Curacao’s Beautiful Westpunt Dive Sites

One of the best diving destinations that I’ve been so far is Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles. The island close to the Venezuelan coast is very different from what you would expect from a Caribbean Island, yet has the same crystal-clear waters and beautiful rich marine life. Due to the relative absence of fine sand on the beaches, Curacao has clearer water than elsewhere in the Caribbean, and you can have visibilities easily up to 200 ft.

Our apartment resort All West Apartments + Diving in Curacao is a nice place to hang out. What is also superb is the dive spot directly in front of All West – so to say their house reef. It is called Playa Grandi and is also accessible for external people, just go around the corner – or if you come from Westpunt, it’s only 200 ft after passing Jaanchie’s Restaurant to the right, clearly depicted by a sign!

The reef is quite near to the shore, and you can comfortably enter the water from the beach. There’s a lot of fishing boats of local fishermen anchored in the bay which gives it beautiful scenery.

The buoy ropes are tied to old engine blocks down on the sandy bottom, which is usually full of fish, especially several species of sepia and octopus.

At the buoy rope just behind the fishing boats, you will find a school of young sepias strolling around day and night. They are a bit shy, but if you stay calm they let you come close, and you can see how beautiful they are. Also, there are frequent sea horses seen on this spot. As you go out on the reef, there are beautiful rocks and coral formations not found in other parts of the island.

I got the impression that here on Playa Grandi there are even more fish than on other spots, but I might be wrong with this. Frequently you see turtles and eagle rays here.

If you dive out to the reef and then to the right, and stay in about 35 to 40 feet depth, you come to a submerged Neptune statue which gives a perfect photo opportunity!

Especially for All West guests, night dives here are perfect. If you stay more on the left side, you will see large barracudas and Wahu fish. Spiny lobsters are abundant on the reef, as well as green and spotted moray eels.