Part 1: Overall impressions: Lots of great dive sites, but there was also a lot of coral bleaching, and what was apparently some stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). We were advised to disinfect our gear when we got home so we don’t wind up bringing SCTLD with us on our next dive trip. Even the sites that reportedly had the least amount of bleaching (per locals) still had a shocking amount. We read that between August and December of 2023, the water temps were the highest they have ever been, so hence the high levels of coral bleaching. The water temps are reportedly cooling off now (January 2024), so hopefully the corals will recover.
I had read that the shore diving sites were hard to find on Curacao versus Bonaire, so I was concerned about that. That turned out to not be a problem at all. All of the shore dive sites were very, very easy to find via Google Maps. All of the entries were quite easy, either sandy beach entries or coral rubble entries. The reef was always close—maybe 50 yards out—and visible via the dark blue color from the beach. We simply headed straight out, then went left or right depending upon the current. Navigating underwater was easy and we rarely ran into significant current. We generally found the best stuff at a depth of 40 to 65 feet. All the dive shops were incredibly helpful, as were other divers we encountered.
I had also read that theft/car break-ins were a problem, and that we should leave our car unlocked with the windows down while diving (something we did not do). However, I had also read that Curacao had, in recent years, stepped up security at beaches and we found that to be true everywhere we went. Even at free public beaches, including those with no amenities, we found a security guard keeping an eye on things. (And they all looked to be official security guards, not the self-appointed “security guards” working for tips that we have found in some other countries.) Instead of leaving the car unlocked with windows down, here was our solution: we purchased a realtor-style lockbox ahead of time and brought it with us on vacation. When we arrived at a remote diving location, we put the keys to the car inside the lockbox and locked it to the ring attached to the frame of the car below the trunk (the one that a tow truck would attach a cable onto when towing a car). This is an idea we were introduced to in Costa Rica, and we thought it was a great idea. However, the lockbox we used in Costa Rica was a little small for our key, and our key jammed the lockbox, making it impossible to open . . . locking our only car key inside. This, of course, happened when we were in the middle of nowhere in southern Costa Rica, but that is a different story. On this trip we brought with us a slightly bigger lockbox and it worked great. If you adopt this idea, make sure you get a big enough lockbox! If you need glasses to see, it can be hard to see well enough to open the lockbox if you leave your glasses locked in the car. We had our sharp-eyed daughter with us on this trip—our plan for the future if she is not with us is to stick a pair of flat “ThinOptics” glasses to the side of the lockbox.
We found that the dive sites at both tips of the island were the best, probably because they had the most current (and current brings in nutrients). The reefs overall were fairly brown; not a lot of color. We initially started off getting air tanks from the dive shop nearest to our rental house and driving them around with us. We quickly realized that almost every site had a small dive shop right there on the beach (at the site) and it was much easier to simply rent air tanks from them rather than drive them around with us. It also meant we could use the shop’s rinse tanks afterwards, which we appreciated. (And there was often a shower to rinse salt off us, too.) And—even better: all of them were willing to hold our stuff for us while we were diving (phone, shoes, empty dive bag, water bottles, etc.) which was fantastic (we didn’t have to worry about the car getting broken into). Prices (as of January of 2024) were generally $10 USD per tank, with weights being an extra $3-4. Some of the dive shops were easier to access than others (I’ll note the difficulty of each below). We also found that none of the dive shops had compressors to fill their own tanks. They all got them tucked in from somewhere else on the island—we were told this was because of a “power issue.” None of the fills we got—from any of the shops—were consistent. Sometimes they were 2500, sometimes they were 2700, sometimes they were 3200.
Quick overview of our dive sites—starting with sites above Willemstad:
The “house reef” for Coral Estates resort was fine, nothing special. The dive shop (Coral Divers) was difficult to access. You park in the big parking lot, wander around until you find the dive shop, then go back to your car and try to find the unmarked road to drive your car down to get the air tanks. The dive shop was really busy, and the staff were constantly being interrupted by new people wandering in, so it always took a long time to get air from them. We stopped going there after we used up our “10 air tank” package.
Porto Mari: We liked the reef here enough to warrant a two tank dive. Porto Mari Sports dive shop is right there. You can back your car down the little road to the shop (though it is very busy with pedestrians as it is the way everyone walks to the beach from the parking lot), unload your stuff, then go park in the lot. It cost a few dollars to enter the beach, and there was security in the lot. There were also a couple of pigs wandering around the wooded area near the parking lot, and one adorable piglet.
Cas Abou: Also a good reef for a two tank dive. We were told there are frogfish there, but we did not see any. We did see a seahorse. The dive shop B Diving is right on the beach (fairly easy to find) and was super accommodating even though it was New Year’s Eve and they were closing early. If you are in the parking lot facing the beach, don’t go in the left-hand entrance that most people are using—use one of the right-hand entrances and you will wind up right next to the dive shop.
Kokomo Beach (also called Vaersenbaai): Good enough reef for a two tank dive. Trunk Divers was super easy to find (right there as you walk in) and the owner was incredibly knowledgeable. He has decades of diving experience, and we appreciated his tips on where to go and what to look for. The restaurant there has a rock they call the iguana feeding station, and there were iguanas of all sizes running around, which was delightful.
San Juan: There are four beaches there, with a dive site at each. You drive up to the historic plantation house, which is crumbling and overgrown, and to the right, there’s a guy sitting in a chair in the shade who will take a small entrance fee. You then bump down the dirt road looking for small signs to each of the beaches (if you don’t make any turns, you will wind up at the last beach, which is Playa Largu). We dove Playa Manzalina and Playa Largu. Both were very good, but Largu was the clear winner. No dive shop, so you have to bring tanks with you. We would have done all four sites here but we did not have enough air with us.
Playa Lagun: We also enjoyed this reef a lot—a slightly longer swim out, but not bad (maybe 6 or 7 minutes instead of 4 or 5). Bahia Diving is right there and was the easiest of all the dive shops to access. You can pull up and park right in front of their dive shop. Very low-key operation and not too busy or crowded. We got an excellent briefing from the dive shop on where to go and what to look for (especially where the seahorses and octopus tend to hang out).
Kalki Beach (also called Alice in Wonderland): One of the top three sites we dove. Parking near the stairs to the beach was in short supply the day we were there, so we dropped stuff off, left someone to guard it, then went and parked in the lot up the hill. There’s a long flight of stairs to get down to the beach. We did not realize we could get air from the Go West dive shop (at the bottom of the stairs) as this was our first day on the island, so we had to haul heavy tanks up and down the stairs. Note there is a giant manchineel tree shading the stairs, and as the leaves contain a strong skin irritant, don’t stand under it if it is raining! I did not see an easy way to drive right to the shop to get air “to go” from Go West, but it looked easy enough to walk down the stairs and rent tanks from them to dive this site. This is definitely a site worth doing—great underwater topography and a richly diverse reef. If we had more time, we would definitely have gone back here.
Mushroom Forest: We did this as a boat dive, and it was also one of our top three sites. Definitely worth seeing, though there was a lot of coral bleaching here, too. We started off by ducking into the blue room cave, which was fun to see. (You can surface in the cave—it is very roomy and spacious with tons of head room). The mushroom forest is so named because of the large corals shaped like mushrooms. It was beautiful and if we had the option to go again, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Watamula: We were originally also going to do a boat dive to Watamula, but people who had been there the week before said it was so bleached out it was not worth seeing. Too bad, because we read it is normally a top site.
**Side note on the blue room cave: People sometimes use the boat services of “Captain Goodlife” at Playa Santa Cruz to get to the blue room. We read multiple reviews about him spewing racist garbage (using the n-word to describe locals) so I would advise against using him (go to TripAdvisor and read the one and two star reviews on both the Blue Room page and the Playa Santa Cruz page for details).**
Trip report continued in next post
