Snorkeling at the Sea Aquarium Beach

October 26, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

It’s been quite a while since we’ve down to the Sea Aquarium, so today we decided to make the trek. It sure was nice to see all the healthy coral! It’s still quite a snorkel to get to the really nice stuff, but definitely worth it. You need to snorkel down a long channel, then head across a rough opening to get into the open ocean. But once there, it is truly spectacular.

We saw lots of fun stuff, including green moray eels, black durgons, barracuda and some really huge chubbs. The coral is plentiful and in very good shape. It does not suffer from the bleaching so common in many bays. We used to stay at the Royal Sea Aquarium all the time. I would recommend it to you highly.

We didn’t stick around and have dinner or lunch there, but it sure has gotten busy. Lots of restaurants and bars and snack shops on what is now called Mambo Beach Boulevard. You can find everything from sushi to ribs, East Indian food, Italian, Mexican, even a Starbucks. If you can’t find something to interest you, you’re way too picky

Curacao

Boka Sami

October 15, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

Today we tried out a new beach called Boka Sami. It’s in a small fishing village just up the coast from Blue Bay. It’s also referred to as Snake Bay, and for some reason Pam has been leery of trying it. But with Mike in town, we decided to give it a go. It’s a nice sandy beach, with a super easy entry into the ocean.

There are lots of fishing boats around the bay, and there turned out to be lots of fishing traps in the bottom of the bay. I find it tough to see the traps with all the fish stuck in there, knowing they are going to be someone’s dinner. sigh Wish that didn’t happen, but what can you do? If humans didn’t eat them, they’d wind up as dinner to some fish or bird.

Anyway – it was a nice snorkel. Lots of flying gurnards in this bay. I think we saw at least a half dozen. I think it’s alternatively called Snake Bay because of all the moray eels we saw though. They were everywhere! (Even in some of the traps.) We also saw turtles, some ceros, and a coronet fish.

This is definitely a beach we’ll be back to visit. Nice and peaceful.

Curacao

Playing with turtles

October 12, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

We headed up to Westpunt to check out the turtles in Playa Piskado. It’s always a great favorite of ours, and most of the island as well! It can get crowded out there. There are so many turtles in the bay, and everyone loves to snorkel with turtles.

There were literally dozens of turtles today. Usually we can count fifteen or sixteen, but today – wow! Again, usually the fisherman come into the dock and offload their catch, while gutting and filleting the fish. But today, this boat stayed out in the deeper water, and I’m not sure if that attracted more turtles or what. But what a show they put on!

There are lots of things to see in this bay besides the turtles, but you wouldn’t know it by the pictures we take. I took about one hundred pictures, and ninety are of turtles! haha They certainly catch your attention. The one picture I always have to take is of old King Neptune. He’s in fairly deep water out near the drop off.

One other thing we saw that is quite cute. There are a lot of these little crabs wandering around the bay, and they seem to pick up a buddy. We often see flounders bumping into the crabs. We’re guessing the crab stirs up the sand and some micro food, which the little flounder gobbles up. It’s really quite cute.

Curacao

Snorkeling with Mike

October 11, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

Mike has come down to Curacao to escape the rain and cold of a Vancouver October. His first day here we decided to just jump in the ocean at here at Blue Bay Beach. Saw lots of fun stuff, including flying gurnards, octopus and turtles. A really fun first snorkel.

The weather has been a bit, shall we say, volatile? We’ve had some crazy rain, and some awesome thunder and lightning. But it sure is amazing how quickly the place greens up with just a little bit of water. Although, I wouldn’t quite say it was a little water! Tropical rain showers really do dump a ton of water in a hurry.