morecowbells
Contributor
Since the Curacao Scubaboard forum has been so quiet, I thought I would post some details of my trip there in Late Jan. This was our fourth trip to the island. Since we love to dive on our vacation, I’m embarrassed to admit that we did not take advantage of the many topside activities Curacao has to offer. I have been to Willemstadt once and really have not felt the urge to return. The only time we visited the city this time was to do some grocery shopping at Centrum. The rest of our time was up in Westpunt and shore diving the West end of the island. By the end of our dives we were simply too tired to do much of anything else(easier for me to blame it on diving than middle age).
LODGING:
We stayed in Apartment 'J' at All West. We have stayed in this particular unit before as well as another unit. While both are nice, I like ‘J’ the best. I never heard a sound at night. It is ideal if you are seeking peace and quiet. A/C unit in living room and bedroom worked well. Hot water was ample. No t.v. but wifi worked great. My favorite feature of this place is the tank room and storage on the lower level. Abundant space to which to hang gear. Clean, well maintained rinse tanks and tanks were consistently filled to 3000 psi. You can gear up on a bench provided with tank holders and climb a decent set of stairs to the house dive or back your car/truck up and walk less than 20 feet to load up the tanks. This was a major plus over the Lodge Kura Hulanda where climbing all the steps from the parking lot of the dive shop up to your car was quite cumbersome.
Tips/recommendations to would be travelers are: Pack extra zip lock bags. Anything remotely left open will attract ants. You will definitely need them for storing opened packets of food in the refrigerator. Pack at least two garbage bags. They will come in handy for extra garbage disposal and I like to put my bcd’s in one when packing for return trip. Pack a zip lock bag with laundry detergent. Comes in handy for swimsuits(swimsuits start smelling ripe, even though I do not pee in mine) . At the risk of appearing like a diva, I absolutely HAVE to blow dry my hair. The Don King look is not and ideal fit for me. From previous trips, I knew to pack an extension cord as the bathroom is the only place with a mirror, but no electrical outlets. Saved me aggravation and I think my husband was grateful when we were going out to eat.
FOOD!
Options in Westpunt are scarce to say the least. Half of our dinners were made from our apartment, the other half were at restaurants. It is always a joy to return to Sunshine’s. Drinks, food and company are unbeatable. Sunshine is always accommodating to special requests. Food is inventive and fresh with a local flair. I recommend ordering some food to go, in my case it was her awesome pizza. The leftovers helped out in filling the weekday gaps when many places in Westpunt are not open. Landhaus Misje is another treat, lovely outdoor dining area with wonderful and fresh food. My favorite is the chicken curry. This place is not without concerns. Hours were sporadic and they were not always open during the days advertised. When I was there, they were only open Friday and Saturday. I hear the house is for sale. It really is too bad. I always enjoy the food there and the owner is very friendly and talented. Our newest discovery was the barbeque at Lagun. Bring your appetite because it is a LOT of food. You are given all sorts of different meats throughout the evening. I did not eat the fish but my husband and another couple we were with absolutely loved it. Definitely make reservations. We did not make any but squeaked by.
Biggest rip-off and abysmal disappointment was the Beach Café at the Kura Hulanda. The prices jumped up significantly since the year and a half when we were there before. Food was very average. Servings were mediocre and service was lackadaisical. $18 for a small steak sandwich.
DIVING:
I like to alternate between Cozumel and Curacao. Cozumel typically has greater volumes and verity of marine life which appear to be jacked up on steroids. Cozumel consistently offers pristine visibility and plentiful dining options. For a small island, the restaurants are amazing. The disadvantage is the chilly weather that always manages to find me when on winter vacation’s and the lack of decent shore dives. Curacao on the other hand offers consistently warm weather (although when we were there it rained buckets. Down pours were not prolonged. Fortunately, this was never a deal breaker with diving), and wonderful shore dives. We never encountered any issues with car break-ins. We did not leave anything of value except for my size 6 Tevas(I figure those wouldn’t fit anybody anyways
Visibility was good-not great due to the rain showers. Although it improved significantly when diving at or deeper than 40-50 feet.
We did one boat dive with Go West to Watamula. This has always been a well run and professional dive op. Our DM Jay was friendly, knowledgeable and thorough. I forgot the Captain’s name (so sorry guys!) but he was very helpful and an awesome captain. Watamula is still a stunning dive. We did not see as many schools or variety or fish as we did on some of the shore dives, but the coral formations and terrain were beautiful. Corals were vibrant without signs of bleaching. The rest were all shore dives. Which are briefly summarized from West to East.
-Playa Kalki. Always a good dive. Seems to be the place where I always find a green moray. Personally, I find the diving more interesting when turning right.
-All West. This is starting to emerge as my favorite shore dive on the island. Regardless if you turn right or left, the diving is equally rewarding. I noticed that some fisherman would gut their catch in the dock. They would throw some of the innards into the oceans only to be rapidly consumed by turtles. I believe this is the reason that I saw an abundance of turtles at this site(especially if you turned right from the shore in front of the apartments). I even encountered a green turtle next to a hawksbill.
-Lagun. Always one of my favorites. So many people wait until they get to the reef before desending in order to save on (what, 50 psi??)air. My advice is to descend while swimming out. This is where I saw a chain moray, Flying Grunard, numerous flounder and goldentail eels. I was not even 20 feet deep when spotting these guys. The mouth to the beach is very narrow. Allow yourself some extra air than normal. It is easy to over shoot your exit. The downside to this site is the abundance of lion fish. While great subjects to photograph, this was the greatest population that I saw during my Curacao dives.
-Cas Abou. Good diving perhaps not the best diving on the island, but I still make it a point to visit this spot. Perhaps the most beautiful beach on the island. Dive shop employees are always a pleasure to talk with. They are helpful and friendly. Even if you are bringing your own tanks, I would encourage you to bring some tip money anyways. They let you keep your gear by the shop while you eat etc. during your surface interval. Other divers saw a spotted eagle ray, it managed to elude us. Although we saw 2 huge southern stingrays. It is an easy dive and easily navigable with underwater landmarks.
-Porto Marie. Well known for their double reef system. Corals seemed muted and not as vibrant as what I viewed further west. Marine life was good but not terrible plentiful. My advice is to bring a compass. I enjoy swimming around coral heads and exploring. Unfortunately it was easy to get disoriented because you were in 30 feet of water with coral sloping rather steeply on both your right and left. While it a unique reef, I don’t know if I will repeat it in the future. A little too crowded for my taste.
My regret was not diving the San Juan area. Since it was just my husband and I, it just felt too creepy being that far from the road or any other service if there was a land or water related emergency. I know that it sounds paranoid but I would have felt far more comfortable with at least another couple. When I return that will be one of my first day’s of diving. This may have been my fourth, but definitely not my last trip to Curacao.
LODGING:
We stayed in Apartment 'J' at All West. We have stayed in this particular unit before as well as another unit. While both are nice, I like ‘J’ the best. I never heard a sound at night. It is ideal if you are seeking peace and quiet. A/C unit in living room and bedroom worked well. Hot water was ample. No t.v. but wifi worked great. My favorite feature of this place is the tank room and storage on the lower level. Abundant space to which to hang gear. Clean, well maintained rinse tanks and tanks were consistently filled to 3000 psi. You can gear up on a bench provided with tank holders and climb a decent set of stairs to the house dive or back your car/truck up and walk less than 20 feet to load up the tanks. This was a major plus over the Lodge Kura Hulanda where climbing all the steps from the parking lot of the dive shop up to your car was quite cumbersome.
Tips/recommendations to would be travelers are: Pack extra zip lock bags. Anything remotely left open will attract ants. You will definitely need them for storing opened packets of food in the refrigerator. Pack at least two garbage bags. They will come in handy for extra garbage disposal and I like to put my bcd’s in one when packing for return trip. Pack a zip lock bag with laundry detergent. Comes in handy for swimsuits(swimsuits start smelling ripe, even though I do not pee in mine) . At the risk of appearing like a diva, I absolutely HAVE to blow dry my hair. The Don King look is not and ideal fit for me. From previous trips, I knew to pack an extension cord as the bathroom is the only place with a mirror, but no electrical outlets. Saved me aggravation and I think my husband was grateful when we were going out to eat.
FOOD!
Options in Westpunt are scarce to say the least. Half of our dinners were made from our apartment, the other half were at restaurants. It is always a joy to return to Sunshine’s. Drinks, food and company are unbeatable. Sunshine is always accommodating to special requests. Food is inventive and fresh with a local flair. I recommend ordering some food to go, in my case it was her awesome pizza. The leftovers helped out in filling the weekday gaps when many places in Westpunt are not open. Landhaus Misje is another treat, lovely outdoor dining area with wonderful and fresh food. My favorite is the chicken curry. This place is not without concerns. Hours were sporadic and they were not always open during the days advertised. When I was there, they were only open Friday and Saturday. I hear the house is for sale. It really is too bad. I always enjoy the food there and the owner is very friendly and talented. Our newest discovery was the barbeque at Lagun. Bring your appetite because it is a LOT of food. You are given all sorts of different meats throughout the evening. I did not eat the fish but my husband and another couple we were with absolutely loved it. Definitely make reservations. We did not make any but squeaked by.
Biggest rip-off and abysmal disappointment was the Beach Café at the Kura Hulanda. The prices jumped up significantly since the year and a half when we were there before. Food was very average. Servings were mediocre and service was lackadaisical. $18 for a small steak sandwich.
DIVING:
I like to alternate between Cozumel and Curacao. Cozumel typically has greater volumes and verity of marine life which appear to be jacked up on steroids. Cozumel consistently offers pristine visibility and plentiful dining options. For a small island, the restaurants are amazing. The disadvantage is the chilly weather that always manages to find me when on winter vacation’s and the lack of decent shore dives. Curacao on the other hand offers consistently warm weather (although when we were there it rained buckets. Down pours were not prolonged. Fortunately, this was never a deal breaker with diving), and wonderful shore dives. We never encountered any issues with car break-ins. We did not leave anything of value except for my size 6 Tevas(I figure those wouldn’t fit anybody anyways
Visibility was good-not great due to the rain showers. Although it improved significantly when diving at or deeper than 40-50 feet. We did one boat dive with Go West to Watamula. This has always been a well run and professional dive op. Our DM Jay was friendly, knowledgeable and thorough. I forgot the Captain’s name (so sorry guys!) but he was very helpful and an awesome captain. Watamula is still a stunning dive. We did not see as many schools or variety or fish as we did on some of the shore dives, but the coral formations and terrain were beautiful. Corals were vibrant without signs of bleaching. The rest were all shore dives. Which are briefly summarized from West to East.
-Playa Kalki. Always a good dive. Seems to be the place where I always find a green moray. Personally, I find the diving more interesting when turning right.
-All West. This is starting to emerge as my favorite shore dive on the island. Regardless if you turn right or left, the diving is equally rewarding. I noticed that some fisherman would gut their catch in the dock. They would throw some of the innards into the oceans only to be rapidly consumed by turtles. I believe this is the reason that I saw an abundance of turtles at this site(especially if you turned right from the shore in front of the apartments). I even encountered a green turtle next to a hawksbill.
-Lagun. Always one of my favorites. So many people wait until they get to the reef before desending in order to save on (what, 50 psi??)air. My advice is to descend while swimming out. This is where I saw a chain moray, Flying Grunard, numerous flounder and goldentail eels. I was not even 20 feet deep when spotting these guys. The mouth to the beach is very narrow. Allow yourself some extra air than normal. It is easy to over shoot your exit. The downside to this site is the abundance of lion fish. While great subjects to photograph, this was the greatest population that I saw during my Curacao dives.
-Cas Abou. Good diving perhaps not the best diving on the island, but I still make it a point to visit this spot. Perhaps the most beautiful beach on the island. Dive shop employees are always a pleasure to talk with. They are helpful and friendly. Even if you are bringing your own tanks, I would encourage you to bring some tip money anyways. They let you keep your gear by the shop while you eat etc. during your surface interval. Other divers saw a spotted eagle ray, it managed to elude us. Although we saw 2 huge southern stingrays. It is an easy dive and easily navigable with underwater landmarks.
-Porto Marie. Well known for their double reef system. Corals seemed muted and not as vibrant as what I viewed further west. Marine life was good but not terrible plentiful. My advice is to bring a compass. I enjoy swimming around coral heads and exploring. Unfortunately it was easy to get disoriented because you were in 30 feet of water with coral sloping rather steeply on both your right and left. While it a unique reef, I don’t know if I will repeat it in the future. A little too crowded for my taste.
My regret was not diving the San Juan area. Since it was just my husband and I, it just felt too creepy being that far from the road or any other service if there was a land or water related emergency. I know that it sounds paranoid but I would have felt far more comfortable with at least another couple. When I return that will be one of my first day’s of diving. This may have been my fourth, but definitely not my last trip to Curacao.
