Snorkeling in Playa Piskádo
If you are looking for an enchanting location on Curaçao to swim side-by-side with sea turtles, Playa Piskádo is the spot to go. And, it’s free! On our first day in Curaçao, we were eager to try out the new masks and snorkel equipment we’d lugged from home. None of us had ever gone swimming with sea turtles so we were looking forward to a real treat. Playa Piskádo did not disappoint!
In The Cay, Philip mentions how much he loved going to the beaches in Westpunt so, of course we had to check them out. Playa Piskádo is a small beach on Curaçao’s Northwest coastline known as Sabana Westpunt, a bit less than an hour from the city of Willemstad.
Flamingos on the way
On our way there we decided to stop and see some flamingos on Weg naar Bullenbaai. You’ll find the flamingos in the salt marsh just past Sint Michiel. We parked off to the right then crossed the road and walked along the shore. There must have been a hundred or more flamingos!
Fisherman’s Beach
“Playa Piskádo” translates to “Fisherman’s Beach” and that’s exactly what you’ll find here. Just beyond the pier you’ll see multiple little fishing boats and nets cast in various locations off the shore. When the fisherman cut up their catch they discard the heads into the sea which attracts schools of fish and the main attraction, sea turtles.
There is no fee to enter the beach, but if you want to use the lounge chairs be prepared to cough up $3 per chair. We found a shady spot where we could spread out our towels, so we skipped the chairs. Oh, and there are bathrooms at Playa Piskádo, but they are only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday and come with a $0.50 fee to pee. There aren’t any snack bars so make sure to bring your own.
After we spread out our towels, we crossed the short pebbly beach and entered the water on the right side of the pier. At first all we saw were large schools of grayish fish, but then just beyond the pier there they were! One sea turtle swam right up to us! He was casually swimming about and diving down to root around on the ocean floor. There are signs on the beach forbidding swimmers to touch the sea turtles and it seems that people respect the rule. I swam along side one of the turtles and he did not seem fazed by my presence at all.
We spent a few hours at Playa Piskádo swimming with the beautiful sea turtles and then we headed on to Playa Forti to jump off a cliff. Ooh la la! It was petrifying!
Reading
Before I headed off to Curaçao, I searched high and low for books set in Curaçao. It was a real challenge! The first book I found was The Cay, a juvenile fiction book. It was actually really great! Next, I found The House of Six Doors, an autobiographical novel. (As an added bonus, both books helped me fulfill the “novel set in a country other than your own” category for the 2018 Read & Go Challenge!) Then, as luck would have it, on the first day we visited Willemstad we discovered that we had parked in the library’s parking lot. One of the librarians, Mirella, was very generous with her time and helped me find books based in Curacao. Most were, obviously, in Dutch, but they did have an English language section with a number of books either based in Curacao or written by local authors.
I wish I had a library card! But, I did download The Yard and look forward to reading it!
What do you think?