Rodale’s Scuba Diving

Know Your ABCs:

Diving into Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao

ARUBA

Divers looking for new areas to explore in the Caribbean are heading to Aruba, thanks to excellent conditions and a number of fascinating wrecks. Long known for great beaches, resorts, and casinos, Aruba continues to attract more divers annually.

For wreck divers, Aruba is home to the largest wreck in the Caribbean--the Antilla, a German freighter that offers lots of pockets to explore on its 400-foot length. Other excellent options include the Perdernales, Tugboat, the Jane Sea, and several more. In addition, advanced divers can explore the California, known as the only ship to receive distress signals from the Titanic without responding. There are also many excellent reef dives that are often scheduled by dive operators to accompany a wreck dive.

Onshore, Aruba continues to offer one of the Caribbean’s best island experiences. Lots of resorts and casinos, coupled with great beaches, other watersports, outdoor adventures, and other activities, make Aruba an ideal combination for divers and non-divers alike.

BONAIRE

The automobile license plates on Bonaire read "A Diver's Paradise," and there's no disputing the accuracy of this slogan. The highly accessible reefs that surround Bonaire have never suffered from exploitation, poaching, or pollution, and the island's environmentally conscious dive industry will ensure they never do. From the first-time snorkeler to the veteran diver, the island is home to one of the world's top underwater environments.

Created through volcanic eruptions, the island is an underwater mountain with fringe reefs literally right off the beach of every hotel or any part of the island. The average boat trip to dive sites is 15 minutes, with the farthest reachable within an hour.

Well out of the hurricane belt and therefore protected from reef damage, Bonaire offers world-class diving and snorkeling 365 days a year. With only 12 inches of annual rainfall, there is no freshwater runoff, so water visibility is typically 100 feet or more. In addition, because the sites are close to shore and the water is so calm, visitors can dive anytime, day or night, practically anywhere off the island.

For most people involved in Bonaire's dive industry, the sport is both their livelihood and avocation. As a result, they are doubly committed to preserving the island's world-class diving. An industry association works with the government to enforce environmental policies and propose new legislation. Every operation strictly regulates and reports the number of divers on each dive. The association then monitors the total number of visitors to each site and closes a site for a specified period of time if the numbers grow too high or signs of damage become evident.

Island hotels cater to divers and snorkelers and have dive shops offering all levels of training, as well as underwater photography. Most dive operators allow unlimited shore diving, day or night. Typically, an underwater videographer can also be hired to film diving experiences.

Shaped like a boomerang, Bonaire is only 24 miles long and from three to seven miles wide. Less than a mile off the south coast is the uninhabited Klein Bonaire (Little Bonaire), which acts like a barrier reef, creating calm, leeward waters. The island's north coast, in contrast, is battered by strong waves that pound against the rocky coast.

The best reefs are found within the protected leeward side of the island, where the reefs have a narrow, sloping terrace extending seaward with a drop-off at 33 feet, followed by a slope varying from 30 feet to a vertical wall of 100 to 200 feet. Excellent walk-in dive sites are "Thousand Steps" and further north at "Nukove."

Accessible by boat is "Alice in Wonderland," a double reef complex, separated by a sand channel and extending from Pt. Vierkant south toward Salt Pier. There are a number of good dive sites within this reef system, all marked by dive buoys. "Angel City," one of the most popular, is home to the 1,000-ton freighter "Hilma Hooker," Bonaire's most notorious shipwreck. About 25 reef sites, with depths of 20 to 130 feet, surround Klein Bonaire and all are easily accessible from shore. Try "Carl's Hill," "Forest" and "Sharon's Serenity."

All of the attributes that make Bonaire a haven for diving apply to snorkeling. Right from their hotels, snorkelers can wade from the shore to the reefs and view an array of coral, including Elkhorn Barrier, Fire and Leaf corals, and a range of colorful fish, such as Redlip Blennies, Jewelfish and Parrot Fish. The reefs just off Klein Bonaire and Washington-Slagbaai Park receive particularly rave reviews from snorkelers. All island dive shops rent snorkeling equipment and can provide instruction.

With a far-sighted dedication to protecting their assets both under and above the water, the government of Bonaire was environmentally aware long before it became fashionable. In 1979 Bonaire designated all surrounding waters as a Marine Park, including a ban on spearfishing and coral collecting within the park, and later instituted permanent moorings to minimize anchor damage. A reef preservation program offers visiting divers free advanced and photo buoyancy control workshops through all island dive shops. As a result of these efforts, divers and snorkelers find the reefs virtually untouched, with lush coral growth and an abundant fish population.

CURACAO

Curaçao has what people in the know look for in superior diving--more than 65 dive sites, terrific shore diving and great underwater visibility. Together with skilled professional operators, they make Curaçao one of the Caribbean's top dive islands. There are walls, wrecks, reefs, and unusual, one-of-a-kind dives with names like "The Valley," "Lost Anchor," and "Alice in Wonderland", as well as the "Mushroom Forest" that has to be dived to be believe. If Mother Nature cooperates, divers may also have a chance to witness underwater Curaçao's spectacular aquatic life in the process of reproduction during coral spawning.

Lots of dive operators and resorts have opened in the past decade, as Curaçao has become recognized for offering great ABCs and Caribbean diving. Convenience, cost, and cooperation with divers’ wishes all make Curaçao an up-and-coming dive destination.

In between dives, vacationers enjoy as many wonderful activities on land as they do underwater. They can get back to nature and go hiking, biking or climbing in the 4,500 acre Christoffel National Park renowned for its orchid growing on cactus plants, neon-green iguanas, and tiny native deer. They can dive into history and culture in one of the island's many museums and plantation houses. They can also stroll through streets of shops just looking up at the architecture in picturesque Willemstad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The casinos of the island are another draw during surface intervals.