Day 9 - Tugboat Beach with shipwreck and Mambo Beach

Day 9 (8/14/23)

After the recovery day yesterday, we're getting going again today. Today we start towards the southeast of the island, towards Willemstad, past the Jan Thiel holiday resorts and on to Tugboat Beach ( https://www.tugboat-beach.com/ ). Tugboat is one of the most famous and popular diving and snorkeling spots on Curaçao. Here you can easily see a tugboat that sank 30 years ago while snorkeling, as it is just under 5 m deep. The Tugboat Beach is next to the Caracas Bay. We pass Fort Beekenburg and we see a huge oil rig/drilling ship that is firmly anchored there. Looks scary. It is the oil rig “La Murella IV” from Panama, which is located here right next to Tugboat Beach. The huge thing is already guarded on the street by security men who make sure that you don't park too close and then turn obediently to Tugboat Beach.

We are immediately welcomed by the owner of the colorful bar, who explains everything to us, shows us the best “snorkeling route” and wishes us a lot of fun. Great, then let’s go!

We snorkel the recommended route, but the most exciting thing is actually the tugboat, even though I can see a moray eel in the corals behind it. We snorkel for a while above the tugboat, which lies in the dark water below us. Unfortunately, the sun has completely disappeared and everything is “blue-grey”. We're lucky, after a while the sun finds its way through the clouds and we see the tugboat in a more beautiful shade of blue.

After the successful snorkeling session, we drive just a few minutes further to Directeurs Baai, which is said to be an insider tip for snorkeling and diving. We and a few divers are the only tourists at the spot. After we scrambled over the stones into the sea, we snorkeled along the rocks to the right into the small neighboring bay. A colorful coral garden with thousands of fish awaits us! The fish nursery is at home here. I suddenly find myself in a school of fish that actually consists of tens of thousands of fish. Unbelievable! Unfortunately the waves are quite strong and we struggle not to be pushed into the shallow coral forest, so we retreat. At the edge of the reef we come across a school of around 30 dorkfish, and a turtle is also nibbling on the corals in the dark depths. We don't want to go too far away for the camera and into the open sea either. We snorkel along the rocks and back around the corner to Directeurs Baai. It was very cool here, but too scary for me with the current and the depth at the edge of the reef.

We have lunch at the Brisa do Mar restaurant ( https://brisadomarpopsplace.everyorder.io/ ), a bay in front of Tugboat Beach. We eat delicious bowls, gouda balls and fish and meat dishes. Highly recommended – super tasty!

After dinner we spontaneously decide to visit Curacao's main tourist beach: Mambo Beach.

A real shopping mall awaits us with shops, bars, restaurants and beach clubs. The beach is artificially created and there are various beach clubs on the beach where you can rent loungers and umbrellas. There are even clubs that have a pool right on the beach. We choose the section of beach next to the Wet & Wild Beach Club, directly in front of the Dolfijn FM 97.3 radio studio, whose presenters we can watch from the loungers at work. How funny! Entry costs $3.50, but since it's already after 3 p.m., no one comes to collect. Almost all loungers (huge, wide double loungers) are free. We look for a nice spot under the palm trees and go swimming. We swim opposite to the breakwaters where pelicans sleep. On the way back we see a dead fish in the shallow water. Ehhh, disgusting… but….!? You could possibly feed a pelican with this!? As soon as the daughter - brave as she is - picked up the disgusting dead fish from the bottom of the sea and fished it out of the water, three curious pelicans were already swimming towards us. They get within a meter, then the daughter throws the fish to the first pelican, which immediately catches it in its beak and eats it. We are probably not the only ones who feed the pelicans this way, because a few meters away a man is also diving for dead fish and feeding the pelicans. Hmm...it's kind of disgusting that there are dead fish in the shallow water here...

We take a long shower (yes, Mambo Beach definitely gets a grade 1 for functional showers!!!) and chill out on the lounger. I would have liked to treat myself to a cocktail, but I think $11 and up is really steep! And then they come in a cup – not a cocktail style at all…

In the evening we leave Mambo Beach and its “Remmidemmi”. Not our thing. In front of the parking lot there is a picture with a huge pink chair, then we go to the villa, where we end the evening with a bottle of wine.