Ive not yet dived all the sites The Dive Bus visits so Ill only comment on those I know personally. And Ive only been diving here part-time for about three months. Mark and Suzy have been diving the same waters pretty much daily for my piddling few months plus another four years. Just between us, Id put more stock in their choices than my own.
That said, heres my favorites:
Both the reefs that are out The Dive Buss back door are great dives, and they share the easiest entry on the island. I especially like Car Pile, which is - as the name implies -- nothing more than a bunch of junked cars and construction equipment. Like many reefs on the island that have been ravaged by storms or careless construction, Car Pile exemplifies how remarkably resilient the marine wildlife here is. All those artificial nooks and crannies give shelter to an amazingly diverse collection of creatures.
Tugboat is a great dive thats on the favorites list of just about every local diver I know. Ive done it in both daylight and dark and its on my top 10 list both ways. Plus, Im an octopus junkie and I manage to find them there regardless of the time of day.
Im as fascinated with the little critters that live on the reef as I am the big ones. Thats one of the reasons Im so fond or Porto Mari. It feels like swimming in my dentists waiting room aquarium. The double reef reminds me of Bonaires Angel City, in structure
and in quality.
Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland is difficult to describe, except to say that the coral formations are unusual to the point of bizarre (makes you wonder what them little polyps was smokin that day). Theyre also very healthy and teeming with about every species of fish known to live on Curacao.
And to me, the Mack Daddy of all Curacaos shore dives is the Superior Producer. On paper, it doesnt have a lot going for it. Its too deep, the entry is too rocky, the surf is typically ...ahem ...challenging and the current is usually pretty stiff. In practice, its just a fun dive. I dived it last night with two of my divemaster buddies from Hooks Diving and we had an absolute blast. The other visitors we ran into while over the wreck were Spanish lobster, crab, shrimp by the hundreds and one very large tarpon. A large green moray usually hangs out in the winch room on her foredeck but last night he mustve been out selling Amway.
We all were diving air, which limited our bottom time on the wreck to just over 20 minutes. But once the NDL forced us into shallower waters, it was as if wed begun a whole new dive, this one on the healthy reef that flanks her. Superior is another of those places where I routinely find octopus and last night I found two. The larger one obviously was on the hunt and tolerated our nosiness for more than 15 minutes before he decided to vanish into an impossibly narrow crevice.
Anyway, those would be my choices, for better or worse, and in no particular order.
