Trip Report June 2019 Trip Report

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swimbody

Caribbean Connoisseur
ScubaBoard Supporter
Messages
197
Reaction score
55
Location
Houston, Texas
# of dives
200 - 499
First timers to Curacao and it was a great trip.

As I've posted before, using Divi Divi to get to Curacao was a great experience. I was worried about weights but planned it out like this...my dive bag with, bcds, fins, mask and one snorkel was right at 37.5lbs. (I need to sell my Zeagle Ranger as I now have bcd envy for my wife's new ScubaPro and it's a bit cumbersome on trips like this one. PM me if interested) We had two small international rollers that each weighed around 20lbs. The gate agent for Divi said to check the dive bag and one of the rollers but to "ramp check" the other roller. I carried my reg in my small circular Hollis bag and we boarded with no problems at all. The plane was about half loaded each leg there and back. We fly Southwest only so the Aruba roundtrip was free and wifey flies for free as a Companion so the $427 round trip on Divi from Aruba to Curacao was a no brainer.

Disclaimer, I travel with 4 other divers including my wife so we can splurge on accommodations as we have one non diver and she likes a bit o' luxury. We stayed at Blue Bay where the golf was unlimited and the Dutch vibe is dominant. The grounds are incredible there and once you get behind that wall it's like being in Palm Springs. (The whole island reminded me of West Texas...in June.) I would imagine after Feb it's like an explosion of green for a few weeks. Rented a van (Dollar) and a small 4 seater (Budget) for grocery trips, girls' trips, quick shore dives etc. As alluded to in other posts, getting your vehicles from the airport is a little sucky especially if you are a polished business traveler in the US. Just be patient as everyone is pretty nice and friendly...being impatient and rude will not help you out one bit. Plan ahead for extra time.

We split a 3 bed/3ba condo on the top floor of the Blue Bay condos that face the beach. Every morning was a spectacular vista up the coast towards Westpunt. You cannot beat the views there. Everything was very upscale but you had the condo feel. I think we spent about $1500 for the week. My portion was around $500 for the week. We were told there was a washer and dryer in our unit but it remained locked behind a door the entire trip. We pushed the front desk and got laundry service for free when we needed it most. It turned out to be no big deal even though the girls panicked a bit at first.

We shopped at the Centrum and the Cost Less (the Caribbean Costco) and had groceries for sandwiches and breakfasts in the condo each morning. We spent about $300 in groceries for such meals split 3 ways as there were 3 couples on the trip. Nights were at the restaurant on site nearest the beach as well as the italian joint on site as well. The sea side restaurant was getting renovated or it's closed down during slow season, I couldn't get a straight answer. The whole grounds looked like something out of Greece or the Med. It was spectacular and was beyond relaxing when we had afternoon cocktail time with a gentle breeze since we were further south (something to consider if you are deadset on a northern/west choice. The winds are superb towards Willemstad, and die to near nothing out at Westpunt because of geography so the Playa Kalki beach was scorching. No wind but once again...incredible aqua water and white sand with a lot of cigarette butts, obviously the Dutch didn't get the memo that smoking will kill you. Alas...

Our house reef at Blue Bay is called Snake Bay/Beach. It's a crescent shaped bay with two man made jetties that protect the beach from any rogue breakers. It made for the world's easiest beach entries for our morning shore dives. I loved the reef there as it drops off over 100ft after a 2 min swim much like Roatan. The reef gets a little hit from the constant small waves but its filled with life. 2 green morays right off the lip on a mellow morning dive and everyday you could see something new. Sharp tail eels abounded there so we got in 5 dives right off the beach. To the left (the buoy) is Rolling Stones (an estuary for fish as there is a great current out on that point that can move 180degrees in a few hours. There are thousands of fish out there and worth the walk with gear to a closer beach entry that cuts the swim by 60%. To the right after a 20 min swim is a fully developed wall patch with thicker coral than I've seen in Roatan with tons more fish. Great house reef for Blue Bay dive center to have right there. We dove nitrox with them most everyday. $18 a tank. Sharon is the manager there and she's just fantastic so if you have kids she's perfect for them.

Dove Kokomo (Versanbaai-Car Wrecks) one day. Swam 1300ft to the buoy on the left (where the wrecks are) and then had the best slow dive back to the rope at the Kokomo mid-line. The cars are down to their frames now. We eventually hit the pontoon barge at 70' and goes down to 100'. It would make a great morning deep dive to play down on its resting area and look for rays and big groupers. The dive finished up with us collecting old bottles and trash debris. This is where Trunk Divers is. I mistakenly posted that he was at Porto Mari on another post. He's at Kokomo, his name is Karel and he's a wealth of knowledge. I'd, in fact, go visit him first and plan your shore dives as he's Dutch and created a dive guide of his own of the island. He's a great guy (near 70 I think) and deserves your business as he dives everyday. He's got a great collection of artifacts he's found on dives around the island in his shop. Your wife will love the swing at Kokomo for her Instagram board and the swim platform anchored in about 7 feet of water is great for lounging after the dive.

We dove Alice in Wonderland to the right at Playa Kalki. The cul-de-sac above Go West was packed when we got there after lunch so we paid $6 to park without worry at Kura Hulanda in the shade. Great coral growth and aquarium conditions at AIW...we stayed at 40' the whole time Absolutely staggering amount of life and critters to macro up to as we dove it with full sun overhead. It was trippy so the moniker is perfect. The Go West dive shop is quaint and everyone is very mellow. Once again, the beach there is hot and still and skinny in it's width but unbelievable beautiful.

Porto Mari got us a visit to the Williwood dive shop? where we bought nitrox tanks and geared up for the very cool double reef (essentially a circle reef that is deep in the middle with a channel out to sea at it's southern edge). We could have stayed at 35 feet to the right and hunted for life in the shallows but did a nice hour profile from 30-70' with some awesome deep water fly overs. Life as usual abounded and it was probably one of my favorite shore dives as others here have commented on. There is a great map where you gear up and there are lockers available to rent from the bar. This beach gets crowded early so even a Wednesday visit can be very packed. There are also pigs here that are cute and mill around very socially. Great photo ops. Another swim platform is present here. The water is like a swimming pool. 82 degree air and 82 degree water. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE, visitors and locals) had wetsuits but our group. We were never cold. I just don't understand the wetsuit need as I was most comfortable at the Superior dive in 100feet and this is the same temp as Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

My last dive was the Superior Producer. Went with Ocean Encounters and their group staying at Seascape and Lions Dive. Lions, btw, has a great beach area of their own all carved out of the reef that was once there. Mongo Beach is right next door so its great for people watching as well as a quiet little sandy bay that is protected by a series of robust jetties. If you stayed here you'd have to do boat dives but you could shore dive the Stella Mare from the OE dive shop. The SP profile is this...entry right next to the cruiseship dock (the dive cannot be done when a ship is here) after a wavy boat ride, seas were 3-5ft swells with predictable rollers. Giant stride entry then float on surface til everyone is in. Descend to 40 feet on the slope then a SSW heading towards the wreck which sits on the bottom of the channel at 105-110ft keel depth. Big cargo ship with lots of growth and curious tarpon. Really cool dive. 46 mins at 102 max on standard. Came up with 1kpsi. Everyone else was on nitrox so I was initially concerned then once in the water watched the flailing and immediately knew I'd be fine. After some swimming around the wreck and looking at cool critters you bail out on the north side of the wreck into the cruise ship port concrete forest. With the morning light cascading through it was really a cool way to end the dive and you got to see the trash the horrid cruise shippers toss over board while in port. It wasn't overwhelming but it was stuff like wine bottles and budlight aluminum bottles, shoes, tickets, paper, some plastic bags. etc.

All in all a great trip. Feel free to PM me or ask me questions here that I might have failed to address. I didn't like the trash but other than that Curacao is a great trip. Almost continued on to Bonaire but we decided on a surf trip to Tamarindo in 1.5 weeks. If someone wants my Zeagle it has about 40 dives on it and it's in near perfect shape. I will post as well in the classifieds. PEace. Swim
 
thanks for sharing your trip report...enjoyed reading it.
 
Very informative, thanks for sharing this. We're considering a week on both Bonaire and Curacao this trip at year end, rather than a full two weeks in Bonaire. Appreciated your report.
 
Thanks for the report. Glad you enjoyed CUR. Yes for those driving out to Playa Kalki a/k/a Alice in Wonderland and Gowest the small parking area above the beach gets full, especially on weekends. Best advice is to get there in the AM and and early, say by 9 or so. It really is worth spending the day there and renting tanks from GW, especially if driving some distance. With the tank rental you have access to showers, rinse tanks, lockers, bathroom, picnic tables in the shade. Bring lunch or purchase there at KH's beach bar. You can also order take out from a very good local restaurant and they will deliver but give them a good 1/2 hr or so.
 

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