Did I miss the better sites on Curacao?

[tkaelin]

Gowest. Short boat ride. Did it as a 1 tank PM.

 

[scubadada]

@Ironborn

I visited Watamula twice with Go West. One dive had essentially no current, the other was a brisk drift from Elvin's Plane wreck. Very different dives, both excellent

 

[diver0008]

When I was last on Curacao and mentioned to the captain one day that there seemed to be a lack of marine life, he said without much hesitation that fishing was the cause. He said that there was not, and more pertinently has never been, any real regulation of the industry.

 

[dmaziuk]

@tkaelin So Watamula is a boat dive...what operator took you there?

GoWest is in the next playa over. Next time we're there I'll ask them if there's shore access -- you'd need a 4WD truck to get to the shore, but it's a cliff. I couldn't see from the water if there were any stairs (we did it as a boat dive), and we had just a regular car so couldn't drive out there. +1 for it being the best site on our trip.

 

[tkaelin]

I think it can be but a guide may be in order as well as optimal conditions. See

 

[diversteve]

Someone at Trunk Divers shore dives Watamula, I don't recall his name. I don't think it's part of their dive schedule though. I think you sort of climb down and I heard getting out requires some strength to hoist yourself back onto the rocks. But I really don't know, this is 3rd hand from my buddy's wife who used to guide there.

OP, this is my list of best dives - you seem to have been to a couple of them - roughly west to east.

Playa Kali in either direction
Playa Jeremi
Playa Lagun
Varsenbaai to the east.
Nos Kas - the ex-Habitat resort reef.
Porto Mari
Lost Anchor - our only boat dive. DM said it was a better dive than Mushroom Forest which we'd booked.
Snake Bay
Tugboat

to be fair, we stayed part of the time in Lagun then moved to Piscadera so we didn't dive east of town much.

 

[diver0008]

I do believe Curacao has more to offer than you have seen. The dive sites you did dive where meeting you experience level at the time..

Maybe the fact that you were less experienced and new to diving made you not see or miss half the wild life??...

Next time we show you the rest,,,,

As a local and professional, for the benefit of the group, and assuming experienced divers, would you mind suggesting a list of dive sites that you think would make for a nice week of diving?

 

[Ironborn]

Everybody, thank you for your feedback. It sounds like there is a lot more on Curacao that I did not see last time.

I knew when I went there that most divers said that the western part of the island had the best diving, but I think I did not realize how far west they meant. I thought that they meant "west of Willemstad," i.e. as opposed to the eastern half of the island. Most of the sites that I dove were on that western half of the island, but only about half way up, just past "Williwood," and next to or not far from each other (from east to west: Daaiboi, Porto Marie, Cas Abou, Playa Largu, and Playa Shon Moza). These dives generally had richer marine life than the ones further east, so I figured that that was what they meant.

Based on the answers I have heard here, it sounds like they may have meant "the extreme northwestern tip" of the island, based on the dive sites that contributors to this thread have named. Does that sound right to you? At what dive site or how far west does would you say that this extreme northwestern tip of the island with the better diving starts? Or is it a gradual transition from east to west? @tarponchik @Trailboss123 @tkaelin @scubadada @diversteve

@Bas Harts I see that you now run Dive Lagun at Playa Lagun. Do you now bring many of your shore diving trips to this far northwestern tip of the island?

 

[Ironborn]

I looked into GoWest, and it sounds like a good dive operation. The problem is that I would want to stay at a place much closer to town (I have a specific venue in mind) in order to have something to do at night - unless one could do a night dive every night at GoWest, for which I would need to find a buddy or a guide and might get repetitive if it is on the house reef every night.

The other problem would be transportation. How long would it take to get there from say, near the airport? Do they provide transportation for people not staying nearby, or do most people diving with them just stay there? I can't rent a car (a long story).

@scubadada @tkaelin @dmaziuk

 

[dmaziuk]

IIRC it's about 20-minute drive to town. You are right, it works much better if you stay right there, have the key to the tank room, and can go splash anytime you feel like it.