Curacao....First Month

[scubatexastony]

Don't get in a hurry for it does no good. Dutch is a funny language, Papamento is a pretty language, yet confusing. Life is good, diving is great. Making friends with the locals and will post some dive reports and such when I rest, all this typing has made me tired.

tony & Bren

 

[herman]

Good to hear all is well. I enjoyed the island when I was there in July. Here is a sight you may find useful. http://www.donamaro.nl/papiamentu/

Masha danki for the report

Bon tarda

 

[scubatexastony]

I put it in our favorites! We'll let's get to a couple dive reports.

Blue Bay (Baai) @ Blue Bay Resort: Excellent facilities, dive shop and showers, rinse tanks to boot. Nice little bar and outdoor resturant with good, reasonably priced food. The diving is near tops on my list so for in shore diving. To the northeast is Blue Wall, a bit of a swim if you want to conserve air for the depths, it is a nice shear wall down to 120 or more with lots of life and corals. To the southwest is Blue Gardens, and excellent first or second dive as the reef extends from shallow to the depths and has it's assortment of colorful hard and soft corals. Rock fish, eels, squid; you look for it, and you'll probably find it!
West end: So far we're only made a couple dives at Playa Piskado (fishermans bay area) which is a beautiful reef (There's a neat statue (Neptune, I think) sitting in 40 or so ft. near the center of the bay.) but has lots of lines and some other items thrown over the side, no facilities, a snack bar. Playa Kenepa has a little area to suit up, but not much in diver friendly facilities, there's a snack bar and lots of locals visit the beach on the weekends. It's a good swim out to the shallow reef, and it's well worth the trouble.
This weekend we're going to hit Mushroom, which is only accessable by boat, either the water taxi (he drops you off and comes back later), or we'll get the "locals special" at Sunset Divers and do a 2 tank trip.....report to follow, as well as our thoughts on the house reefs at Habitat, Marriot, Holiday Beach, Porto Mari, and Peir Baai... till then, safe diving!

tony

 

[herman]

Curacao is def on my list of places to return to. We really liked Porta Maria and Cas Abo. Both were pay beaches but at 3 to 4 guilders they were worth the cost. Keep us posted and clean out a spot on the floor.

 

[scubatexastony]

@ Porta Marie? We haven't found him/her yet, but am told it's there in 60 +/- on the second reef.

Cozumel in Curacao..... Big showers and thunderstorms Friday night made for an interesting dive at both Mushroom Forest and Black Coral Gardens. Well, actually the currents we so strong our drift dive at Mushroom covered three dive sites in just over an hour and two sites on our second dive. Not condusive to great photography, but it was nice and effortless..... but..... dodging the schrooms was interesting.

whew, all this typing....time to rest :05:

tony

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Let us know when you try Director's Bay - that site and Porto Marie were on the top of our list.

 

[herman]

WWD, put Cas Abo on your list as well. Nice place with a good dive.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Thanks Herman. Maybe next trip to the ABC's - we're booked for Saba and Statia currently - we'll see how 'the other half' of the NA's is.

The day trip to Klein Curacao was nice too. A couple of guys that I think were Dutch Marines on a day off would always call out to the women on the beach from the RIB - so they'd sit up and see who was calling them - after they'd removed the top half of their suits and laid down to sunbathe.

 

[sharon]

If you like fisherman's bay, you must try Playa Kalki, it is fantastic. We always stay at the Allwest apts, on the cliff at fisherman's bay. We have actually done a dive that is in at Playa Kalki and out at fisherman's bay. On Sunday's there is a BBQ usually at fisherman's bay, the locals cook up a feast. You also need to check out Veeransenbaii, AKA, police beach, just west of Williamsted, beautiful sites, pay a couple of guilders to go in and park. The beaches along SanJaun landhuis are also very nice. Few guilders to enter the property, take a few tanks, drinks and lunch and enjoy the day there.

@ Porta Marie? We haven't found him/her yet, but am told it's there in 60 +/- on the second reef.

Cozumel in Curacao..... Big showers and thunderstorms Friday night made for an interesting dive at both Mushroom Forest and Black Coral Gardens. Well, actually the currents we so strong our drift dive at Mushroom covered three dive sites in just over an hour and two sites on our second dive. Not condusive to great photography, but it was nice and effortless..... but..... dodging the schrooms was interesting.

whew, all this typing....time to rest :05:

tony

 

[scubatexastony]

We'll be sure and work every site in (several times) during the next two years. Playa Kalki had a bunch of work going on in the parking lot and adjoining stairs to the beach when we were there a couple weeks ago. We'll make it back there soon.

Today I went to the port to see the "Swinging" old Lady, she's getting a face lift by CWM. It's amazing how well the yellow pine timbers have weathered the years since 1939. They are actually using quite a lot of the timbers and galv. coupling plates that are that OLD! New hardwood glue-lams for a lot of the structure and she'll have 3 inch tongue and grove sub deck with a 2 inch grooved top layer. No more asphalt to get hot and burn yer' toes! Projected completion is April next year. On the next visit, I'll take the camera and post some photos of her progress. Later.

tony