Curacao Trip Report

[CheddarChick]

Wednesday 03/14/2007 Tugboat at Caracas Bay Beach
We are doing 3 dives today with our last one a night dive with Tony. So we are trying Nitrox for the first two dives at the Tugboat. This dive site in located on the south part of the island past Caracas Baai. It is right next to a dock where the tankers and cargo ships tie up. Last year we dove right next to an oil tanker, and it was very strange. This year the dock was empty. A new dive shop has taken over the beach area and done a marvelous job with cleanup and opening up the snack bar and dive shop. This spot boasts a sunken tug boat in about 15 feet of water, and is one of the main snorkeling spots for the cruise boats to send their clients. While we were there the boats numbered two or three. It was very funny to look up and see feet and faces both up and down. Lobster, eels, and puffer fish everywhere. The wall dive right off the tugboat is very nice. Do this part first and drop down along the wall, where it seems to drops forever. Then return and play in the shallows of the tugboat. It teems with fish hiding inside from predators. When I looked in it was packed with Sweeper fish so close together it looked like a sardine can. Jeff saw a big squid scoot along so fast he couldn’t even catch my attention. On our second dive, we picked up bottles and fishing line that was everywhere. The bottles made a great underwater alert signal. Lovely dives here, not a ton of beach and as it is popular it does get crowded.
The following pictures were taken by Scubatexastony

 

[CheddarChick]

03/14/07 Night Dive at Peir Baai/Dive Bus
Night dive are both scary and exhilarating at the same time. There is something so unreal about the feeling you have as all you can see is whatever is in the spotlights beam. You can feel the water close around you like a second skin. Then something zooms past you and you never know what it was, but they always feel like they were big! You spot eels hunting up and down on the reef. Lobsters scurry around, as they move unconcerned by your presence. Shrimp eyes glow in the darkness like tiny rubies. The daywalkers are tucked under rocks sleeping and you can move right up to them. Parrotfish in the daylight are like pale shadows of themselves when they are in the spotlight at night. Colors are so vibrant in the darkness, coral gleams and glistens. If you are brave enough, kneel in the sandy bottom, turn off all your lights, and watch the bioluminescence flash around you. Move your hands through the water and the lighting show will swirl past you. Tiny coral crabs raise their pinchers aggressively at you when you stop to take their picture. If the moon is full, you will be amazed by how much you can see underwater in the dark. And the giant stride off the pier into darkness is better than a thrill ride at the fair. Ahh, so unfair I can’t stay here forever.

Thursday 03/15/07 Blue Bay Resort
So tired after yesterday’s 3 dives. Dragged out later than the norm, we dove at the Blue Bay resort today. A small fee charged to get in. And it is one of the resorts that cater to the cruise ships. So buses unload a herd of tourist and the beach becomes very crowded. It is the first time we have had to deal with a lot of people. And it was speedo day at the beach. Have to say, It was ...interesting... Am I a bad person??? Yup….The diving here is mostly a wall dive on coral that seems battered. After one dive we were so pooped out we just loaded up the gear and went back to the apartment and vegged out.

 

[CheddarChick]

Friday 03/16/07 Playa Kalki
Ok, I have a new favorite beach. Playa Kalki is on the north end of the island and is also known as Alice in Wonderland. This is the home of the Mushroom Forest, and the Kura Hulanda Lodge. This is the sister resort to the Kura Hulanda in downtown Willemsted. A truly beautiful spot to dive, though the stairs down are a killer. You park at the top of the hill and walk down a series of steep stairs to the beach area. The beach is separated into 2 sides with the hotel having the best part of the sand beach. They charge for the beach usage and have a great little restaurant bar combo. The other half of the beach is a dive shop called Ocean Encounters. This is a great set up, a full dive shop offering tanks, hanging zone, lockers, bathrooms, showers and rinse tanks. They have a long pier to drop into the ocean from, though you can cheat and use the platform.

 

[CheddarChick]

The diving here is spectacular. Reef is very healthy and an easy back stroke out from the beach about 80 yards. Then drop into a world that only Dr Suess could have envisioned. Giant coral heads and sheet coral cover the underwater landscape. The animal world here is varied and rich. Lobsters are abundant and you can find them easily underneath the huge coral heads with the aid of a dive light. Jeff took over the camera duties on our second dive and got great pictures of a school of squid at the very end of the dive. But of course the battery had to run down right at that moment. They were in about 8 feet of water just off the shore line, and the gal at Ocean Encounters said they visit there often.

We found a juvenile spotted drum, so tiny, not even ½” long overall with pectoral fins that are bigger than his whole body. They hide in the nooks and crannies of the reef and are hard to spot.

 

[CheddarChick]

Saturday 03/17/07 Vaersen Baai
While this isn’t the most glamorous beach on Curacao, I had the most fun here. We saw all the citizens of the underworld that I had on my list to find. We got to follow Dive Master Andy from the Dive Bus. He was leading 3 other divers, Codecruncher from WI, Regina from England, and Dave from Scotland. So nice to meet Codecruncher and his wife, at dinner the other night. We have been chatting on line on Scubaboard for awhile now so it was great to finally meet. The beach is also known as Police Bay, the police force shooting range is right down the road. There is a bar and grill, a great bathroom and some not great dunk tanks. The operator who runs this place told me where to find the seahorses, and turtles. Found the turtles, not a sign of the seahorses. Here the entry is either walk-in or go off the pier. Both are easy. There is a small charge for access to the beach, $3.00 and if you want a beach chair, then it is an additional $2.00. There is something great about following a Dive master who knows where everyone lives under water. Andy took us right to the turtles and the end of the dive. I could have stayed there watching forever. Five baby turtles in varied sizes played and munched on sea grass. We lay prone on the sandy bottom and snapped pictures, and took video of them.
Stopped at the Dive Bus on the way back and ended up drinking beers and meeting the mysterious “Suzy” creature. Wife of Mark, we have heard her name mentioned numerous times, but have never met her. How nice to finally put a face to a name. She is great! Funny, irreverent, quick to laugh, and she reminds me of Jeff’s sister. But in a good way.

Sunday 03/18/07 Habitat Beach
Off to meet Tony and have the second Scubaboard Meet & Greet. Well maybe. I love this beach, now if they could just shuttle your gear down those steps for you it would be perfect. The reef is so vibrant and alive with color and fish. Too many pictures to take so I ran out of room on the memory card before the second dive was done. We met Devilfish from Jersey on this trip. What a great guy, and that orange BC is a hoot….But the second meet and greet went as well as the first. We saw Titletown had signed in on the white board, but no sign of him anywhere. Easy backstroke out to the reef and then drop in and prepare to be amazed. This is a no glove site and at the end of the dive day your fingers look like they have a disease…

 

[CheddarChick]

Monday 03/19/07 DISASTER!!!!!!
Ok, we knew that during our stay we might be ripped off. But I never dreamed it would happen in the apartment while we slept. I mean the place is so secure it was scary….But in the middle of the night, rotten thieves took a car jack to the steel window bars and slid a very skinny person into the jimmied window and stole us blind. Computers, underwater camera, cash, lap top with over 900 pictures and videos on it all gone. They even had time to go around and unplug all the chargers and cords for all the electronic gear. They even took my ear dryer…I think they thought it was a MP3 player. And calling the cops is a JOKE on the island. After a 2 hour wait, the landlord took Jeff to the police station to report the crime. They spent 1.5 hours going from station to station, “nope, have to report it over there, nope, can’t report it here, we are closed, nope can’t come to the crime scene, don’t have a car to get there. What a joke. After a 4 hour delay they showed up to take our statement. While they were very nice, it was hopeless. We asked to get a report of the statement for our insurance company, and were told come down in 2 hours. Went down, not ready, come back tomorrow, show up tomorrow, printer not functioning, come back tomorrow, show up tomorrow and the report was missing in action. So we sat down with the officer and made out a new one. We made him print it right there for us before we left. I’m sure the insurance company will love it…it’s in Dutch….
AGHHHHHH, let’s go diving!!! So we stopped at the Dive Bus and chatted with Mark & Suzy about the theft. She was so indignant, “they stole your pictures and camera?????” So she ran and got her own camera and forced it on me and told me to “get my butt out there and take pictures”. After the camera card was full she would download them to her computer and burn them to a disc for me. Then she also burned a copy of here favorite pictures onto a disk and sent that home with me. So a least I have some memories of our great dive trip to show off. Well you can either whine and cry or go diving! I have 3 days left, I’m going diving….

 

[CheddarChick]

Tuesday 03/20/07 Varseen Baai
As planned, we met up with Wayne Jenderny, a Master Sergeant with the Firefighting corps of the National Guard out of Minnesota. He was stationed down there for 4 months active duty. It must be so hard to pull your duty in paradise. What a great guy. As he had been stuck at his barracks (the Holiday Resort) for 2 weeks, he was itching to get back to diving. He has never done scuba before getting to the island, and is trying to get his Dive Master certification before he leaves. So back we went to Varseen Baai to try for the turtle pictures again. Can’t go home without them. As promised on this dive we found the Seahorses and the turtles. So that makes my trip complete. One last trip to Porto Marie tomorrow as I can’t get enough of that beach, and it is back to the real world. Yippee, I hear it is snowing in WI can’t wait…..

 

[CheddarChick]

All in all, our trip to Curacao was great, the diving was special, and meeting people like Tony and Mark & Suzy who tried their darnedest to make up for our loss made us forget the pain. These are the memories you take from any vacation, not the fact we were ripped off. In so many of the poorer countries, theft is a problem, we know that. But I never figured they would break in to get stuff. I thought it would be stolen from the car or the beach while we dove.
I love diving in Curacao, the ease of beach entry, no current, and 100 viz make me yearn to go back right now. Just a little more carefully next time…
Ilena

 

[ronrosa]

Great report. Sorry to hear about your loss. Pretty ballsy to break in while you're sleeping.

 

[snepdiver]

Well, All you can say about the theft is it was only "THINGS" that can be replaced. At least you were left alone. In the states they probably would have burned down the place or shot you while you were sleeping.
Sorry to hear about that.

Great pictures. Keep them coming.