Curacao Trip Report (Lodge Kura Hulanda, Ocean Encounters West) 9/3 - 9/12

[polyester1970]

Here's a quick report about my recent dive trip to Curacao.

Hotel
We stayed at the Lodge Kura Hulanda. My wife doesn't dive so she needs a nice place to hang while I'm out most of the day. Super nice resort, friendly staff, ocean front rooms are super nice, garden views are fine if you're just looking for a place to crash, prices are reasonable for what you get.

Dive Shop - Ocean Encounters West
Since I'm a solo diver I booked a 7-day, 2 boat dives/day, unlimited shore dives with Ocean Encounters West that's attached to the Kura Hulanda. The price of the package was very reasonable. The crew is A++; guides, captains. We had a couple days of bad vis due to some bad weather and the crew works really hard to find a substitute dive spot with good vis. There were a couple days when no one else signed up and I felt bad so offered to reschedule but they still took me out. The boat is good, minimal diesel fumes, huge dry area, no head onboard but they usually go back to the shop between dives anyway since they stay pretty close. You'll have a good time with these guys.

My take on Curacao diving:
* Beautiful Healthy Coral, hard, soft, sponges, fans, vasses, etc...
* Slightly shallower - Most of your diving will be under 60-70 ft; I only hit the 90's on one dive.
* Smaller Fish, not as many of the big guys if you're into that, but you'll find stingrays, octopus, and turtles once every few days
* Visibility - There was a couple days of rain and wind so the visibility wasn't as good as it could be on my visit. It can get to 100ft, but my trip probably topped out around 60ft - but still good.

Notable Sites
- The Plane Wreck (near Watamula) - the wreck itself is so-so, but after the wreck, there's a very cool drift - gets near 90+ ft for a bit

- Watamula - the west side's favorite 2nd boat dive. Beautiful coral, etc...

- Small Knip - very nice, relaxing dive

- Neptune - very nice, relaxing dive, slowly drift all the way back to the shop

- Harry's Point - not positive about the name, but Harry's something. Beautiful site - not the regular routine for Ocean Encounters but they brought me there when it was too rough on the other side.

- Alice in Wonderland - the house reef - dense and massive hard coral - you get the name after diving there, fairly steep, a little current on the north end when you swim back.

Their other sites are good too but I don't want to bore you with stuff you can probably read everywhere else.

 

[torontoscubagirl]

thanks for the report. we are thinking of heading there in jan.

 

[morecowbells]

Thanks for thr trip report and breakdown of dive sites. We head out in late Jan. We definitely plan on a meal(or two) at Sol Food. Do you have suggestions on places near Westpunt to grab a meal? I hear the weather is starting to settle after a rough fall.

 

[Storm]

Weather today was gorgeous on the West Side, and a bit choppy on the east side. Judy and I sort of dove ourselves into deep sleep yesterday doing two dives at the Tugboat with Crowley(from the infamous Dive Bus crew), and one night at the Dive Hut, (visiblity on those sites was a bit low -- 60 fett) but getting better)

Today was a relaxing day visiting some friends of ours (folks who winter here) and did a nice shore dive at Playa Lagun again vis about 60 feet and weather bright and sunny.

Visibility IS clearing, as is the weather.

 

[TN Traveler]

Storm

You need to get to work and get that viz up - we are arriving on Sat and expect you to have it up to above 90 by Sunday!!!

Hopefully we will get to dive together next week.

Dive Safely

 

[highlandfarmwv]

No dive trip report is boring!

 

[polyester1970]

hey morecowbells,

Regarding food near Westpunt... Westpunt is considered the rural part of Curacao so you won't find lots of restaurants really. There is Janchees within a couple minutes from the Kura Hulanda Lodge. They're not bad, but nothing really to write home about. I had the Wahoo fish which I thought was very bad (dry & hard), but my wife had a lamb stew which was really good and the iguana stew was fairly good. The stews somewhat remind me of Indian/Pakistani curries, which I love. Also - try the fresh lemonades. We also ate at the restaurants at Kura Hulanda. The beach side restaurant is good for a casual meal like their fish burger. We had dinner at the Watamula restaurant and it was actually very good. The Christoffel restaurant was fine, but a bit forgettable - nice view though.

There's a grocery store named California and a bakery about 15 minutes before Westpunt - that's a good place to stock up on stuff for the hotel.

If you go to Williamsted - here's what we experimented with (a) Kura Hulanda Hotel's Indian Restaurant - not bad - the hotel itself is worth visiting to see the replica dutch architecture - 4/5 stars (b) Gouverneur de Rouville - on the waterfront - nice view and cool place to sit, but food & service were fairly bad 2.5 stars (c) some Tapas restaurant downtown - food came out of a jar - very bad 1 star (d) Kura Hulanda Museum - 5 stars - very informative and touching about the history of slaves in Curacao & the Caribbean, need about 2 hrs.

Well enjoy your trip - I wish I was there.