Testing we did I to get into Curaçao

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RIHappyDiver

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We Made It! We arrived yesterday afternoon, staying at Marazul Dive resort.

There has been quite a bit of discussion regarding which test are accepted, will people be stranded at a lay over if tests don’t come back in time, etc. Here is a recap of what we did that worked.

There are 6 of us total from the Portsmouth, RI. area. We flew out of Providence on Saturday at 5:25 am with a connecting flight in Charlotte leaving at 9:10 AM. We all did multiple tests. 3 tested through a local (based in Providence) site that did drive through PCRs approximately 48 hours before our trip, 5 of us did drive through PCR tests at CVS approximately 48 hours before our trip, 3 did ID Now tests through Walgreens approximately 24 hours before our trip and 1 did an antigen test through the state 24 hours before our trip, simply because he had tested positive within the last month.

We all tested negative on all the tests. The 3 ID now tests were back within 4 hours, so 3 of us used those. The Antigen test also came back with in 4 hours. The 3 from the local site came back Friday afternoon, 30 hours after testing, 2 were used. The 5 CVS tests were back at the 38 hour mark, 1 person (antigen guy) used it. Tests were downloaded into the dicardcuracao.com site. Once you have this done, and I would recommend printing the cards, you are good to go at the airport. One thing I didn’t like is that Curaçao requires testing within 48 hours of the arriving flight, in this case out of Charlotte, but the airlines won’t let you on your originating flight without it, in this case Providence, 3 hours and 48 minutes before the flight that Curaçao cares about.

Now, the real test...Curaçao customes. The info on curacao.com says that if your test doesn’t meet certain criteria then you will be retested at your expense. I was fine with that possibility, as was everyone else in the group. No one had to retest, which, honestly, surprised me. The CVS tests meet all of the criteria but the paperwork is missing half of the required information. The ID Now is listed on the paperwork as a rapid test with no mention of PCR. Turns out that the custom agent that checked my wife and me, 2 of the ID Nows, was the only agent who looked at the test paperwork. He had no issue with it and gladly passed us through.

A quick side note. One of our group did not have her dicard information uploaded and completed when she arrived at the Providence airport. She did not make it on the plane. By her own admission, completely her fault. However, American Airlines worked with her to rebook in order for her to arrive this afternoon. Don’t know what the fee for that was, but she wasn’t completely shut out. And, one day late, she’s swimming in the beautiful waters of Curaçao!
 
Be careful, over 11,000 active cases there
Yes, we’re planning on staying in the west end as much as possible, fewer people, avoiding close contact and wearing masks whenever seems prudent. Hopefully, all goes well!

Erik
 
couldn't be much worse than the situation in Rhode Island, could it?
Rhode Island currently has a total new case stat of around 31,000, with a 79% fully vaccinated rate. That being said, only one coworker tested positive in the first 2 years of covid, 5 tested positive in the last month.

Now, to @lexvil ’s point, Curaçao is a wonderful place, but no place I’m interested in quarantining in. 3 day test is tomorrow, then return test on Friday morning. Plan is to stay as safe as possible and dive as much as the non diving spouses will let us.
 
I've been here for almost 4 months already, and luckily still non-positive.

I avoid restaurant where I am unable to sit at a safe distance from other people. I've alcohol hand gel within my car, that I use every time I've been shopping or in contact with door handles that our touched by others. There is already a mandatory face mask policy in stores, I follow that guideline of course.

You can book trips to Klein Curaçao, but I often see those boats filled to the rim. So that is a nope for me. I dive with a maximum of 4 other people (often just with 2 other people), and maintain a safe distance. I know dive guides can take a maximum of 8 people, but that just feels unsafe based on the size of the group. Sadly I still see a lot of big dive groups where the instructor or guide stands next to most of the people within the group. And the next day he/she has a new group.

There are also beaches I am avoiding, based on the sheer amount of people + the distance between the beach bed is non existing.

If you use your brain, and don't go out partying like there is no tomorrow here - you should be fine.
 
I know a few people who got Covid classic one who still suffers loss of taste and smell suffers brain fog and fatigue, one family friend died of delta, I now know dozens with the “O” some of whom are vaccinated but not boosted, this version is much harder to avoid.
so far to my knowledge I’ve avoided it but…
 
We’ve been sticking to our little group of 6, eating in our condos or at Cactus Cafe, where our go to table is relatively isolated. We will be shore diving with one boat dive to Watamula, so I’m curious how that will be.
@vatty , I saw yesterday what you are referring to with the beaches. We can see Playa Forti and Piskado from our place and they were filled with people! So, we stayed away.
Anyway, off to pick up some tanks and get in some diving! I’ll try to do a full trip report when I get back home, but I’m no drrich2, so don’t expect too much.
 
We’ve been sticking to our little group of 6, eating in our condos or at Cactus Cafe, where our go to table is relatively isolated. We will be shore diving with one boat dive to Watamula, so I’m curious how that will be.
@vatty , I saw yesterday what you are referring to with the beaches. We can see Playa Forti and Piskado from our place and they were filled with people! So, we stayed away.
Anyway, off to pick up some tanks and get in some diving! I’ll try to do a full trip report when I get back home, but I’m no drrich2, so don’t expect too much.
You’re doing it right, enjoy!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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