La Machaca is the house reef of a resort, with a small fishing-boat wreck at five metres off the shore. The wreck is neither large nor deep, but it is full of life: frogfish, scorpionfish and shrimp are reported here regularly. A place for those who dive slowly and look closely.
La Machaca is a beginner shore dive at Kralendijk: a small overgrown fishing-boat wreck at five metres, a reef top at six to eight metres and a slope to thirty.
The little wreck lies at five metres on the sand, overgrown with sponges and coral encrustation. Behind it a reef top at six to eight metres and a slope to thirty metres with sea fans. Around the wreck sit frogfish, pipefish and cleaner shrimp.
As a night dive or early in the morning, when the macro life is active. Fine by day too, but then the little wreck is mostly well visited.
Everything turns on the wreck, and that is small: those after big life should go further south. It is a resort entry, so parking is not a given. When busy, several groups stand on the same five metres.
Decisions on diveability, technique and health belong with STINAPA, a dive school or a doctor. This page only describes the conditions.
Machaca is the Papiamentu name of a fish; the boat has lain here since the 1970s and is now fully overgrown. It is one of the smallest wrecks on the island and at the same time one of the most looked-over.
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