Curacao - Colorful Dutch Caribbean

Central America Caribbean » Curaçao
August 31st 2006

Published: August 31st 2006

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roseycheeks

Curacao

We went to Curacao between 30Aug06 and 05Sep06 straight after the amazing trip to Aruba. Curacao looks similar to Amsterdam with all the colorful buildings! There is a floating market at Willemstad they sale fishes, fruit and vegetables as well!

There are 2 must-visit beaches called:

1. Porto Marie - there is a small entrance fee, USD3 per person including 1 soft drink from the bar. But on the weekend is USD6 per person this also include 1 soft drink. This beautiful beach is perfect for snorkeling, swimming and diving. We actually bought our own snorkeling gear so we didn’t have to rent anything. On the first day, we snorkeled between 11am and 3pm from the far right hand-side of the beach to the far left hand-side of the beach. There are much less fishes than the right hand-side of the beach. There are not much corals in the sea because there was hurricane during the 90s. The hurricane destroyed most of the corals. But on the left hand-side of the beach we saw one tree-like coral survived the hurricane.

There are quite a few puffer fishes, but they are no harm if you don’t disturb them

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just be aware. On the left hand-side of the beach there are lots of stonefishes around, they really look like stones. They are very poisonous, if you get sting it will cause a great deal of swelling, severe pain and even death. I got sting by one slightly; well I actually stepped on one. Luckily the depth of the penetration was not deep at all, but it caused pain and shock and it lasted for a few hours. So I suggest you should wear some protective rubber shoes if you go snorkeling at Porto Marie.

The water is very calm and some part is very shallow, it won’t suddenly get too deep. You can just snorkel for a whole day there and time really flies!! Like what we did snorkeled from 11am to 3pm and all our backs were sun burnt and couldn’t lie on back at all. We did apply the sun-block every 2 hours but it wasn’t enough.

2. Jan Thiel Beach - entrance fee for this beach is USD10 person and it doesn’t include any soft drinks! This beach has the usual beach chair and also they have the unusual bed for sitting and lying

Curacao

as well! There are mattresses on the bed so you can really lie on the back or front, but you cannot sun-bathe on these beds.

We tried to snorkel there for the first time, the water first few meters is very shallow and there isn’t much fishes around. But a few meters from the coast the seabed just drop down to very deep level and you can’t even see the seabed. So it was very scary! So after about half an hour we just took some photos around the beach and left. We went back to Porto Marie for more snorkeling!

We also visited the Sea Aquarium for the Dolphin Academy for the Dolphin Swim!! It was such an amazing experience for my boyfriend! The Dolphin swim lasted for half an hour, but my boyfriend will remember this forever! We also did the snorkeling in an enclosed pool and feeding the sea turtles (they were in a separate pool, we fed them the fishes through a hole in the underwater glass), sting-rays (their stings were cut already), sharks (they were also in a separate pool, we also fed them through an underwater hole in the glass) etc.