Curacao Trip January 2001

Curacao is an island 60 miles north of Venezuela and is part of the Netherland Antilles. It is sort of independent, but still has ties to the Netherlands, as far as I can tell. The majority of visitors are from Holland, with Americans and Venezuelans making up the bulk of the other tourists. It has an arid climate which helps make the underwater visibility 100 feet or more.

 

This is view from my porch to the little beach on a bay, spent a few hours reading here.

The view back to the apartment

Here is a fairly typical shot of the countryside. Dry enough to have cactus growing and very few trees.

Willemstad is the big city. The 2 older sections are divided by the entrance to a large bay. This is the Punda section, taken from Otrobanda. The floating bridge to the right is open to pedestrian traffic and swings open frequently for boat traffic.

This is Klein (little) Curacao, an 1 1/2 hour boat ride south of Curacao. It is an uninhabited island used by a few fishermen and day excursions for diving, sunning and eating.

This is Lagun beach on the north end of the island as we paddle out to the ...

mushroom forest. Coral formations that look like...mushrooms

This is Nico, a German fellow who was my dive buddy on many dives while his wife got her initial training.

I don't know what the hell this is, coral of sponges, but the picture came out so here it is.

This is just one of many little fish. They all have distinct, colorful markings

Here is a bigger parrot fish, it's like swimming in a tropical fish aquarium

This is a small beach where I did some snorkeling on the last day

by: Robert Craig

rcraig@hurricane.net

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