Curacao
Curacao is a dutch island, with capital of Willemstad, which is also capital to the whole of the Netherland Antilles. Willemstad is well worth a visit as the town has over 700 historic buildings and the preservation of many buildings is well under way. Willemstad is also a duty free port.
The diving in Curacao is very good with some popular wreck dives, most notably, the Superior Producer at a maximum depth of 30 meters. The Tugboat is also very popular as it is in shallow water at 5 meters and is excellent for photography. Also, there is The Airplane Wreck, which is a shore dive and the loaction is marked on the surface with a buoy.
A very popular event for divers happens in September and October with the coral spawning. This event happens 7 days after the full moon and the local dive centres are well aware of the happening, which does not last long and ensure that their clients are in the water at the correct location at the right time. The best dives are the Mushroom Forest and Alice in Wonderland where there are copious amounts of star coral. Watch the YouTube video here.
- In September and October every year, coral spawning seven days after full moon
- Wreck of the Superior Producer
- Southern Marine Park
- Klein Curacao which is a small neighbouring island that offers scenic diving with good walls covered in coral
- The southern area is a protected underwater marine park and, throughout the island, dive centres ask that divers make a voluntary donation (currently US$10) to help protect the environment
- There are over 60 dive sites and more than half are accessed from the shore
- For the coral spawning dives, contact one of the dive centres.
| Language: | English is widely used |
| Currency: | The Netherlands Antillean guilder or US$ |
| Time: | GMT -5 |
| Climate: | Tropical |
| Natural hazards: | Not in the hurricane belt |
| Diving season: | 12 months |
| Water temperature: | 24-26C |
| Air Temperature |
26-28C |