Trip Report Curacao-West End-Feb. 14-28, 2023

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living4experiences

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Messages
826
Reaction score
1,097
Location
Tigard, Oregon
# of dives
500 - 999
For some background, I first visited Curacao via cruise ship a couple of times and loved the dive experience, so I did a 12-day stay at Sunscape in Willemsted and dived with Ocean Encounters (OE) in December 2021. It was recommended to come back and spend time diving on the west end, so I spent two weeks diving with Go West (GW) this trip and got in 24 dives. If you’re a shore diver, this may not be the report for you. I am primarily a boat diver and this report focuses on that experience. If my personal criteria are favorable for a shore dive, then I’ll do that, which I’ll comment later on regarding the three guided shore dives I did do. I was a solo/single diver on this trip. GW is located at Playa Kalki, and there is free parking for GW with a security guard. Get there early to get a parking spot. Check-in for diving is 8:00, and I would get there about 7:45 with no problem finding a spot. Playa Kalki is a beautiful beach, and it does fill up with the Dutch tourists and a lot of shore divers and divers taking classes.

Go West Diving. The dive operation underwent a complete management and staff turnover in November 2022, so they’re still working things out and they are understaffed. Tina and J.R. are the new managers. They are from the U.S. and live on their sailboat in front of the dive shop. Great people and they’re working hard to get the shop back in order. In the two weeks I was there, Tina and J.R. didn’t have a day off. Their relief gal was on vacation, and they were set to get some time off upon her return. There are anywhere from 9 to 12 stray, nuisance cats that the managers feed, and they are not friendly. A couple of people got scratched reaching down to pet them. Approach with caution. Stray cats and dogs are a prevalent problem on the island.

There are no dive masters, just three instructors, that guide the dives: Sue, from the U.S., one of the best dive guides I’ve ever met; Tim, from Belgium, very experienced; and Adam, from the U.K., young and inexperienced. In addition to guiding dives, Tim and Adam teach PADI courses at the picnic tables in front of the shop. J.R. will hop on the boat to be a dive guide when the need arises. Another young guy, Jonathan, works behind the counter renting equipment, loading and unloading tanks on the boat, and a general helper for whatever is needed. The two boat captains are Tookie and Pico (or Tico).

Sue works part time, and she is a wealth of knowledge of all critters and brings her personal Reef Creature books on the boat if someone has a question as to what they saw. She takes the time to let everyone see what she’s found and then writes the fish I.D. on her slate. Tim was on the boat just once, as he was teaching and working behind the rental counter most of the time. Adam needs some improvement. He’s been in the business since 2015, yet, he has no personal equipment; just uses the shop’s rental stuff. He doesn’t use hand signals to point out stuff, just uses his forefinger to point downward. Not helpful. He doesn’t have a shaker or noise maker, a torch, or a slate.

The Diving. I used Nitrox at 29.5% to 30.8%. The first couple of tanks were only 2800 pounds, and when I mentioned it to J.R., they were then consistent at 3000 pounds. The surcharge for Nitrox is $6 per tank. The water temps were 78-79 degrees. The visibility was very good but could have been better at times. Above water, temps were about 81 degrees. There were daily rain showers and some wind, just enough rain to get the ground a bit wet but nothing too bad. Morning dives were calmer than afternoon dives, and the rain usually showed up between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. It's all drift diving here, but it’s a mild drift. If you’ve dived Cozumel or Socorro, this is easy. Sometimes the current changes direction, too, mid dive.

All the dives are drift, and you cannot dive your computer. They say the dives are 60 minutes, and, for the most part, given how big the groups were, you got your 60 minutes, because people would go up with their buddy as needed. This brings up the diver-to-guide ratio, 9 or 10 to 1, way too high for me. I’m always the last one in and last one out with plenty of air to spare. On one day, due to a lot of cancellations, it was just me and another diver on the boat. It was nice to not have a crowded boat but not so nice when she had to go up at 35 minutes, which meant my dive ended too.

Something new to me was a mandatory 1-hour surface interval no matter what your computer tells you. With J.R., Sue, and Tim, we got a 15-minute heads-up to start gearing up. Adam would wait 60 minutes and beyond to tell the divers to gear up, and we wouldn’t get in the water for up to an hour and 20 minutes after the first dive. There’s something to be said for losing your momentum with that long of a surface interval.

On the boat for the surface interval was dushi (sweet) bread and orange slices, and water and lemonade is provided in an orange jug. I never drink out of those and bring my own water. Those jugs are not cleaned and sanitized, as proven one morning when a diver got the first pour from the jug and out comes dirt and twigs.

Dive Sites and Schedule. The sites are sloping walls as well as flat. On the slopes, you could go to 80+ feet, but the guides stuck to about 50 feet, given how many new divers there were and how easy it is to lose track of 9 divers at varying depths. The website and the big board at the shop are inaccurate for the dive site schedule. I’ve attached a picture of the schedule that was provided to me from a notebook in the dive shop. I don’t know why they don’t post it somewhere instead of keeping it in a notebook.

I thought Mushroom Forest and Sponge Forest were okay, but nothing spectacular. These two sites run into each other, and if you’re on a swift drift, you’ll get a sample of both on one dive.

Watamula is the jewel of dive sites for this area, and the boat only goes there twice a week, on the second a.m. dive on Thursday and the Friday afternoon boat. Because of high demand, this is the only guaranteed fixed dive site, and the morning boat is sold out a couple of weeks ahead of time. The Friday afternoon boat will not run unless there’s a minimum of four divers. This is a must-not-miss site. The topography and the formations are stunning and beautiful. It’s breathtaking! Divers come from Willemsted, one hour’s drive away, to dive here for one tank. No other boat operations, except the orange zodiac boat guy (don’t know the company name), go here because it’s the farthest, most northwestern dive site on the island. Having a limited number of divers here has definitely kept this site pristine. Because of its popularity, the boat was jam-packed with divers, 18 total, plus two guides, Sue and Adam. It was no fun being so crowded and shoulder to shoulder. As is customary, the dive sites can change based on currents and weather, so I didn’t make it to Mako’s Mountain, but I did dive all the sites on the list, including five times at Watamula. This was based on requests from the divers on board, and the captain agreed to change up the schedule.

Shore Dives. For me, shore dives need to be super easy, meaning no rocky entry/exit and no long swims. I did three guided shore dives, two at night, and one daytime at Alice in Wonderland, the site that sits in front of the dive shop. It’s a short swim out to the reef and is very nice, however, I found that Watamula was much better. This site is suffering from too many shore divers and too many inexperienced divers kicking and breaking the reef, as I saw firsthand on the night dives. Poor buoyancy and lack of situational awareness of one’s place near the reef is always a problem. It’s used for the open water training too. The topography at Alice in Wonderland is wonderful! This area is very congested with beach tourists, divers, and swimmers who don’t have a clue when to get out of the way of an incoming boat and to get off the pier ladder when divers are coming and going. There was a fishing boat throwing his line in at the end of the pier. That was disconcerting for safety reasons alone.

Night Dives. Night diving is a love of mine, so I’m always on the list from the first day to get on a night boat dive. GW never got the four-person minimum for a boat night dive this trip, so I made the drive to Willemsted to do a boat night dive with OE at Saba and the Tugboat. OE did a great job. Since my trip was during the new moon cycle, bioluminescence was very visible and very cool! Over the three night dives, the reef was pretty quiet, so it wasn’t as active as I’m used to.

To be continued...
 

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Reef and Critters. If you want big stuff, Curacao is not the place to find it. I saw just one nurse shark, one stingray, and four juvenile turtles, one hawksbill and one green (maybe it was the same two twice on different days). There were several green moray eels, chain eels, sharp-tailed eels (at night), garden eels, and spotted eels. The locals continue to overfish and I was told they eat and sell anything they catch, even the tropical reef fish which carry ciguatera. I saw only a couple of crabs and lobster. There are no large populations of any tropical reef fish and most everything is in a juvenile stage. I did see several slipper lobsters, some of which were marching along the sandy bottom during the daytime. No barracuda, no ocean triggerfish, no black durgeons, very few sergeant majors and very few parrot fish, butterfly fish and angel fish.

There were beautiful pillar corals, which is hard to find anymore in the Caribbean, and some very healthy and large brain coral with resident blennies. Scorpion fish are everywhere, and there were many drum fish. I managed to find a couple of juveniles too. Curacao has a unique neon blue lettuce slug that I haven’t seen before. I counted 20 flamingo tongues on one plant. I saw very little red algae and the reef looks to be relatively healthy. I got lucky and photographed a slender file fish, which is the smallest file fish in the Caribbean. I didn’t know what I was photographing until I asked Sue.

Lionfish. There are a lot of lionfish here, and even though the guides know how to spear them, they are prohibited from taking a spear on a guided dive, because the policy is that if you’re hunting for lionfish, you’re not watching your divers. I do agree with this, however, there’s a difference between exclusively hunting for lionfish and just running across one, plus, you’ve got all those extra eyes from the divers looking for them. I’ve seen lionfish speared many times, and I still enjoy seeing those pests die. It also brings awareness to the new diver of the lionfish problem and will, perhaps, motivate someone to learn how to spear them and cull the reef of lionfish. One day, we had two divers with spears and a Zookeeper, and between the two of them over two dives, they culled 44 lionfish.

Logistics. There is nowhere to get food or drinks near the shop, so you must bring all of your own provisions. The closest restaurant is open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12-8 p.m., Sol Food. Seating is very limited and reservations are highly recommended but not required. Their pizza is pretty good, however, I sat at the bar in front of the open-air kitchen waiting for my to-go order, and I saw some unsafe and unclean food handling, so I didn’t go back.

Tipping. I ask a lot of questions. Their tipping procedure is by pooling tips, which get deposited into a jar in the shop. Every Saturday, the jar is emptied and everyone shares equally. I don’t know if the managers and boat captains get any of that. You can also leave your tips on your credit card if you run a tab. I don’t like either of those methods. I prefer to tip directly to the staff that helps me on the boat and in the water. Due to recent surgeries on both hands, I need help with gear assembly and disassembly, and I feel that deserves recognition directly to the person who assists me. However, the first time I tried to tip directly, the guide did not take it and said there were cameras everywhere, even in the parking lot, and they were strictly prohibited from taking money from the guests. But there’s always a way….. :wink: I feel that I should have control of how my tip is given, so I don’t agree with this practice.

I noticed the tip jar at the end of the week was full but not stuffed, but there weren’t a lot of USD $20 bills in there, but more smaller bills, and I can’t imagine that could possibly be enough to share with the entire shop staff and the staff feel good about working there. I was told they make an hourly wage in addition to the tips. Now, if that’s a livable wage, who knows. I was also told that the money is disbursed based on if the staff were working that week and what days they worked. For instance, if Adam worked six days, he wouldn’t get his share for seven days of work. This also means that if Adam and Tim were teaching classes, they also get a share of the tips. Should the instructors get tipped from my diving activities? I say no. Now, I know I’m getting into opinions here, but divers are more likely to tip while they’re still on the boat either into a jar or directly to a crew member. It’s easy to forget while you’re collecting yourself and your gear to make a stop at the shop and drop your money into a jar. I was also told that a guided night dive doesn’t follow those rules because they are off the clock and you can tip directly to the guide. They are paid $10 per diver and there’s a minimum of four for a guided night shore dive.

Comparison of East End and West End. OE in Willamsted is moored diving with occasional drift; (GW) is drift diving only. OE lets you dive your computer; GW does not. OE has personal mask buckets, meaning everyone gets their own bucket; GW has no mask bucket. OE has four boats; GW has one boat.

Miscellaneous Info. Playa Piskado has become a well-known (and now overcrowded) beach just down the road from the dive shop where turtles gather in numbers as the fisherman clean their fish. It’s an attraction for snorkelers. If you’d like to visit, you’ll need to arrive early in the morning, before 9 a.m., as now there are tourists being brought there daily by the bus load. After driving to the site, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and finding parking.

This side of the island is not as quiet as I thought it would be. Traffic can be harrowing at times and the narrow road is in very poor condition with lots of deep and large potholes. Beach parking is limited and fills quickly, so if you’re a shore diver, you may have to walk quite a ways from your car. My rental apartment was about 10 minutes away from the shop and having driven the route so many times, I saw pigs, dogs, and a herd of goats crossing the road, and one morning there was a man on a horse riding in the road.

Make a stop at the Centrum in Piscadera for groceries on your way from the airport. It’s the only big grocery store. The bag boys will offer to help you out to your car and load your groceries. They are students and you can help support them with small tip, and they’ll stick around until you get the hint. They make no wages from the grocery store. They are friendly, well-dressed, and polite. Once you get to the west end, the nearest grocery store is about 20 minutes away, New California.

There are NO gas stations on the west end, so plan accordingly. Gas stations only accept cash or their local Maestro credit card. American credit cards are not widely accepted anywhere, so take a lot of cash. USD is welcome.

To be continued...
 

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I would beg to differ on east end diving. We (the orange zodiac boat guy you mentioned) only do drift diving out east and the reefs are amazing! Yes Watamula is the jewel of the west but east (past Fuik) has 6 miles of absolutely pristine reef. Yes boat diving only as it is all private property so no shore diving.

If you’d like to “dive your computer” I’d suggest you charter a private trip otherwise 60 minutes is the norm for boat dives here.
 
Lodging. I left this for last because it was not a place I’d recommend. I rented a one-bedroom apartment from My Dream Apartments in Lagun, but it was far from a dream. It was advertised as “totally air conditioned”, but, in fact, only the bedroom was air conditioned, which meant I pretty much lived in the bedroom because the rest of the unit was simmering hot. There were no screens on the windows, so I couldn’t open up the unit for fresh air because of the bugs. The bedroom had one double and two twin beds. Though I didn’t use it to sleep, one of the twin beds had a broken frame and was sagging to the floor. The mattresses were very old and yellowed and extremely hard, and I had to build a sleeping pad with the few pillows that were not yellow and blood stained. I would put it in the category of a place that prostitutes and meth addicts would do their thing. I could say more, but I’ll leave it at that. I will post a review on Trip Advisor.

I'll attach a couple of videos as a youtube link, but I'm still editing those. Hopefully, it will work here.
 

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I would beg to differ on east end diving. We (the orange zodiac boat guy you mentioned) only do drift diving out east and the reefs are amazing! Yes Watamula is the jewel of the west but east (past Fuik) has 6 miles of absolutely pristine reef. Yes boat diving only as it is all private property so no shore diving.

If you’d like to “dive your computer” I’d suggest you charter a private trip otherwise 60 minutes is the norm for boat dives here.
I didn't dive on the east end this trip, and I didn't say anything negative about it, so I'm not sure what you're differing with. I'm just giving a trip report of my experience. My furthest eastern site in 2021 was Niewpoort. My next trip, I'll explore some more of the east end.

Cheers! :)
 
Enjoyed your report.

This side of the island is not as quiet as I thought it would be.
That surprises me. I didn't make it out to the Westpunt area, but would've expected it to be quite rustic.
There are NO gas stations on the west end, so plan accordingly. Gas stations only accept cash or their local Maestro credit card. American credit cards are not widely accepted anywhere, so take a lot of cash.
Thanks for the heads up. That'd be important info. for Americans doing a shore diving-focused trip.
 
These videos are a couple of puffer fish dancing, perhaps in a mating behavior (?)
Fish eating Sergeant Major eggs
Slipper Lobster

Does anyone know what this little fish is called that's photo bombing in my pics? I've also attached a pic of just those fish.

Thanks!
 

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