Tag Archives: Playa Forti

Playa Forti and a seahorse!

Birds birds birdsWe stopped at Playa Lagun, up in Westpunt today, but there were so many people there, we couldn’t even find a place to park. And trust me, in Curacao, you can park anywhere! But it was so jammed we headed to a new beach called Playa Forti. We’ve eaten in the restaurant overlooking the bay, but have never snorkeled in it. There is a rather high cliff, where lots of people jump off into the ocean below. That’s maybe one reason we’ve never snorkeled there.

But… it was AMAZING! There is a nice sturdy set of stairs to get you down to the water’s edge, and it was quite easy to get into the ocean. It was beautifully warm, and crystal clear. Visibility seemed for miles.

Playa FortiFunny story about the cliff divers – locals jump off like crazy, some doing impressive back flips and the like. Well, a Dutch couple were going to jump in, a fellow with his girlfriend, being photographed from the bottom by another gal. The lady jumped in, and it was a bit of a belly flop and she kinda let out a moan of pain. The boyfriend looked over the edge, and that’s as far as he got! He completeley chickened out!

We actually saw some creatures we’ve never seen before! The brown garden eel keeps himself half hidden in the sand, waving in the water to catch plankton. Whenever a diver or snorkeler comes close, they retreat into the sand, leaving just their eyes poking out. We’ve never seen them before, and it was really quite majestic to see them waving in the current.

We saw a flounder – nothing new there – but this one was a tiny three inches long, and he was butting heads with a crab! He would ram the crab with his head, and the crab would stir up some sand. Then the flounder would pounce on the morsels that the crab stirred up.

SeahorseThen there was a seahorse! This is only the second time we have ever seen one, the other time was in Aruba. We always look for them attached to coral, but this guy was heading across the sandy bottom. They are quite small, only about 2 or 3 inches and easily buffeted by the current. Cute little guy!

We saw a fish building a nest. He would take chunks of coral in his mouth, and place it on quite a significant little pile of coral. When I dove down to see what he was up to, he dove under the big pile of coral. Normally this fish would leave when a diver approaches, but obviously he was nest building and prepared to defend his home.

A great snorkel for sure – a beach we’d definitely come back to anyday!