Curacao: Day 4

Today we found the perfect mixture of diving and beach bumming. We started the day a little earlier so we had plenty of time to fit in everything we wanted to do… which ironically was mostly to sit on the beach and do nothing. We had our little Euro breakfast on our balcony again before venturing over to Playa Cas Abou. On our way we stopped by the “Flamingo Sanctuary” in which there was not one single flamingo, go figure. Oh well, we snapped a few sad photos in front of the empty sanctuary and continued on to Cas Abou. Cas Abou is known for its post card quality white sandy beach, bright turquoise & royal blue marbled water, and (of course) diving. The white sandy shore is lined with palapas and lounge chairs and there is an open air bar that sits tucked farther back on the beach. There is a little friendly dive shop that sits conveniently over toward the right, patiently waiting for you to pick up tanks and dive in. We wasted no time getting in the water. As we snorkeled out to the underwater marker we saw a White Spotted Eagle Ray chowing down on breakfast. I stayed my distance (big sissy) but caught some cool photos from the surface. Once we descended at the marker we headed right per recommendation of the shop’s dive master. It was another easy going, gorgeous dive. I’m convinced there is not a single “bad dive” on the entire island. The reef is so healthy and just FULL of life. Every once in a while I would take my nose out of the reef and look up to see Marcus just SURROUNDED by vast schools of fish, all varying species. It was something I tried to catch with the camera several times but I don’t think any of the photos come close to capturing that moment. It’s a photo that I will hold in my mind forever.

Some of the highlights, other than the Eagle Ray: a few different trumpetfish, an arrow crab tucked away trying his hardest to not be seen, and some very large yellow tail snapper which had me craving fish and chips at the end of the dive. Right before we turned around to head back to the marker we reached Cas Abou’s own “mini mushroom forest,” another highlight of the dive. Our dive lasted 39 minutes and we stayed around 40 feet most of the time, once again our dive computer gave us a 16 hour desat time. We have talked to several people, including another person with a similar uwatec, and no one can explain it. I have since downloaded the manual but still don’t fully understand. Fortunately, we are more than content being 1 dive a day divers and spending the rest of the day on the beach.

 After our dive we sat under a palapa looking out on the calm water and enjoyed lunch. In addition to drinks the beach bar sold some Dutch snacks, which we didn’t dare deny. We ordered some fries with peanut sauce and enjoyed them with a couple Amstels. That moment pretty much sums up the whole reason we fell in love with Curacao when we first read about in a dive magazine a few years ago: Dutch food and culture in the middle of the Caribbean… a match made in paradise. After lunch we snorkeled around and saw a small yellow eel not too far from shore. Snorkeling was a lot of fun, and I was amazed at how much sea life there is just off the shore, but it really does not compare to diving!

We soaked up some rays as Cas Abou a while longer and then drove to near-by Porto Marie. Porto Marie is another great diving site known to house nurse sharks, spotted eagle rays, and sometimes even turtles in the valley between its two reefs. It is also just a stunning beach, so we stayed and enjoyed it for a while. We sat out on two beach front Adirondack chairs and ordered a drink. Marcus had their beer of the month, Maredsous, a blond Belgian beer. Again, two of our favorite things all found in one place: Belgian beer and a gorgeous Caribbean beach… we LOVE this place! I ordered a Pina Colada with Blue Curacao, which was good but his Belgian Beer was so much better. We snorkeled here as well and saw a very well-disguised scorpion fish that another beach goer had found by almost stepping on.

As the sun began to sink lower we drove back in the direction of our hotel, stopping at the Marriot to watch the sunset from the beach there. After sunset we cleaned up and took a taxi to the Punda side of Willemstaad for dinner at Scampi’s. We have been here 4 days and this was our first time to center of town. We’ve been enjoying the underside and beaches of the island so much we had not even ventured to the historic city center yet. Dinner was good; I had a seafood sampler of smoked salmon, coconut prawns, and calamari while Marcus had a steak. It was nice but I still prefer off the map places like that tiny beach front restaurant Surf & Turf we went to on Monday. After dinner we briefly walked around admiring the brightly colored illuminated buildings that line the harbor. It reminded me of that “Disneyland” feeling we had in a lot Europe where the buildings look too cute to be real. I’m anxious to go back during the day and enjoy more of the sites and shops of the adorable downtown Willemstaad.