Curacao Trip Report 7/30-8/9 Very Long

[jdcpa]

Part 1:

Curacao Trip Report July 30 to August 9, 2009

Our story, of what ended up being a great trip, with some bumps along the way, some still unresolved.

For reasons you will see, we started standing in a bucket of poo and ended up, for the most part, in a bed of roses.

We flew from Tampa to Curacao on American Airlines. For some incredibly unintelligent reason, I booked a layover in Miami of only two hours.

As we sat in the Tampa airport, I watched our flight to Miami show a later and later departure. We finally landed in Miami two and a half hours late. One would expect a problem being two and a half hours late for a two hour layover. Fortunately for us, the flight out of Miami was late also. Unfortunately that flight ended up being five and a half hours late. We arrived in Curacao at a little past 1:30 AM. We cleared immigration and customs with little problems as I am sure they wanted to get some sleep as badly as we did.

A little side note here. We had originally been scheduled at Sunset Waters and Sunset Divers, but as we all know, that did not come about. I had planned an all inclusive trip for the first time in my life so I would not be in charge of herding all of the cats that we take on trips. I wanted to dive a little and sit a lot, not ferry folks all over. Some things just aren’t meant to be. Maybe an all inclusive is in my future one day. With a little less than two weeks to departure I completely revamped our plans to Lodge Kura Hulanda and Ocean Encounters West (OEW) diving operation. A tremendous thank you to Sunshine of Sol Food and Bryan of OEW to answer my countless and many times meaningless and silly questions.

As we exited Customs, I saw this smiling face with a placard with my name on it. Sunshine’s husband, David was on our flight and she knew of the extreme lateness of the flight. She also knew of all the issues we had had putting this trip together. She just wanted for us to see a friendly face upon arrival. All of our spirits were lifted from this encounter. Thanks Sunshine!!

I went to pick up our rental truck from Budget, but found out the rental car counters close at 10:00 PM, some four hours earlier. So we got a taxi (van) for the four of us and our countless pieces of luggage, and made the long trek to Lodge Kura Hulanda. $75 plus tip for the cab ride, ouch, but thankful we got there. We had to pay $60 plus tip to get back to the rental car. So if anyone has some ideas as to how I can get American Airlines to reimburse me for the cab fare as a result of the lateness of their flight I would greatly appreciate it. Thus far they are ignoring my efforts.
Check in for our rooms was as expected. They put us on a little cart and drove us and the luggage out to our rooms. We unpacked a few things and then had a glass of wine from the sole bottle we brought with us to unwind. I looked at my watch and it was 4:45 AM. Ouch again.

After a few hours of well needed sleep we had the breakfast buffet at the Lodge. This was my favorite meal there. From there it was off to the grocery store for some supplies as two of our rooms had little kitchens.

Once the shopping was complete and stored we headed down to OEW to check in and for a house reef dive. I am certain that Bryan, the manager, wanted to see firsthand who these people were that had asked him all of the questions. Check in went well, and Bryan was most gracious. We did our house reef dive as planned. Very nice dive.

From there, we settled into more of a routine. Boat dives in the AM, house reef, boat dives or lying around in the PM. Some in our group ventured out to go to town and general sightseeing on the island.

 

[jdcpa]

Lodge Kura Hulanda:

Before I start, I have some reservations about whether to recommend this resort or not. I have some serious and I do mean serious issues with the rates they ended up charging. I have reservations with rates on them and the rates I was charged are for rates that I was not quoted and rates that do not exist on their website. I did not get a room that was different from what I reserved. I am getting different rates on identical rooms. It would be one thing if I was getting a deal on a room, but that is not the case. Exactly the opposite in fact. I have been trying to get this resolved since we left a week ago, but no luck so far. I will update you when I find out the rate issue resolution as to whether I would recommend this property.

There were some minor issues we had with them, but nothing that was not resolved eventually. Things like we had three rooms beginning on one date and a fourth room beginning two days later. They cancelled our fourth room when the three of us checked in and had one of the three rooms departing on the wrong date. I spent about an hour straightening that out by going back to get copies of my reservations forms for them to figure things out. Frustrating, but not a vacation killer.

As you enter the main building of the Lodge, the first door on the right is the towel room. They have a system in which they give you a towel “card” for each person. You present the card for a towel. When you return the towel they give you the card back. There were always fresh towels available. Plus the towels were of sufficient size and quality for use. Failure to check out with your towel card or losing the card was a $25 charge.

The next thing on your right is the open air main desk.

On the left hand side is a Sundries store that is open from 10:30 AM until 7:00 PM I believe. The store has drinks, some liquor, T-shirts and the like.

Through the main building and a short walk, maybe 50-75 feet, is the Watamula Restaurant on the right. That was the main restaurant open during our stay.
On your left hand side out of the main building is the pool area and the pool bar. Food was served at the bar as well. I did not notice pool side service, but you were so close anyway that was just not a concern.

Beyond the pool and restaurant was a block wall atop a bluff at the ocean’s edge. The lodge sits atop a small bluff. The beach is below accessed by a stairway that is locked in the evenings. I understand that the beach is open to the public, so I assume the locking door is to limit access by the public to the Lodge after hours.

The “beach” as it is called is a very narrow beach. There is a sandy portion, but I would say there is an equal amount of rocky area. There are some umbrellas and chairs on the beach, but in most cases people come out early and stake their claim to them for the day. You can pretty much forget an umbrella or beach chair unless you go real early.

Also on the beach level is the beach bar and adjacent to that is the OEW operation.

The beach bar serves snack type food and drinks. Typical beach bar type food. I recommend the Chicken Sate highly.

The Lodge is set up with oceanfront rooms and garden view rooms. We stayed in the garden view rooms, two upstairs “Suites” and two downstairs “rooms”.
The garden view buildings are set up with one suite upstairs and two rooms downstairs. We were fortunate to have our rooms in two buildings next to each other, maybe 100 feet apart I would guess. One downstairs room has two double beds and the other has one king bed. The upstairs unit has a king in it.

The downstairs rooms have an air conditioned bedroom and an enclosed, but not air conditioned toilet and shower.

The upstairs rooms had an air conditioned bedroom and shower, but a non air conditioned toilet.

I would call the air conditioned rooms small, but well appointed. Their size was certainly not an issue.

Both rooms had a small free standing closet, with the downstairs rooms having a small refrigerator in the closet. Memory tells me both type rooms had a small, but very convenient safe in the closets.

The upstairs rooms also had a large living room area that was under roof, but not air conditioned. There was pretty much a constant breeze so the living room was hot, but no unbearably so. Attached to the living room was a small also non air conditioned kitchen, equipped with a larger refrigerator, (but still small), a coffee maker, a four burner stove and a microwave. Dishes were found below the stove. If you needed cooking utensils, they would bring them out to you. All in all, well equipped for a small kitchen. For most breakfasts and some lunches we ate in the living room from food fixed/warmed in the kitchen.

One of the more fascinating aspects of the upstairs room set up was the locks on the doors. To enter the room you had to go through a locked door downstairs. To enter the air conditioned bedroom from the living room you had to use your key again. It is not my natural reflex to keep my key on me at all times when I am locked upstairs in my room. Needless to say we had about five instances in which we locked ourselves out of the one of the upstairs rooms. I could not find anyone at the Lodge who knew of any way to keep the upstairs bedroom door unlocked while you sat in the living room. I would recommend some sort of improvement for that issue.

A parking lot separates the main building from the walkways to the garden view rooms.
The walk from the front desk to the room was not too far, maybe an eighth of a mile. They have nice little crushed rock and dirt paths leading to the rooms. They would puddle a little with mud after rains, but you could still walk around the puddles and not get too muddy walking in.

There are not any signs indicating the location of room numbers or any signs indicating the way back to the resort. Better signage would have been helpful as nearly everyone had issues with directions and most all of the guests we met had the same problem.

The Lodge has a gate to the parking lot for entry or exit. You are issued a parking pass upon check in. Remember to pull as close to the gate as you can when you enter because of the way the guardhouse is situated, the guards can’t see the pass on your dashboard unless you do that.

Rooms were made up daily, with fresh towels each day. I don’t believe they changed the linens each day, but I did not pay much attention to that. They turned down the beds around 5:00PM with a nice chocolate on each pillow.

All in all, not too bad of a place, but again I reserve my judgment until we get the rate issue resolved.

 

[jdcpa]

OEW and the diving:

Ah, now to the best part.

OEW is adjacent to the Lodge. It sits below the bluff, about twenty oddly sized concrete steps down from the top.

There is a dive shop; an area where you get weights, the gear drying room, a bathroom and an area where you pick up/analyze your tanks. We received a thorough briefing as to how the whole operation fits together and how it all works for boat/shore diving.

For the boat dive, you remove your gear from the drying room and take it down to the boat where you/they place it on the boat. You are responsible for setting your gear up and changing it after each dive. I will admit that one of our divers is not the most excited person about changing gear (back issues) and they were kind enough to assist regularly. Reverse the order and take the gear up to the rinse tanks. You hang your gear outside, except mask and fins which you place in a cubby in the drying room. They move the gear from outside drying to inside drying by 5:00 PM when they lock it up.

Safety briefing for everyone on the boat and as each new person gets on the boat. Good safe operation.

The divemaster is in the water with you. They expect you to be reasonably close to the divemaster during the dives. We like our freedom underwater with all of the pictures we take. We never had any issue or problem staying reasonably close. Divemaster ‘s pace underwater was great, they did not race off into the distance.
For shore dive, you gear up from the drying room, walk down to the dock, take three steps down, get your fins and mask on, and take a giant stride off the end of the lower dock. Remember to keep your knees bent, the water is not too deep and you can touch bottom, but not an issue. To exit, there is a ladder. Carry your gear to the rinse tanks and put it up.

For after hours dives you need to make arrangements with the hotel to get locker keys by the beach bar. You put your tanks and gear there after the dive. Make sure you let the Lodge know so they do not lock the stairs.

We did eight days of boat diving. OEW runs two boats as needed. It was not real busy when we were there, so I think they ran two on only two days. The larger boat is a 38’ converted Hatteras. We did not have a large group on the boat, so it was very roomy for us. Four of our group carry DSLR setups and OEW was kind enough to bring plastic tubs for us to place the cameras in and under the seats.

The small boat was more crowded, but not an issue. Entry was by either a giant stride or you could do a back roll. Exit by a ladder.

Some of the sites we visited were:
Watamula, four times, a hit with most of our divers
Mushroom Forest
Lagun
Playa Hulu
Hells Corner
Playa Jeremy
Sponge Forest
Paradise
Black Coral Gardens
Kortape Point
Rediho, another favorite
Santa Cruz
Scooter
Alvin’s Airplane
House Reef-Alice in Wonderland/Playa Kalki, again a favorite

We saw very good fish life. We were able to find at least a dozen Post Larval Smooth Trunkfish, the black/brown and yellow little pea looking critters.
We saw numerous Eels, at Black Coral Gardens we saw a Chain Moray, Green Moray, Spotted Moray, Goldentail and Sharptail Eels.

We saw numerous Spotted Drums, mostly small adults, but some juveniles.

Many, many Scorpion fish were seen. On Santa Cruz we found three on one small coral head, all within six feet of each other.

Spotted Cleaner Shrimp, Arrow Crabs, Banded Coral Shrimp, Squat Anemone Shrimp, and Pedersen Cleaning Shrimp were found in abundance.

We saw juvenile, intermediate and adult Angels, French, Gray and Queen. There is a juvenile French Angel maybe fifteen from the entry on the Shore Dive.

We saw a variety of Hamlets, Butter, Barred, Tan, Yellow Tail, lots that looked to be hybrids.

The Long Snout Butterfly fish have a dark marking through their eyes, which is different than I have seen elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Blue Lettuce Sea slugs were in good numbers.

The reef had very few large fish, but we like the small stuff anyway.

Lots of other fish were seen, too numerous to mention.

I would definitely say that the fish life was good.

The dive staff:

Bryan- the manager. I think the words to describe Bryan are extremely accommodating. They operate by a daily schedule for dive sites. However, since there was not anyone else on the boat for a few days, we pretty much got to pick and choose where we wanted to go. For any other request he pretty much made sure it happened. I can’t say enough about how hard he tried to make everything we wanted to do happen.

As far as the person, Bryan has a great personality, and is loads of fun to be around. He was able to adapt to our group and the personalities we have in it, which are quite varied, from loud and demonstrative, to quiet and easy going. Bryan was able to get along quite well with our varied group. He was even kind enough to grace us with his presence at dinner a few times. He was always smiling and a joy to be with.

When you see him, ask him about our cheeses straws. It seems he discovered the perfect food group to go with beer. I know there are a lot of those.

Andreas-Mr. Enthusiasm divemaster- Andreas was absolutely gushing enthusiasm from the moment you saw him on the dock until after the gear was put away. He was excited about getting the gear from the drying room, to getting it on the boat, to getting it set up, to riding to the sites, to getting in the water, to getting out of the water, to riding back to the dock to getting the gear off the boat, rinsing it and putting it away. He gave enthusiastic dive briefings and talked enthusiastically about what we all saw on each dive.

I swear he would be excited about diving in a mud puddle, leading you around and then talking about the great experience afterward. Someone must put something in his water. His energy level for enthusiasm is amazing.

He too was kind enough to grace us with his presence at an enthusiastic dinner.

Toni-Ms. Gracious-Toni is a bubbly Brit divemaster. Knowledgeable, quick with a smile and always willing to help. Glad to be on Curacao.

She was also kind enough to grace us with her quick wit and smile for dinner.

Toeki-The Conversationalist Captain-Toeki knew the island waters like the back of his hand. He could tell you things from above that were absolutely correct underwater. The man was never at a loss for words, in any of four languages.

Alex-The “Quiet” Captain- Alex appeared to be the quiet one, but next to Toeki, who wouldn’t be? A bright man, he appeared to be quiet, but with a quick dry wit, he would sneak up on you in a hurry.

Juan-The new divemaster-Juan came over from Sunset Waters after it closed. Obviously he has experience in the waters on the island. Always quick with a joke. He is quite the prankster. On our last day he found a “Seahorse”. Of course, he brought the “Seahorse” with him, along with some line and a weight. After giving you the seahorse underwater signal, he would motion you over to see his find.

Overall OEW gets high marks from our group. Very friendly, easy going, knowledgeable folks. I thought the price was fair for what we received. I really can’t think of any major complaints, although having to put up with us, they probably could.

I would highly recommend OEW and their staff. If you get a chance, you should dive with them. Or at least stop by, say hello, and enjoy the house reef.

 

[jdcpa]

Restaurants:

We seem to accumulate people when we travel, so our dinner groups ranged from the six of us up to 14.

Don’t expect to get in and out of a restaurant on Curacao with anything approaching the speed that you do at a sit down restaurant in the USA.

Sol Food-nuff said!!

Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday for lunch and dinner.

Casual, very relaxed, very comfortable restaurant.

Sol Food is in the Westpunt area. The restaurant kitchen sits below three rental apartments. The restaurant proper is outside, partially covered, and sits atop a gorge, overlooking one of the beaches on the island. Beautiful breezes while we were there. No problem sitting outside.

The food was very good to excellent. Every meal begins with a delicious bread of Sunshine’s choosing. The menu was not extensive, but when every choice is great, why does it need to be? The pizzas are some of the best I have ever had. David grills a mean New York strip. Not a bad word was said about his grilling steaks. They will adapt anything they have to what it is you want, just ask.

Sunshine is one of the most gracious people I have ever met. She can make you feel so comfortable before you even know it. A most special person. I am happy to have met her.

One of our group wanted a Mojito. Sunshine did not have any mint the first night we went. On his day off, Andreas enthusiastically went and got mint so one of our group could have Mojito’s. And a fine Mojito I hear it was, since several at the table had one.

Her other half is David. David is outgoing, but compared to Sunshine, he seems to be a recluse. David has a wonderful dry sense of humor.

While we were there they received some t-shirts for sale. My wife wanted a particular color and size. As it turns out, the only one they received like that was the one David was wearing. He quickly took the shirt off, ran back, hand washed it, brought it over to a line in the restaurant, and clothes pinned it to the line. My wife literally bought the shirt off his back!!

I would eat at Sol Food every night it was open were I to return. It gets a highly recommended from me.

Okay, since we actually did eat at other restaurants I will go over them.

Jaanchie’s- Native food

As they explain it, they have a walking, talking menu, as it changes every day. A nice gentleman sits with you, explains the menu and takes your order.

My wife had the goat, which she proclaimed quite good. I had cracked conch, not what I am used to, a breaded conch, it was not breaded, but also quite good. I also sampled shrimp, again good and some chicken, good again.

A couple of words of caution, if you like your food hot, bring your own hot sauce. Salad dressing means mayonnaise and lemon. This was not just a Jaanchie’s thing as we saw the salad dressing issue elsewhere.

All in all, good food.

Landhaus Daniel’s-

Located about three fourths f the way back into town. Advertises as “fine dining”.

English although spoken here is not as well understood as in other places. Red wine means Rose, but a fine Rose none the less.

They were short staffed the evening we went, so the island time for dining was in excess of three hours. A little too much for me as I like to get to bed early.

The food was good and they probably had the most extensive menu we encountered.

Watamula-Lodge Kura Hulanda

This is an open air restaurant, mostly under a thatched roof, near and above the ocean. Some tables sit out from under the roof and are closer to the water, although none are close, only some afford better views.

You could generally order from one of two menus, at least one of which changed every few days during our stay. They were kind enough to let us mix and match things from the menus. A meat from one menu and pasta from the other menu for example.

The warm chocolate brownie dessert was a big hit.

The reviews from our group were mixed on this restaurant. From average rubber chicken to great food was the range.

The Beach Bar at the Lodge:

This little spot was great for bar food. Burgers, wings and the like. A nice cold beer to boot. Right on the water with a nice breeze and mostly in the shade. Just a nice place to hang out for a while.

I will not go through the restaurants in town, as we would not do that again due to the driving time.

 

[jdcpa]

Some of our group went into town and enjoyed it. I looked at their pictures and can see why. Very pretty. I did not venture out much since I was intending to lay low for the trip.

Our return flight from Curacao was on time, no problems. However, as you would expect, we were late out of Miami again. Fortunately not five hours plus.

General:

GROCERIES:

Lodge Kura Hulanda is located on what I would call the northwest tip of the island. As a result it is not close to many things, including grocery stores. The closest is a small store about 15 minutes down the main road and a turn to the right. The closest larger store is California, located on the main road about 25 minutes from the Lodge. The large stores like Centrum are a little more than a half hour drive back toward town.
Lots of the items on the shelf are written in Dutch, so it makes it a little hard to figure out what you have. Most major American products are on the shelves, like Coke, Windex, Bounty and the like. Milk comes mostly in boxes, with very little in the way of fresh milk that we buy in the states.

English is not the first language for most of the inhabitants of Curacao. It is not the second language for most, nor the third. Most often it is the fourth language they speak. Having said that, we were able to stumble our way through in almost every case. Ordering in a restaurant was at times an adventure, but there were no problems with that in the end. In the less touristy places, like the grocery stores, you sometimes needed to search for an English speaking person to get through. The people are generally very friendly and work hard to work through the language barrier to make sure you get what you want and that you are happy.

The main roads are acceptable. Not much by US standards, but no real issues with potholes or the like. The road from the airport to the Lodge is two lanes and not real wide at that. I found lots of folks drive across the center line if there is no oncoming traffic. As traffic comes they move back. It was a little unnerving at first, but you get used to it. The tourists do not drive as fast as the locals, so there is a lot of passing on the road. The speed limit is 60 kph, but not enforced as I could tell. I was passed by the Polis while going 80 kph.

The legal drinking age is 18, but I never saw anyone get carded, some even obviously under 18.

Most times you would get an eight ounce beer or Coke. It took a little getting used to, but in the end, it actually turned out quite nice since they never really had a chance to get hot.

The island is a little more arid than most. It is pretty, with some hills mixed in toward the west end. The trees are short and windblown, but most interesting looking.
All in all, we had a great trip. We met some very friendly people and had loads of fun. The diving was very good.

Now, if I can get Lodge Kura Hulanda to honor the room rates they promised in their advertisement and the reservations they emailed me, I will go back.

Many thanks to Sunshine, David, Bryan, Toni and Andreas. We miss you all already!!

 

[Diver OnLu]

OEW and the diving:

I swear he would be excited about diving in a mud puddle, leading you around and then talking about the great experience afterward. Someone must put something in his water. His energy level for enthusiasm is amazing.

And I swear diving in mud puddles can be exciting! I must know, I started my diving career in good (c)old Germany, and almost on every dive found something that was worth having entered the water - and if it was just my own bubbles

Well, JD, I hope I didn't get you all over-excited - but exited enough to come back and visit us again; it was absolutely a pleasure having you with us!

Greetings from exciting Curacao
Andreas

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

JD
Great trip report. High marks from someone who distributes 9 pages of "notes". I really am glad your diving vacation turned out well. In a small community as ours, we enjoy fun visitors so we look forward to seeing you again. Hugs and fishes to your whole group! Sunshine
PS. Luyone one of the 15 year old riders placed 3rd in the race today.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Wow, I thought I was detailed. Thanks for the report. Who did you book the hotel through? We are going on our 2nd trip in Nov. My husband noticed american airlines website had wrong rooms/rates quoted and had to contact the hotel direct who then contacted AA and confirmed they posted the wrong info. Kura's website can be kind of confusing with their rates, seems like they have different rates that pop up for the same rooms sometimes. Glad to hear the rest of your trip was great and hope you get some resolution to the rate problems.

Not surprised about Sunshine, David, Andreas and OEW, they are great. Did you ask David to make you that Mojito by chance? If I recall he's an awesome mixologist!

The only part I kind of dread is lugging my gear everywhere after coming off another liveaboard! Other than that I cannot wait til Nov! Hubby and I have already argued about our interpretations of the drive from the airport to the hotel according to how each of us remembers it.

 

[promocop]

My two adult and I returned last night from the very resort the OP talked about and here is what I have to add. Spot on your assessment of the the people and the dive facilities. Five star PADI all the way around. The diving was the best I have ever had.! As for the lodge we share a two bedroom up-down apartment with fantastic views, and otherwise first rate accomodations. The issues the OP speaks of I have no knowledge of. The cab ride is what it is... 40 minutes away from town. Gas is expensive there. We chose not to rent a car as the hassle is not worth it and the road is iffy. All in all OEW may be the best dive operartion I have experienced to date. Got my Dive Master Cert after completing two speciality courses and already planning next years trip back. Additionally the people of Curacao were very friendly and the airport quite efficient and fast. What can I say? CURACAO...bon binni

 

[jdcpa]

Bee:

I called the US number for their reservations office. You can find it on their website.

I prefer not to go through a third party like AA, the answers seem to get muddled along the way.