute dive at the most.
Next
time for sure, I will bring an underwater camera!”
In
a similar way, Harry and his wife, Ann-Marie, have done all in their power to
help us achieving the best diving around the island.
They
have lent us all equipment necessary including tanks to do some shore diving
around the island and God knows that, around Curacao, there are several luscious
beaches (e.g., “Klein Knipbaai”, “Playa Porto Marie” or “Playa Jeremi”)
with astounding coral reef diving, down to quite extreme depths (that is, if you
want) and very good facilities…for the after-dive relaxation.
The
club boats have also taken us to some very good diving places not far from the
hotel. One of these places was called the “Mushroom Forest” and, when diving
there, we had the feeling of wandering in the middle of a forest of giant
mushrooms, except that they were coral formations under which we could often
glimpse lobsters and moray eels.
Easy
Divers’ philosophy is based on the following principle: once you have
established your credentials, you are free to dive the way you want, under your
sole responsibility. This philosophy, in addition to the boat taking you to
excellent spots, to the skipper
giving you a good pre-dive briefing and to the boat picking you up at the end of
your dive wherever you are (i.e. you do not have to navigate back to the boat),
was what European divers like us needed to do exciting dives.
The
club was also offering all expected facilities and more, like nitrox, a locker
to store away your equipment to dry, a bar on the beach nearby, showers for
after the dive, all books necessary to identify what we had seen (a special
mention about Paul Humann’s and Ned Deloach’s “The Reef Set” books which
is probably one of the best books ever made to precisely identify what you are
going to see or what you have seen: definitely a must have!) and refreshing
fruit salads to pick from while discussing your dives with your buddies, lying
on deck chairs.
Furthermore,
the diving club was conveniently located on the beach of a resort (the Sunset
Waters Beach Resort) which was providing very good accommodation, food and all
other amenities to make the rest of the trip enjoyable, including a casino, a
swimming pool and a mini-golf. There were even some activities organised for the
kids like movies, sea kayak trips or water-polo tournaments so they definitely
have also been able to make the best out of their stay there.
Apart
from Park Cristoffel which is supposed to offer some very good hiking, Curacao
also offered a few interesting things to see on the dry over-the-water side of
the island:
·
Willemstad (the capital) made for an interesting tour with its Dutch
inspired houses, its floating rotating bridge, its floating market (as nothing
grows on Curacao, except Aloe Vera which has been cultivated there for a very
long time, all fruits and vegetables are imported from the nearby Venezuela);
·
A South-African Boer has opened an ostrich farm, which gave us the
opportunity to discover the life of ostriches and even to taste them in the form
of juicy steaks and sausages;
·
The Kura Hollanda Museum about the Black Culture and Holocaust was also
a highly interesting moment in the trip as it enabled us to understand more
about the history of Black people in the Caribbean islands and in the USA, with,
among other things, an outstanding highlight on the slave trade;
·
Last, Curacao Seaquarium displayed some very interesting tanks and
creatures, taking advantage of the sea close vicinity to display, among other
things, nurse and lemon sharks, tarpons, groupers and rays in almost natural
environment with a possibility for divers to interact.
All
in all, a very pleasant trip to “one of the best kept secrets of the Caribbean
islands” which I would definitely recommend to divers travelling with their
families.
Last Edited 11/09/2002