So this is long overdue. Taking 2 weeks off right before closing the year leaves few moments to write up trip reports. We met some amazing folks and had an amazing time. We dove with two great outfits Dive Bus and Dive Charter Curacao. I couldnt have been more pleased with these operations. Mark and Suzy from Dive Bus and Kevin from Dive Charter Curacao are simply amazing people. We stayed at breezes (comments about that later.) We also made some other great friends Helen (tour guide) and Boston Kevin (all the great shots in this report.) I filmed 25+ gigs but havent even had a chance to edit them yet. Boston Kevin was with us on just about every dive so he was kind enough to let me post some great shots he took on our dives together.
The breakdown:
Tuesday November 23rd
Depart for Curacao 3AM arrive 9PM 3 flights later. Checked in at Breezes, dumped our crap, grabbed a crappy dinner, and crashed.
Wednesday November 24th
Suzy from the Dive Bus picked us up and showed us around their new place (very nice.) Mark did a nice brief of the entire Pierbaai area and we dove the Car Pile and another section (right) of Pierbaai (Dive Bus and Breezes house reef.) Car pile was interesting, sort of like a giant junk yard overgrown with corals, lots of life, semi deep. Both dives brought us back along the rock wall which seconds as a great moving safety stop. I found an Octopus in the open that really made the day special. Celebration of a great day of diving required multiple Polars (one of my new favorite beers.)
Thursday November 25th
As Breezes was so close to the Dive Bus, we elected to just hoof it the remainder of our stay. We showed up in the morning and Mark took us off to the well known Tug Boat site. Our first dive ran along the left side of the wall. It was an interesting site with lots of coral and life. We ended our first dive at the Tug Boat. Our second dive (Mark refers to as the James Bond dive) we finished the right side of the wall and ended under the pier. It was pretty cool to dive near the large barge in port and under the pier.
Friday November 26th
Dive Charter Curacao (DCC) on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) with Niels and Kevin (Bollocks!). We booked a 4 day safari and started off with a trip to WestPoint. Our first dive was Watamula. The coral was a bit bleached but the current was mild. I had heard quite a bit about this particular dive and enjoyed the neat formations. Our second dive was the infamous Mushroom Forest. The formations are very cool but the name is misleading as Playa Kalki and other areas on the west seemed to have very similar coral formations (mushroom looking.) We ended our dive in the Blue Room. Kevin was able to navigate us back into the cave, pretty fun. I found a small turtle and a school of squid in the shallows.
Saturday November 27th
2X Dives at East Point with DCC. I enjoyed the East the most. Everything seemed bigger and definitely a more wild part of the island. Giant soft coral forests swaying with the surge and minor current, made it particularly awesome. We did two dives and run into a couple large nurse sharks. Very cool.
Sunday November 28th
Superior Producer with Dive Bus. No ships in port so we hit up the SP. Very fun, but a shorter dive due to depth. I would recommend nitrox for longer bottom time (assuming your entire group was certified.) The vis was ok but the wreck was a little crowded as no one could dive it for several days prior. Saw a giant Tarpon as we moved into the shallows for our SS. Our second dive was a new reef off the desalinization plant. Nice wall dive with some eels. There was a research team taking samples and leaving tags to visit later that I noticed throughout several dives after this.
Monday November 29th
Porto Marie with the Dive Bus. Small group and a lovely site. There is an onsite op that gave us a great briefing. I think this would be a great place to spend a lazy day or two as the beach was long and the area seemed to be well cared for. We dove both the Right and Left. Spotted two green and a hawk bill turtle. Later that evening we did a night dive off the house reef. Massive lobsters and crab made it a memorable dive.
Tuesday November 30th
East point with DCC. We had originally planned West, East, North, and the Klien. Ended up Diving East 3X due to big waves. Cant say I was sad about it. On our first dive a massive ray swam right through our group. It was the largest Neils had ever seen.
Wednesday December 1st
East point again with DCC. We started off at Barracuda point and dove around to Directors bay total time was 75 minutes! Great dive covered a lot of reef. Was nice to have a quick lunch on the beach. Did our final dive with DCC back out on the East Point. Very great outfit. Just riding on the RIB is an experience in itself. We got to know Kevin very well. Great guy and lots of fun to hang out with. I highly recommend DCC if you want to explore the more wild parts of the island.
Thursday December 2nd
Off Gas proper vacationers drinking at 10AM lounging, swimming in the bay and pool, lots of booze, off for an evening to celebrate Suzies (Dive Bus) birthday with a bunch of great people.
Friday December 3rd
Final day of diving special trip to playa kalki (Alice in Wonderland.) We dove both right and left. Excellent site and great reef. A giant Tuna ripped in to say hi and was gone just as quick. Afterwards we had pizza at Sunshines place (Sol Food) and buckets of Polar. Kevin from DCC joined us for fun on the 2nd dive and hung for pizza and beer with us. Great ending to our diving. This was probably my favorite day. I highly recommend this site and pizza at Sunshines.
Saturday December 4th
Willemstad tour with Helen. Curacao has a night life and lots of rich culture and interesting places to visit. This really sets it apart from Bonaire and Aruba. Met a good friend of Mark and Suzys at Suzys birthday party who offered to take us around town. We met up in a down pour and she was cool enough to take us around town and to a bunch of cool bars and fun places throughout town. As this day/night was a blur, I asked her to sum up where we went and what we did.
Helen wrote -
Sunday December 5th
Departure home, up at 5AM and off to Miami then Chicago to have our final flight canceled . American Airlines put us on a tour of incompetence receiving varying information from multiple employees, long story short, we were screwed and had to find our own accommodations without bags. Fortunately I have a million Marriott points and we stayed at the Residence in, had some beers and laughed it off.
Monday December 6th
Furthering my love for American Airlines we had the lovely experience of flying to Dallas to get home at around 5pm. Patron Margaritas at 8AM helped ease the pain.
About Breezes
Lots of folks have posted less than favorable comments about the resort. We left the property every day we were in Curacao. Sitting at an All inclusive for two weeks would be terribly boring. It was wicked convient as it is basically across the street from the Dive Bus. Rooms are okay, we had a top floor ocean front room with amazing views so ours was a little nicer but a bit run down. The reservation restaurants were decent the buffet is terribad. The service sucked but they tried. All booze is served in 8 oz plastic juice cups. We ended up buying a couple cases of polar and water and just stocking our mini fridge. Wed bootleg glass whenever possible out of the restaurants and wrap napkins around them as camoflauge. I wouldnt stay there again but it wasnt misearable. I didnt have super high expectations of the place so I wasnt let down.
All and all an outstanding trip and full immersion into Curacao. We made some great friends and look forward to a return trip. I would highly recommend the Dive bus and Dive Charter Curacao. Mark, Suzy, and Kevin are great people and really made our diving special.
The breakdown:
Tuesday November 23rd
Depart for Curacao 3AM arrive 9PM 3 flights later. Checked in at Breezes, dumped our crap, grabbed a crappy dinner, and crashed.
Wednesday November 24th
Suzy from the Dive Bus picked us up and showed us around their new place (very nice.) Mark did a nice brief of the entire Pierbaai area and we dove the Car Pile and another section (right) of Pierbaai (Dive Bus and Breezes house reef.) Car pile was interesting, sort of like a giant junk yard overgrown with corals, lots of life, semi deep. Both dives brought us back along the rock wall which seconds as a great moving safety stop. I found an Octopus in the open that really made the day special. Celebration of a great day of diving required multiple Polars (one of my new favorite beers.)
Thursday November 25th
As Breezes was so close to the Dive Bus, we elected to just hoof it the remainder of our stay. We showed up in the morning and Mark took us off to the well known Tug Boat site. Our first dive ran along the left side of the wall. It was an interesting site with lots of coral and life. We ended our first dive at the Tug Boat. Our second dive (Mark refers to as the James Bond dive) we finished the right side of the wall and ended under the pier. It was pretty cool to dive near the large barge in port and under the pier.
Friday November 26th
Dive Charter Curacao (DCC) on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) with Niels and Kevin (Bollocks!). We booked a 4 day safari and started off with a trip to WestPoint. Our first dive was Watamula. The coral was a bit bleached but the current was mild. I had heard quite a bit about this particular dive and enjoyed the neat formations. Our second dive was the infamous Mushroom Forest. The formations are very cool but the name is misleading as Playa Kalki and other areas on the west seemed to have very similar coral formations (mushroom looking.) We ended our dive in the Blue Room. Kevin was able to navigate us back into the cave, pretty fun. I found a small turtle and a school of squid in the shallows.
Saturday November 27th
2X Dives at East Point with DCC. I enjoyed the East the most. Everything seemed bigger and definitely a more wild part of the island. Giant soft coral forests swaying with the surge and minor current, made it particularly awesome. We did two dives and run into a couple large nurse sharks. Very cool.
Sunday November 28th
Superior Producer with Dive Bus. No ships in port so we hit up the SP. Very fun, but a shorter dive due to depth. I would recommend nitrox for longer bottom time (assuming your entire group was certified.) The vis was ok but the wreck was a little crowded as no one could dive it for several days prior. Saw a giant Tarpon as we moved into the shallows for our SS. Our second dive was a new reef off the desalinization plant. Nice wall dive with some eels. There was a research team taking samples and leaving tags to visit later that I noticed throughout several dives after this.
Monday November 29th
Porto Marie with the Dive Bus. Small group and a lovely site. There is an onsite op that gave us a great briefing. I think this would be a great place to spend a lazy day or two as the beach was long and the area seemed to be well cared for. We dove both the Right and Left. Spotted two green and a hawk bill turtle. Later that evening we did a night dive off the house reef. Massive lobsters and crab made it a memorable dive.
Tuesday November 30th
East point with DCC. We had originally planned West, East, North, and the Klien. Ended up Diving East 3X due to big waves. Cant say I was sad about it. On our first dive a massive ray swam right through our group. It was the largest Neils had ever seen.
Wednesday December 1st
East point again with DCC. We started off at Barracuda point and dove around to Directors bay total time was 75 minutes! Great dive covered a lot of reef. Was nice to have a quick lunch on the beach. Did our final dive with DCC back out on the East Point. Very great outfit. Just riding on the RIB is an experience in itself. We got to know Kevin very well. Great guy and lots of fun to hang out with. I highly recommend DCC if you want to explore the more wild parts of the island.
Thursday December 2nd
Off Gas proper vacationers drinking at 10AM lounging, swimming in the bay and pool, lots of booze, off for an evening to celebrate Suzies (Dive Bus) birthday with a bunch of great people.
Friday December 3rd
Final day of diving special trip to playa kalki (Alice in Wonderland.) We dove both right and left. Excellent site and great reef. A giant Tuna ripped in to say hi and was gone just as quick. Afterwards we had pizza at Sunshines place (Sol Food) and buckets of Polar. Kevin from DCC joined us for fun on the 2nd dive and hung for pizza and beer with us. Great ending to our diving. This was probably my favorite day. I highly recommend this site and pizza at Sunshines.
Saturday December 4th
Willemstad tour with Helen. Curacao has a night life and lots of rich culture and interesting places to visit. This really sets it apart from Bonaire and Aruba. Met a good friend of Mark and Suzys at Suzys birthday party who offered to take us around town. We met up in a down pour and she was cool enough to take us around town and to a bunch of cool bars and fun places throughout town. As this day/night was a blur, I asked her to sum up where we went and what we did.
Helen wrote -
Sunday December 5th
Departure home, up at 5AM and off to Miami then Chicago to have our final flight canceled . American Airlines put us on a tour of incompetence receiving varying information from multiple employees, long story short, we were screwed and had to find our own accommodations without bags. Fortunately I have a million Marriott points and we stayed at the Residence in, had some beers and laughed it off.
Monday December 6th
Furthering my love for American Airlines we had the lovely experience of flying to Dallas to get home at around 5pm. Patron Margaritas at 8AM helped ease the pain.
About Breezes
Lots of folks have posted less than favorable comments about the resort. We left the property every day we were in Curacao. Sitting at an All inclusive for two weeks would be terribly boring. It was wicked convient as it is basically across the street from the Dive Bus. Rooms are okay, we had a top floor ocean front room with amazing views so ours was a little nicer but a bit run down. The reservation restaurants were decent the buffet is terribad. The service sucked but they tried. All booze is served in 8 oz plastic juice cups. We ended up buying a couple cases of polar and water and just stocking our mini fridge. Wed bootleg glass whenever possible out of the restaurants and wrap napkins around them as camoflauge. I wouldnt stay there again but it wasnt misearable. I didnt have super high expectations of the place so I wasnt let down.
All and all an outstanding trip and full immersion into Curacao. We made some great friends and look forward to a return trip. I would highly recommend the Dive bus and Dive Charter Curacao. Mark, Suzy, and Kevin are great people and really made our diving special.
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