MY CURACAO TRIP

After spending time in the South Pacific, I didnt expect to be very excited about diving in the Caribbean again. However, Curacao exceeded my expectations. The reefs are in great shape, and the marine life kept me interested. While there are not many pelagics swimming around, the little critters more than make up for it. There were scorpion fish galore, and the seahorses that we saw were varied in color, and quite large. We found many different eels: green morays, spotted, goldentail, and chain morays, to mention a few. It was fantastic to see so many different soft and hard corals. By far, my favorite dive site was the Mushroom Forest. It was simply beautiful, and there were many fish and critters to see. The visibility was terrific and the water warm.

We stayed at Habitat Curacao, and the accommodations were good. We had an oceanfront room with a lanai out front. Everything was in easy walking distance, from the restaurant(which had a decent menu) to the dive shop. There were two docks in front of the dive shop. The large one was where we got on the boat for our two tank dive trip every day. The smaller dock was where you could jump in and dive on a wonderful reef right in front of the resort. The shop gave you availability of a tank 24 hours a day, so you could dive whenever you felt the urge. You could hop in a rental car and drive around until you found a great shore dive site, or you could dive the Habitat reef. The dive freedom was wonderful. Your schedule, except for the dive boat trip, was your own. The dive boats alternated their schedule every day, so that if you went on the boats every day, you went morning diving one day and afternoon diving the next. I loved the flexibility.

The town of Willemstad is very charming. The buildings are painted in beautiful pastel shades, and the architecture is quaint. Willemstad, which is divided into two sections by a bay, has a bridge that rotates. The bridge has a pilot house which swings the bridge open for ships to come in to the harbor. When the bridge is closed you can walk or drive across to the other side. There are a variety of shops and an open air market, so you can have fun spending your money on gifts to take home.

CURACAO 2000
Rays and Turtles	Seahorses	Eels!
Lots of Critters	Lots of Fish	Shadow Hunting