What I didn't know about Curaçao
- Thread starter boulderjohn
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snorkelgeek
Registered
socaldiver:
As others have mentioned, the florin and the guilder are the same. Most of the prices are given in FL or US$. Property on the island is sold by the square meter, with $40US being an average price. Houses don't tend to have much in the way of yards, with using desalinated water, irrigation is too expensive, hence the sale by the square meter, depending on size of house. Everything is available from very humble small adobe style houses to fancy new homes in new subdivisions. Most of the action is around Willemstad of course, but property prices can be cheaper in the West Island where all the diving is.
As a note, on April 8 (while we were there) Curacao voted to secede from the Netherlands Antilles, which means they will eventually enjoy independent connection to Holland just like Aruba. So once that becomes final, you won't find any references to the Netherlands Antilles in connection with Curacao. It also will likely mean the guilder will become known as the Curacaoan Guilder.
Lucky you. After my trip, I'm seriously considering retiring there!
Brenda
This was posted on an earlier thread, but I'm an idiot when it comes to properly attaching a link. The lack of divers at Habitat may be because not everyone has as positive experience as what others have posted here. Do your homework well...and be careful of the loosely-used term "resort!" Don't set yourself up with false expectations.
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I would stay away from Easy Divers at the Habitat. We were there in December 2004 for a week. The "dive-anytime" philosophy is great, but they're not really set up or located to make it easy to do so. My wife and I dive Nitrox, but the only fill station was near the water, 2 steep flights of steps down from living quarters level. Probably not a good idea if you have a bad knee. Then you had to drag the tanks across the compound to the parking lot. To be fair, they did have an air station near the lot, but if part of your dive package is Nitrox I want to use Nitrox. Although they advertised both a morning and an afternoon boat dive, Ann-Marie randomly cancelled the afternoon boat trip at her whim. Makes it difficult to plan your day when you don't know if the boat is going out until morning of. After being forced to listen to Ann-Marie's pompous spiel regarding conscientious diving and "total diving freedom", her imperial attitude regarding the boats really set us off. We had ~10-12 people signed up per boat, but that frequently wasn't enough for her - apparently wanted a full 16-20 per trip. The divemasters were generally good, although a 2-tank dive would usually be somewhere cool the 1st dive, then just off the dock at Habitat for the 2nd. I felt a little cheated, since most of the near dives can be done with a little swim without a boat. The accomodations were adequate, but we didn't have hot water for 2 days, the toilet leaked, and the AC dripped all over the floor. This coupled with a week of the same greazy breakfast buffet and I was ready to go. Lunch/dinners were just adequate. There's much better food in town, but that's a 30 minute drive each way, if you can find where you're trying to go (and I thought I was pretty good with a map!). Vis was maybe 50 ft on a good day, it rained like a bandit for the 2 weeks prior to our arrival and then sporadically throughout our stay, and then a cold current swung in and dropped the vis further. Some of the dive sites had great potential if the vis improved. We stayed north and west of Habitat, try Playa Kalki, Lagun, Shroom Forest, and Seldom Wall. Our truck was broken into at Jeremi, but we had left it unlocked and they only grabbed the hotel towels and a bait bucket we were using as a cooler. I was surprised at the condition of the reef at some of the sites. Coral was dying and the trash all over the reef was pretty depressing. I'm glad I went, but Bonaire was a lot better in many ways, and I don't think we'll be returning to Curacao. Good luck.
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I would stay away from Easy Divers at the Habitat. We were there in December 2004 for a week. The "dive-anytime" philosophy is great, but they're not really set up or located to make it easy to do so. My wife and I dive Nitrox, but the only fill station was near the water, 2 steep flights of steps down from living quarters level. Probably not a good idea if you have a bad knee. Then you had to drag the tanks across the compound to the parking lot. To be fair, they did have an air station near the lot, but if part of your dive package is Nitrox I want to use Nitrox. Although they advertised both a morning and an afternoon boat dive, Ann-Marie randomly cancelled the afternoon boat trip at her whim. Makes it difficult to plan your day when you don't know if the boat is going out until morning of. After being forced to listen to Ann-Marie's pompous spiel regarding conscientious diving and "total diving freedom", her imperial attitude regarding the boats really set us off. We had ~10-12 people signed up per boat, but that frequently wasn't enough for her - apparently wanted a full 16-20 per trip. The divemasters were generally good, although a 2-tank dive would usually be somewhere cool the 1st dive, then just off the dock at Habitat for the 2nd. I felt a little cheated, since most of the near dives can be done with a little swim without a boat. The accomodations were adequate, but we didn't have hot water for 2 days, the toilet leaked, and the AC dripped all over the floor. This coupled with a week of the same greazy breakfast buffet and I was ready to go. Lunch/dinners were just adequate. There's much better food in town, but that's a 30 minute drive each way, if you can find where you're trying to go (and I thought I was pretty good with a map!). Vis was maybe 50 ft on a good day, it rained like a bandit for the 2 weeks prior to our arrival and then sporadically throughout our stay, and then a cold current swung in and dropped the vis further. Some of the dive sites had great potential if the vis improved. We stayed north and west of Habitat, try Playa Kalki, Lagun, Shroom Forest, and Seldom Wall. Our truck was broken into at Jeremi, but we had left it unlocked and they only grabbed the hotel towels and a bait bucket we were using as a cooler. I was surprised at the condition of the reef at some of the sites. Coral was dying and the trash all over the reef was pretty depressing. I'm glad I went, but Bonaire was a lot better in many ways, and I don't think we'll be returning to Curacao. Good luck.
cxg31s
Guest
moonsky:We're trying to decide where to go for Thanksgiving for a week of diving. We've been to Roatan twice now...
Would someone who has been to Roatan and Curaçao compare the two for me?
Much appreciated
I guess this is a little late but I'm still getting caught up on this board. I've been to Curacao twice, and Roatan once. While I'd return to both, I'd go back to Curacao before Roatan.
Roatan has very nice walls, but the marine life has been overfished to the point where you can really practice your ID skills trying to find something unusual.
In Curacao the viz is better and there are more critters. Pretty flat reefs in general, but Mushroom and a few of the further sites have some nice formations and walls.
Roatan is far more beautiful as far as vegetation and mountain scenery, Curacao is more desert-y and flat. Both islands are fairly spread out--you have to drive to get anywhere. Curacao's capital is a huge city--lots of shops, clubs, restaurants, if you're into that kind of thing. You know what Roatan's towns look like.
Basically, both islands have their appeal, it really just depends on what you're wanting. Since you've been to Roatan twice, you really should try Curacao (or anywhere) for something different. Then you can give us a report on how they compare!
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