Near Santu Pretu and Santa Cruz, the snorkeling at Blue Room is a popular Curacao dive destination. Also known as Boka Fluit, this snorkeling dive site is in the Banda Bou area near other popular dives such as Mushroom Forest and Black Sand Reef. The waters are very deep but quite clear. The Blue Room is an overhang cave where everything reflects blue. The access to the Blue Room is either a 30 minute hike from Santa Cruz, or boat-accessed via charter or kayak.
In 1999, Hurricane Lenny passed near the island resulting in the first big waves in over 100 years. This wave action over a 24 hour period had a severe effect on the shallow water corals on west-facing coastlines. There was significant toppling of the massive coral colonies, along with bleaching and smothering. Similarly, in 2008, Tropical Storm Omar passed near the island producing heavy wave action along west-facing coastlines. The effects of these storm, along with occasional bleaching events, have left many of the snorkeling dive sites not appearing as they had in past photos nor seeming as described in the brief locally printed snorkeling dive descriptions, which tend to be older. While snorkeling off Curacao, you'll occasionally encounter some large, older coral formation remnants that give clues to the size of the past reefs. And, you may notice some small new growth occuring along the sand flats where new coral is taking hold in the cemented coral rubble, especially quick growing fire coral. Overall, there are 57 coral species providing habitat for over 500 fish species.
Overall, Blue Room is the 12th most popular snorkel dive spot of all 13 snorkeling dives in Curacao.
