Curacao Trip Report - June 20th 2009

[Just another Cinderella]

OK PORSC doesn't mean we can't counter your statements.
#1] Belize dive sites easier to get to ???
No poverty in Belize City, no crime ??? Please.
Less expensive to get to, I would have to research that.
#2] US Virgin Islands, cheap, safe not in my experience.
#3] St. Lucia, very lush beautiful island with extreme poverty.
#4] Mex. PR both have pluses and minuses but the diving not that much different than the ABCs.

I don't think anybody comes to Curacao [or the Caribbean for that matter] to get a South Pacific dive experience. All the Pacific areas you mentioned are much more expensive to get to for those of us from the US and this plus time traveling way offsets the less expensive diving.
A few places in Nadi and Suva to stay away from at night as well.


Like we have said Curacao is not for you, we get it. Plus I would not blindly stick up for all things Curacao. However very good, reasonably priced, comfortable, safe diving vacations are quite easily enjoyed on this island.
Would also be glad to pass on constructive criticism to OE if you would care to be more specific.

 

[lauadibob]

Hi jaybob - lauadibob here...
I was there with my dive/travel partner during the same time. We had spent a week in Bonaire during the Digital Photo Shootout and then four days in Curacao. I had been there a few times before and had gone out with a couple of dive shops so I knew where to go. That can be very helpful for the first couple of times. We rented a Jeep at the airport and had no problems driving around.

We stayed at the Kura Hulanda in Willemstad - not a "dive" hotel, but probably the nicest place on the island. They have another property on the West end that is also very nice, but as another poster mentioned, not much else to do out that way. It takes about 45 minutes to drive from Willemstad to Westpunt and there are dive shops at most of the more popular sites so you can rent tanks and weights close to where you want to dive.

The first day out we rented from Mark and Suzy at the Dive Bus (hi guys!!!) and went down to Director's Bay and Tugboat. I dived Directors a couple of times last year and the conditions were much better. Both Bonaire and Curacao were hammered pretty good by Omar (hurricane or TS?) so the viz was not what it normally is. Also a lot of large particles in the water which made wide angle photography challenging.

Personally I prefer Curacao over Bonaire. The marine life is the same (the islands are only a 12 minute flight from each other) but the underwater terrain is more interesting and less visibly thrashed from divers. Curacao is not as much a dive destination as Bonaire so the popularity isn't there, but for my money it's way more worthwhile. More to do other than diving, great local restaurants, great local people.

On the day we went up to Westpunt we dropped in off the pier at Ocean Encounter's shop at Playa Kalki and turned to the right - possibly more interesting than to the left. Very nice dive - but again, not as great as one year earlier when the conditions were better. Before we went in we were offered an afternoon boat dive at Watamula. OK - Watamula is undoubtably the most spectacular dive site I've seen at either Bonaire or Curacao! It was pristine, much better viz due to some current off the point, great marine life, hard corals and soft corals. My dive partner and I are pretty jaded about our dive sites, having experienced many places in South East Asia waters, but we were both really blown away after the dive at Watamula, an excitement like we have never had diving in Bonaire or even other sites on Curacao. Next time we'll just charter a boat and do every dive there!!!

OK, one last note about the Dive Bus. These guys are really great, fun, and super helpful for information on dive sites, conditions, etc. Mark certified one of my employees last year in about 3 days when were on a project on the island. By the end of the week I had a new dive buddy and we had some great dives. I felt that Mark had done an excellent job of preparing my buddy and never felt like he had missed anything in his short training. In fact, we went back to Curacao a few weeks later and did several dives, exploring different sites on our own - which included some tricky navigation (read Lagun) and some deep (100') diving at Car Pile (yeah, Mark, I took him down to see the bumper...)

See you guys soon. Peace.

 

[Diver OnLu]

Andreas forgot 2 important items. One, a $200 air credit and most importantly, you must book by July 15th. Travel dates are from August 15th to December 15.

Hi Sunshine,

I just got the information that the booking window for the Curacao Now incentive has been extended until further notice - so also bookings made after July 15th should be eligible for Curacao Now special offers!

Greetings from Hamburg
Andreas

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

Andreas... You could have pushed those bees into committing (just kidding Everyone else). And FYI, I saw the dive boat heading to the shop at 7:40 this morning!
Bob, get more project contracts for a great excuse to return! Showing our guests how to get to San Juan this morning. David's fav shore dive, Playa Largu and Andreas' fav, Shon Mosa are located there. It's a bit of a haul to get to but worth it. Just 2 more to put on your to do list.

 

[Gtoph]

Andreas... You could have pushed those bees into committing (just kidding Everyone else).

Oh I'm sure it's still in the works, but now I might have more time to play with the airfare to get the best deal. Any idea when the new deadline is now? Or is it open-ended?


PORSC & other recent posts.... I can't speak as to the two wrecks as we've never done them yet, we did make it to mushroom, which I thought was still worth it. Some are better than others, but I do like wrecks, and maybe we'll try to hit them next time we're down there.

As for the island itself, ya I'ma have to agree with smb and sunshine... there's a lot of info out there that says it's not that green with palm trees everywhere... but big deal. They still have pretty decent diving (IMHO) and great beaches.

Every place has crime, but all and all, we never felt really unsafe. I agree that maybe I was a little more 'uneasy' at night, but only when we were driving/walking around the city... but we were never actually approached by anyway. For the most part, the people are pretty friendly.

What exactly happened with OE? We stayed at Habitat & dove with their dive op last time we where there, and frankly thought there was much room for improvement there....the food wasn't that great, the boat broke down on us, a lot of disorganization with the dive op.
We also did a couple of dives at OEW and thought they were great. Occasionally you're going to get a bad apple, but I wouldn't write off OE just yet.

Anywho, there's my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

 

[Diver OnLu]

Any idea when the new deadline is now? Or is it open-ended?

As far as I heard it's "until further notice".

So have a look for good airfare and let me know so I can double check apartment availability.

Greetings from Hamburg
Andreas

 

[RJP]

As far as I heard it's "until further notice".

So have a look for good airfare and let me know so I can double check apartment availability.

Greetings from Hamburg
Andreas

Newark to Curacao on Continental just jumped from $450 to $750. Fortunately I had booked earlier (and three of our four tickets were free on OnePass miles) but I always keep checking airfares in case they go down. Looks like this isn't one of those times!

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

I know! My knuckleheaded son didn't buy the grandson ticket at $530 and now it's over $800 from Boston! We're hoping it comes down at least a little bit. Hope to see you out in Westpunt RJP.

 

[under water]

I noticed that only 'premium' seats are available on the August Saturday flight I previously booked on, which bumped up the price by over $320 including tax, etc. I'm not sure if they increased the number of premium seats or actually sold out the others. It went from class 'G' to class 'B' whatever that means.
$950 for BOS to CUR is really too expensive!
I can get to the Philippines or Australia for about that or less and Coz for 1/2 of that.
Glad I bought my tix a month ago.

 

[RJP]

I noticed that only 'premium' seats are available on the August Saturday flight I previously booked on, which bumped up the price by over $320 including tax, etc. I'm not sure if they increased the number of premium seats or actually sold out the others. It went from class 'G' to class 'B' whatever that means.
$950 for BOS to CUR is really too expensive!
I can get to the Philippines or Australia for about that or less and Coz for 1/2 of that.
Glad I bought my tix a month ago.

You know it's funny, when I got the three first class tickets they were 60,000 roundtrip, which was LESS than the 70,000 points needed for a coach class ticket.

Go figure?