Scuba Diving in Aruba

Aruba is a Scuba-Diving Destination

If you enjoy strapping on a tank of oxygen, popping on some goggles and adorning your feet with flippers, scuba diving in Aruba will blow you away. Aruba is one of the premier destinations for scuba diving in the Caribbean and draws scuba lovers from around the world. But what makes Aruba such a hot spot for under-water exploring? Is it the warm, pristine water surrounding Aruba that attracts people time and time again to the tiny island of Aruba? Or the scores of exotic sea creatures that can be scoped just off shore of the 75-square-mile island? Or perhaps it's the myriad of dive sites that allow a person to have many different diving experiences in Aruba? All are true. But what really sets scuba diving in Aruba apart is the many shipwrecks surrounding the island that is located a mere 17 miles north off the coast of Venezuela.

One of the most unique aspects of scuba diving in Aruba is the shipwreck of the World War II vessel, Antilla . As a relic of the past, the Antilla wreck is a unique oddity with an interesting history. Knowing the history of the ship will help to appreciate seeing it close up in its corroded, submerged state. In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands, to the understandable chagrin of the Netherlands. The Antilla was a German supply ship that had been anchored off the coast of Aruba. Seeing as though Aruba was and is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the leaders at the time didn't take kindly to the Antilla hovering in a menacing way off the island's shores. Officials demanded that the Antilla's captain surrender the ship to the Dutch.

The captain of the Antilla had no such plans and quickly got underway on his plan to sink the boat himself rather than see the enemy take control of it. After offloading the crew, the captain heated the boilers to their capacity and opened a valve in the ship's hull to let water gush inside. When the water hit the scorching boiler, it exploded, blowing the ship in half and sinking it in less than eight minutes.

Unfortunately, time has had its way with the Antilla, and it has begun to corrode and even collapse in spots, making scuba diving in Aruba slightly less desirable as it once was because you can no longer enter the shipwreck. Seeing it close up, though, is a treat in itself. And, at 400 feet, it is the largest shipwreck in the Caribbean and an impressive sight that can even be seen even from shore.

Sign me up for that one too. I knew we would scuba in Aruba but now I want to go even more. I wish I went when it was safe to enter the ship - now that would have been cool. But just seeing it under the water sounds like fun too.