Marie Pampoen

A calm, easy shore dive where you enter the water from a small harbor. Nice and gentle sloping reef starting at 5 m / 15 ft. Further out to the left you will find car pile, an interesting artificial reef made from dumped cars, cranes, and more scrap. Sometimes large tarpon hang around here.

Lots of juvenile fish in the shallow area like spotted drum, trunkfish, squid, and flounder. Also octopus, flying gurnard, and frogfish have been spotted here.

Level

Level

Beginner

Visibility

Visibility

20 m

Current

Current

Light Current
No Current
Strong Current
Ripping Current

DIVE TYPES

DIVE TYPES

Night Dive
Artificial Reef
Snorkeling
Wreck Dive

Temperature & Visibility

Dives

Wildlife Diversity

Affiliated Training Center

Recommended Training

Open Water Diver

Begin your lifelong adventure as a certified diver with the globally recognized SSI Open Water Diver certification.

Enriched Air Nitrox Level 2 (40%)

Extend your dive time, shorten your surface intervals and spend more time exploring the dive sites you love, with the SSI Enriched Air Nitrox Specialty certification program.

Night Diving and Limited Visibility

Diving does not end when the sun goes down! Become a night diver and meet the incredible marine life that only comes out at night. Join the SSI Night Diving and Limited Visibility specialty program.

Search & Recovery

Make lost items a thing of the past with the SSI Search & Recovery specialty program. You will learn all you need to plan and conduct search and recovery dives, so you can find lost items with ease.

Wreck Diving

Do you want to explore iconic towering shipwrecks and dive World War airplanes covered in vibrant marine life? Discover the world of wreck diving and get started today with the SSI Wreck Diving Specialty program.

Perfect Buoyancy

The SSI Perfect Buoyancy Specialty is the best way to improve your body position for relaxed dives, lower your air consumption and increase your bottom times. Take control of your enjoyment. Start online now!

Photo & Video

Learn how to take underwater photos that capture your dive highlights and incredible marine life encounters with the SSI Photo & Video Specialty program. Get started online today.

Shark Ecology

Sharks are vital for healthy oceans and are truly spectacular to dive with! Join the SSI Shark Ecology program and learn how to dive safely with sharks, why their behaviors are misunderstood and more. Start online today!

Marine Ecology

The SSI Marine Ecology Specialty program is the best way to discover the exciting science of marine ecology and become an underwater naturalist. Enhance your dives in a new way. Earn the SSI Marine Ecology specialty certification now!

Sea Turtle Ecology

You will learn to identify sea turtles species, discover their history and role in marine ecosystems, and threats to their survival. Upon completion, you will earn the SSI Sea Turtle Ecology Specialty certification.

Manta And Ray Ecology

Diving with mantas and other rays is one of the best dive experiences you will have. Learn how to safely interact with rays and recognize different species with the SSI Manta & Ray Ecology Specialty program.

Fish Identification

Learn how to identify fish with the SSI Fish Identification specialty program and enhance your dives! Discover all you need to identify common families of Caribbean, Indo-Pacific and Red Sea reef fish and earn your SSI Fish Identification specialty certification.

Extended Range Wreck Diving

Descend deeper and further into the world of shipwrecks! Whether you dream of finding buried treasure on an ancient Spanish galleon or exploring WWII relics in Truk Lagoon, becoming an Extended Range wreck diver is the start of a fantastic adventure.

Technical Wreck Diving

Want to experience amazing wreck dives? Increase your technical dive skills to conduct wreck penetration dives to 80 meters and join the world’s elite deep decompression divers. Become an SSI Technical Wreck Diver today!

Basic Freediving

Discover the freedom and tranquility that keep freedivers returning to the water. Learn how to go freediving with this essential freediver training and earn your SSI Basic Freediving certification! Your adventures as a freediver begin here!

Dive sites nearby

© Scubaçao, Willemstad

Car Pile - Marie Pampoen (Wreck)

A nice deep dive where car wrecks were dumped in the sixties. The car wreckage starts at 15mtr/50ft with the more intact ones a bit deeper. At 30mtr/100ft you find a small barge on a sandy bottom with some more boat wreckage around it. For the tech diver there is more to be found at 60mtr/200ft and deeper.

© SSI Service Center Southern Caribbean, Willemstad

Stella Maris / Ocean Encounters

This is a great house reef dive located from the shores of the Lions Dive and Beach Resort. Shore accessible, this site is perfect for newer divers and snorkelers and sits right inside the Curacao National Marine Park.

Ship Wreck Point

Ship Wreck Point is a dive site in front of the Sea Aquarium and is best done from a dive boat. The beautiful coral reef wall is at its best between 10-20 m / 30-60 ft. A big anchor and large propeller can be found at 10m / 30ft. For the tech diver, there are 2 small shipwrecks laying on a ledge at 50 m / 150 ft.

Cornelius Bay

Very nice dive to the left of the Sea Aquarium. Can be hard to reach, however, with a bit of a climb. When entering from shore watch out for the shallow elkhorn coral formations.

Divers Leap

Beautiful healthy shallow coral reef with plenty of purple sea fans, large formations of elkhorn coral, pillar coral, and staghorn corals. A very nice steep wall starting at about 10 meters / 30 ft with lots of small holes and overhangs.

Beacon Point

This beautiful wall dive at the western tip of Caracas Bay is best reached by boat and, due to possible strong currents, is best done as a drift dive. On the shallow plateau, you will find large pillar corals.

© SSI Service Center Southern Caribbean, Willemstad

Superior Producer (Wreck)

Superior Producer is rated as one of the best wreck dives in the Caribbean. this cargo ship sits upright on a sandy bottom at 30 m / 100 ft. The ship sank in 1977 and is covered with coral and sponges and has an openly accessible cargo bay.

© SSI Service Center Southern Caribbean, Willemstad

Caracasbaai

A great, shallow reef perfect for newer divers and snorkelers. Accessible by boat. Full of colorful hard and soft corals and sponges and lots of marine life.

© SSI Service Center Southern Caribbean, Willemstad

Double Reef

The first reef slopes down to about 14m / 46ft where it becomes a sandy bottom. From there you can see the second reef. The second reef starts around 18m / 60ft and drops down to 30 m/ 100ft and deeper.

© SSI Service Center Southern Caribbean, Willemstad

Tugboat

This tugboat was wrecked just off the shore of Caracasbaai and is now Curacao’s most famous dive and snorkel spot due to its shallow depth. It sits in only about 15 feet of water. The tugboat is crawling with marine life and is now covered in sponges and coral growth.