Diver News

New Frogfish at Lagun

2008-05-10T15:20:00.003-04:00

Hello everybody,

Yesterday I found a new frog fish sitting on our Friday morning dive-site Lagun :-) It is almost as big as my fist, of bright yellow, and obviously likes the sponge it's sitting on - today, it was still there; and if we are lucky, many more guests diving with us on Fridays may be able to see it and take pictures. It looks more or less like this:

Take care, and always good diving,

Andreas

Everything is possible - dolphins in front of All West Apartments

2008-04-23T18:39:00.005-04:00

Hi there,

All West Apartments guests were happy people on Saturday and Monday: A group of approximately 40 dolphins stayed and played around in our housereef bay!

Our divers saw them from our diveboat, the "Orca"; they used the boat to surf in front of the bow - and they kept company with our guests who snorkelled out to meet them, for more than 1 hour :-) We even had a 6 year old boy snorkelling with them! On the way back to the beach he also saw his first stingray!

Kind regards from Curacao
Andreas

Hallo zusammen!

All West Apartments-Gäste bleiben die Glückspilze auf Curacao:

Am Samstag und Montag hat sich eine Schule von ca. 40 Delfinen in unserer Hausriffbucht getummelt. Unsere Tauchgäste haben sie von unserem Tauchboot "Orca" aus gesehen, in dessen Bugwelle sie gesurft haben. Schnorchelnde Apartmentgäste, einschließlich des erst 6-jährigen Joscha, haben die Delfine mehr als 1 Stunde lang bespaßt :-) Auf dem Rückweg zum Strand wurde dann noch ein Stachelrochen gesichtet!

Mit fröhlichem Flossenschlag aus der Karibik
Andreas

Seahorse in front of All West Apartments

2008-04-17T16:33:00.006-04:00

Hi everybody,

All West Apartments guests are lucky since weeks:

A seahorse is staying in our housereef in the very shallow, so even snorkelers are able to see it! 2 weeks ago, it even had a companion; maybe they were trying to work on some more seahorses.

If you are planning to have a look and need some more information on where to find the seahorse, feel free to contact me: andreas@allwestcuracao.com.

Best regards
Andreas

Hallo zusammen,

All West Apartments Gäste haben in letzter Zeit Glück:

Ein Seepferdchen hat sich im Flachwasser in unserem Hausriff niedergelassen; auch Schnorchler können es mitunter bestaunen. Vor 2 Wochen hatte es sogar einen Gefährten - ob sich da wohl Nachwuchs anbahnt?

Wer sich das Seepferdchen anschauen möchte, und noch genauere Informationen zu dessen Standort benötigt, kann mich gern kontaktieren unter andreas@allwestcuracao.com.

Viele Grüße aus der Karibik

Andreas

Fotos of the Frogfish at Kortape Point

2008-03-31T09:56:00.002-04:00

Many thanks to our guest Bob for providing us with these nice images:

Kortape Point is on our boat trip schedule every Wednesday morning!

Kind regards from Curacao
Andreas

Elvin's Planewreck has a new look

2008-03-30T17:47:00.003-04:00

Hello everybody,

After we experienced rough seas a bit more than one week ago, Elvin's Planewreck now looks quite different: The body is broken in two parts, the cockpit is not longer in its place.

In my opinion, the wreck is an even more interesting dive now.

But maybe you'd rather join us on one of our next boat trips there to form your own opinion about it. I add a few photos to this post so you see roughly what you are up to.

Kind regards,

Andreas

PADI Digital Underwater Diver Course

2008-03-19T19:29:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we had a PADI Digital Underwater Photography Course at Ocean Encounters West, and we would like to share some of the results with you; all these photos (except the portrait of herself and her father David) have been taken by Charleen from New Jersey with a Sealife ReefMaster Mini Digital Camera, some using also an external flash. The divesites were Alice in Wonderland - the housereef of Ocean Encounters West - and Elvin's Planewreck.

We are proud of the results obtained during the training dives, and invite divers interested in using a Digital Camera during their dives to contact us and maybe sign up for a course, too. You may bring your own camera, or - for a maximum of two students - we can also share Andreas' Sealife DC 600 featuring wideangle lense and external flash.

The photos show:

The Students: Charleen and David

Juvenile Parrotfishes and Blueheads feading on a Sergeant Major's nest
A swarm of French Grunts
A Scrawled Filefish

Dolphin Dive with Ocean Encounters and Dolphin Academy

2008-03-18T21:49:00.003-04:00

Hi there,

Did you ever dream of diving with dolphins, and getting even to touch them? On the Ocean Encounters Dolphin Dive operated in cooperation with the Dolphin Academy at Curacao's Seawater Aquarium you can! I tried it on Monday, and was really amazed by this incredible animal encounter. We met the dolphins and their trainer in an open water environment out on a reef close to the aquarium. The 2 dolphins went zooming around like a pair of Quidditch-Players, but also came very close, so everybody could pet them! It was great to be with them :-)

If you want to try this, too, you can make your booking with Ocean Encounters West.

We are looking forward to seeing you soon!

Kind regards from Curacao,

Andreas

Whale Shark

2008-03-18T11:26:00.003-04:00

Thank you to Olga and Harald for the picture of the whale shark.
We are waiting for him to come back to All West.

Frogfish at Kortape Point

2008-03-14T18:34:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

on Wednesday I found the home of a frogfish new to us during our boat dive at Kortape Point. It looks similar to the one found by All West Apartments guests Ilona and Bernd in Februaray (see photo).

We offer boat trips leading to Kortape every Wednesday starting 8:30 am at Ocean Encounters West. The first dive-site on these trips is Hell's Corner.

Kind regards

Andreas

All West Apartments and Diving

Ocean Encounters West

Wale Shark at All West Curacao!!!

2008-03-14T06:00:00.012-04:00

Over weeks now, we have been spotting eagle rays on a regular basis, same as 2 seahorses living right in front of All West Apartments (Thank you to Michael and Ilona for leaving me with these nice photo J):
On Tuesday this week, however, all this was topped by the most exciting encounter with a gigantic whale shark (at least 24ft long) that was spotted by our guests 2 times in our house reef and once right in front of our dive shop Ocean Encounters West at Playa Kalki!!! There has been more talking about that fish than about the group of approximately 30 dolphins passing by Playa Kalki on the same day.

Welcome to our blog!

2008-03-14T04:19:00.000-04:00

To keep you informed about the news at Ocean Encounters West we opened this blog for you.

Feel free to also post your experience you had with us.