BOCA CATALINA
Boca Catalina is situated along the beaches in the Malmok Beach area and right before you get to Arashi.
It's a very small beach, but each time we went there, it was never really very crowded. They do have palapas to sit under and a little bit of natural shade. This is our second lad vacation to Aruba and knew we didn't want to miss out on this place again.
Parking is free along the road area and there's trees in this area too. So, park under a tree and keep your car cooler. There are no facilities at this location.
There is great snorkeling here at Boca and I couldn't wait to get in the water and check out what there was to offer.
Facing the water, if you head to the right (toward Arashi), you be able to swim out a ways and get to the "good stuff". This is where a lot of the snorkeling excursions on this side of the island take people. On any given day you'll see boats (and pirate ships) pulled up here with people snorkeling. It's super easy to do on your own directly from the beach though.
OCTOPUS!!!
Our "finds" of the day...shells of different colors and sea glass!
If you are facing the water and head left...we would soon find that there were HUNDREDS of starfish in the area. Everywhere you looked you'd see starfish. (We had several trips to this area and each time we would see them everywhere).
We snorkeled all the way down to Tres Trapi.
We had an amazing day there and knew we would want to return again on our next trip to Aruba.
I highly recommend this cute little beach and snorkeling area. It's definitely one that is worth going to if you like snorkeling. It's not a big beach, but also not very crowded. We liked this beach so much that we came back again and would have been back more if we had more time on the island.
I honestly think that it's easier to get to the snorkeling area from Boca Catalina than it is from Arashi. It is also easier because getting there from Boca Catalina it's fairly shallow, but you don't have to worry about getting caught in an area that you could get cut up by coral and can't get out. Super easy.
The only drawback is there are no facilities here such as a restroom or food/drinks.