The Blue Room is a major snorkel destination that was high on my list of must-do activities in Curaçao. This cave is known for it’s beautiful, deep blue hue and school of fish that hover inside it.
Inside the cave, photographs can be epic beyond words! I had an amazing time on this tour, but not just for the photo opportunity. I heard getting there would be an adventure in itself—an adventure with Curaçao legend, Captain Goodlife.
The unexpected parts of this experience are what made this tour absolutely priceless. It was such an awesome experience, I outline in this post all of the ways to get there and the details on why the Goodlife way is the best way!
How To Visit The Blue Room
You can visit the Blue Room several different ways. The method I used was by going with Captain Goodlife.
Captain Goodlife
After returning from SCUBA diving, I decided to give the Captain a call. He actually answered the phone himself! I asked him if I would have time to make it to the next trip to Blue Cave. He asked where I was and said, “Oh yea it’ll only take you 15 minutes!”
I gathered all my gear, washed it off, paid for my dive trips, and hopped into my little rental car.
Captain Goodlife departs twice a day, Tuesday through Sunday, at 1:00pm and 3:00pm from Playa Santa Cruz. I called him (using my Curaçao SIM card) at (+5999) 864.0438. The trip with Captain Goodlife is definitely an adventurous option because this legendary character will give you a wonderfully unique experience. See more below about my personal experience visiting the Blue Room with him.
Chartered Boat or Jet Ski
Another way to get there is to hire a charter boat or dive boat to take you there. I had this option while I was already diving with Go West Diving. But they were going to charge much more for the experience than Captain Goodlife.
The most expensive and probably the most exciting/adventurous way to get there would be to hire a jet ski or boat to self-drive to the Blue Room by water. The downside is you will be responsible for ensuring your vessel doesn’t float away while you’re exploring. If you are traveling with someone, you can take turns or you can try tying off your ski or boat to anything you can find along the shore. But the shoreline is mostly rock and sheer rock cliffs so that may prove challenging.
Captain Goodlife also rents Kayaks which may be a fun alternative to the motorized option.
By Foot
Visiting the Blue Room by foot is probably the most adventurous and least expensive option. While visiting the Blue Room, we saw people jumping off the cliff next to the entrance to the cave. You can access the path to the cave from Playa Santa Cruz.
Enter Blue Room Cave Curaçao into Google Maps, switch to Satellite view, and you will clearly see the path you need to take.
Alternatively, here are some basic directions to follow:
The path is left along the beach just before the building.
Follow the path passed Boka Santa Petru beach for 10 minutes and then follow a sign for the blue cave to the right at a T in the path.
Blue dots mark the way to the spot to jump off (10 feet down).
There is a place to climb back up the cliff side.
Do not do this alone and rent or bring your own snorkel gear, otherwise there won't be much to see inside the cave!
How Much Is It To Visit The Blue Cave
The cost to go to the Blue Cave with Captain Goodlife is $22 per person. This is his flat rate for everyone.
But you’ll get so much out of the experience! For $22, I had a 3 for 1 experience. We spent a long time at the Blue Room and, to my surprise, we made 2 additional stops.
Shipwreck Site
There was a shipwreck snorkel stop—a ship that he sunk himself! Ask him about the story. He literally sank it with some dynamite himself to turn it into a snorkel attraction and to allow for reef to grow and a habitat to develop for marine life.
Buddha/Pink Caves Site
The other stop was a spot along the shoreline with sea caves. The sea caves are pink which contrasts beautifully against the turquoise water. Outside the big cave is a buddha statue that Captain Goodlife sank there. I dove down to see it—and take a selfie.
The reef at the buddha sea cave stop was my favorite because this is where I saw some of the most colorful reef in shallow, sunlit waters.
Experiencing The Good Life
If the additional snorkel sites aren't enough, you'll get your money's worth simply from getting to know Captain Goodlife.
Meeting The Captain
Henry “Juni” Obersi, also known as Captain Goodlife, is from Venezuela and is a long-time resident of Curaçao. He lives in his family’s beach house at Playa Santa Cruz. The beach house serves as the launch spot for his tours.
I drove less than 7 miles down the road to Play Santa Cruz from Playa Kalki. As I approached the dock area, I initially met with 2 macaw parrots.
I interacted with them for a minute. Then I spotted a skinny, sun-tanned man with big bug-eyed sunglasses. He was fussing with some lines attached to a well-used-looking dive boat.
Asking Questions
Captain Goodlife lived all over throughout his life, including South Florida. He has some amazing stories to tell about his life and his children. So make sure to get him going and ask him to tell you about his past. He’s very open and animated in his storytelling.
Even his boat features pieces that reflect his fun, quirky personality!
Captain Goodlife has several children, some young and some grown and living abroad. If you’re lucky, you will get to snorkel with a few of his children who sometimes join aboard the boat for his tour. His children were in school when I went. I only met one of the them as we were returning from the trip.
Isabella ran down to the dock to catch the boat as we pulled up. His daughter even helped hold the boat in and tie it down. I asked her if I could take a photo of her with her dad and she eagerly accepted. She clearly loves her dad!
The Memorial
Another one of his children died many years ago. He will talk about her and how he sank a pyramid-shaped memorial to her next to the shipwreck. You will stop there for a snorkel on the way back from the Blue Room. Even though it was a bit deep, I was able to snap a photo of it by swimming down part of the way to it.
Captain Goodlife was delighted by the fact that I found it and photographed it! I guess people don’t usually learn from him about it, find it, and have an underwater camera to photograph it!
Connections
As I was talking to Captain Goodlife, I learned that his older daughter and I have a lot in common, including the fact that she lives and works in New York City. Apparently, she is the main curator of his social media accounts (@therealcaptaingoodlife). He encouraged me to reach out to her, to send her the photo of the memorial, and so I did. I love fun connections like this across the world!
To me, there is nothing better than the personalized perspective and experience you can get from a trip like this. It’s honestly a priceless experience that ranks all the other options outlined for visiting the Blue Room far below the trip with Captain Goodlife.
Inside The Blue Room
After all the sea caves I visited in Niue, you’d think I would be unimpressed by a sea cave experience. Alas, the Blue Room did not disappoint!
The Blue Room was an awesome natural wonder to experience. I saw pictures of the spot but even those didn't prepare me. At first, the boat pulls up and the cave doesn't seem like much. This is why you really need to have snorkel gear to fully appreciate it.
The mouth of the cave is typically very narrow between the roof of the entrance and the surface of the water. However, when the tide is out, the mouth widens. This is the best time to go to the Blue Room so you have a bit of clearance and can avoid bumping your head on the way in. Otherwise, you can just dive under the entrance and into the cave.
Emerge inside and there is a tall, open ceiling above you. Your voice and the voices of other snorkelers will echo inside this sea chamber. The walls and some parts of at the back of the cave are fun to explore.
The water almost looks like its glowing blue beneath you!
The major attraction for me was looking under the surface outward toward the ocean.
A bed of white sand encompasses the sea floor making the water appear a deep blue. Large schools of fish hover inside. They will let you swim real close, right through them, parting the way for you with such precision you won't be able to touch them.
Here is what it looks like as you pass through the schools of fish:
And here is a video to get a sense of what it was like to swim through them:
This was my favorite thing to do inside the cave! I really enjoyed visiting this cave. I highly recommend making it a top 3 must see in Curaçao!
More Unexpected Benefits
Snorkeling with Captain Goodlife gave me 2 more gifts that I had not expected. The first was that I learned that some of the nicest coral reef is just along the edges of the island.
You don’t need to go SCUBA diving to see it and you don't even have to go far from the beaches. Swim out from the beach along the sides and go around the corner to catch the good stuff!
The extra snorkel spots taught me this—and it set the pace for the rest of my Curaçao experience!
The second gift that the Goodlife gave me was 2 friends. A Canadian couple, Ashley and Jen, were the only snorkelers on the boat who brought beers on board. Snorkeling and drinking—now they know how to vacation!
As I snorkeled around, I found they consistently ended up exploring the same areas as me. I would take photos for them and they would take some for me.
This started our conversations which led to them inviting me for dinner that night!
After we finished snorkeling, we first went to their nearby Airbnb so they could show off how well they did on their place. It was marked as only $80 per night. Split between the two of them, that was a great deal for being up in that area.
They had a separate bedroom and bathroom with awesome sea views and sunsets each night.
I mean, nobody can beat my $18 a night! But they were in a really awesome spot. I would even consider it on a return to Curaçao if I were to take my partner along—just to have something a little nicer and closer to the best snorkeling and beaches!
In Conclusion
I got so much out of just a simple, $22 snorkel trip. There's nothing like spontaneously joining a tour when you hear it's "legendary." With reviews like that, there was no way I was passing up on the Goodlife experience with Captain Goodlife!
In a future post, I will share all the fun adventures I got up to with the Canadians I unexpectedly met on this tour. We had epic food adventures and more snorkel adventures. I had so much fun with Ashley and Jen that we remain in contact today. I hope to visit them in Vancouver one day soon!
