5th - 11th September 2004
Curacao, Netherlands Antilles

Before I forget the finer details I should (b)log my latest underwater exploits. I'll say upfront that the trip to Curacao and Bonaire was not strictly a dive trip. It was a wedding and a honeymoon. Mine and Sally's. OK, that said I can get back to the underwater stuff.

After a days delay due to KLM cancelling our Heathro flight we got to Curacao on Sunday 5th Sept. Our room at the Avilla Beach hotel was in the Blues Wing, right at the end with uninterrupted 180 degree views out over the Caribbean. Very nice. So nice in fact that we wasted little time in dropping the bags, putting the togs on and heading out for a snorkel.

The water was a very, very pleasant 29 degrees and suitable clear, vis approaching 20m vis (disappointing by local standards, but this is hurricane season and the sea had been stirred. But hey, 20m vis, 29 degrees!) And there were plenty of fish and sponges and corals on the rocks. This was in the bay-cum-ocean pool that formed part of the hotel complex; I could have spent ages just in there.

The setup was two 'bays' that each had a 10m-ish wide opening to the sea. Inside was sand and some sea grass and maybe 3m of water. There are sand beaches to the hotel side and low rock walls enclosing the bays or pools. The bars to get to the ocean rise to about 1.5m from the surface and on the other side you have rock pile slopes to about 6m, then a gentle sand slope taking you down to about 8-9m. This depth is reached when 20m from the rocks and then the slope steepens and the odd bits and pieces of reef become a more solid sloping reef wall.

First day we didn't get outside of the pool and were not complaining. Lots of small reef fish; tangs, porcupine and trumpetfish, morays and plenty that I could look up in a book but didn't know the name of. Sally also spotted a small octopus. The first day really set the tone for the rest of the week. Every day I was up and snorkelling in the morning and usually in the afternoon as well. Almost every day; took one day off for Hurricane Ivan, although Sally, Mara, Leah and I did have a late dip as the sytem approached, to the bemusement of the security guards who watched up swim out of one bay, along the open side of the wall and back in the other.

The highlights were, in no particular order...a massive porcupine fish with a head bigger than mine; a pair of barracuda that allowed me to get very close, some large staghorn and elkhorn coral - some of which did not survive Ivan; moroays, spotted and green both inside the bays and outside; flounder; a cute family of drums; a turtle (although I'll admit I was on the balcony and not in the water when I saw that); lots of fish I still don't know the names of; scorpionfish, some very close to the beaches; octopus, again inside and out; the incredible (well, incredible to us) corals and sponges right under our noses.

We did no diving on Curacao. But by the end of the week I (as well as married) able to hit 11m with no more than mask and snorkel, stay under for long enough to feel it was worth taking my camera with me and my sea confidence had gone up beyond my expectations. I discovered that a snorkel is in fact a fantastic piece of equipment - as long as you use it while snorkelling and leave it at home when diving.

We had just one day of swimming on other beaches - Jeremy, Lagun, Big and Small Kaneep and another one or two. I was lucky enough to find two turtles on one of these (Jeremy I think) and on another there were lots of jellyfish, but nothing that stung us. The main difference was that the water at these beaches was just ridiculously clear. Must have been 30m in a couple of spots; so far removed from the UK that is makes the mind boggle.

I may come back to ad more detail to Curacao (but hey, I know me and I probably won't) but I shall move right along to our next island stop, Bonaire, 'Divers Paradise'.