Back From Curacao (4/5-12)

[Diverraygr]

Just thought I would let you all know how the trip went to Curacao- visited there the week of April 5- 12. We stayed at Habitat Curacao and dove with Easy Divers at the resort. Weather was great all week, some higher waves early in the week but later the water flatten out. The water temp was running 78* all week at depth, I was using a 3/4/5 wetsuit. The only thing that was getting cold was my feet (wore booites should of had the full size boots). One of the divers was diving in a drysuit all week and was getting razz by all. Although she was the warmest one on the dive I would admit. The vis was 80+ most days, little less near towards shore as the waves worked the sand.
We did Harry's Hole, Cas Abuo, El Rancho, Porto Mari, San Juan, Witches Kitchen, Mushroom Forest and Bart's Wall. All the dives were good I like Mushroom Forest with all the formation of the coral. Seen the "normal" Caribbean critters, some of the divers seen a spotted ray on a dive, I seen a nurf shark from a distance. No one seen a seahorse but we heard they were out there. The group did do a night dive off Habitat's reef and seen a number of octopus just off shore. Also, I did notice algae growing on the coral like at St Croix in many areas.
The resort was very nice for divers, Easy Divers had a nice shop there as well. The only thing we all noticed is the none of the dive masters on the boat didn't change over the tanks between dives. I had always made an effort to check or change my tanks on all dive boats. Some divers on this trip noticed the tanks weren't changed until they suited up for the next dive. All the dive master were very nice but didn't offer any extra help like I seen on other dive boats. If you plan on staying at the resort arrange a vehicle for the week, a taxi ride is $45 to town- one way. I had a car for a few days and seen some of the island. The resort did have a restaurant there and the food was okay- nice to get into town to mix up the dinners or lunches.
On the last day some of us went to the ostrich farm and the Hato Caves, both interesting sites to see. Afterwards we had lunch at Jaanchie's on the west end- food there was very good with the island flair.
Over all the island is a place to go back to, need to because you can't take it all in with one visit. So I would put it on the "return" list that I have and hope to get to it.

Ray

 

[dogenia]

You may want to add Paradise on your list of must do dives in Curacao and Tugboat definitely got seahorses.

 

[Diverraygr]

A side note- the trip was set up at http://www.healthydiving.com with Janine Davis and she had arranged a yoga and a massage therapist for the trip. So you could work out any of those stressful decision of what to do next.
Ray

 

[Damselfish]

Note that not all places (at a destination in general, or even different operators in the same destination) set up gear, change tanks, or automatically offer what is often called "valet diving." It's not necessarily a lack of service, simply the way they do things. Sometimes it's part of the local dive attitude that people take care of their own gear, but they're generally ready to help if requested. And some people prefer it that way. Dive ops in the states generally do not setup or change stuff for you.

A perfect example is Divetech on the west end of Cayman vs. Ocean Frontiers on the East End. Both are generally highly regarded and popular dive operators. Ocean Frontiers is really into the valet diving service thing. Divetech's philosophy is pretty much that real divers deal with their own gear and stuff. Neither is wrong, just different.

So never assume something is being done if they haven't said they do (and then of course check anyway.)

 

[Mouth Breather old]

I agree with the comment about Ocean Frontiers at Compass Point (East End Grand Cayman). That is still the ultimate in Valet Diving. They do EVERYTHING, Gear Change, carry to and from the boat, all the rinsing of all the gear, they dry it for you etc.