My wife and I, along with 4 other people, took a weeks vacation to Curaçao for a mixture of diving and exploring. Three of us were divers and three were, or became, snorkelers. We flew out of Providence, RI, early Saturday morning on American, with a short layover in Charlotte. One person ended up having to come a day later due to not having her Covid test paperwork loaded into Curaçao’s website in time. For more info on that part of the trip, Testing we did I to get into Curaçao.
Our flights were smooth and on time. Upon arriving in Curaçao we found the shuttle to take us to D&D Car Rental, who had our 2 cars all ready to go. The guys there gave us directions to The Green House for a quick-for-island-time lunch. Food was pretty good, parking was weird, welcome to Curaçao.
We decided to skip Centrum for now and hit it the next day. We stopped, instead, at New California Supermarket in Tera Cora for some basics. They are not as big but are fairly well stocked, and on the way. We then were on our way to Westpunt and Marazul Dive Resort, which are private owned condos in a gated setting. The units that we were staying in were all two floor with one bedroom, two bath, full kitchen. The downstairs bathrooms all had hang bars inside the shower to hang wet gear, which was a great feature. Each unit had a patio downstairs off of the living room and a balcony off the bedroom, which had great views of the water. Marazul is located on a cliff with stairs on both ends leading to the water. The eastern stairs end with a bit of a ladder ramp going into the Caribbean, where as the western stairs take you to a straight out ladder (think pool ladder) to climb in and out on. These entries made for easy diving and snorkeling.
Dinner that night, as well as a couple more meals through the week, was at Cactus Cafe next door at Rancho El Sobrino. Really good food with a few really cute cats hanging out. One of our group stayed there and really enjoyed it. We had to open the gate for him whenever he came or went, which wasn’t a big deal. There is no direct access to the water, so you would need to go somewhere else for diving, though they do have a dive shop, Sublime Diving.
The original plan was to dive Sunday but, with one of the divers not there yet, and someone having to go pick her up, we decided to snorkel that day, instead. You drop into about 25 foot of water at the base of the cliff. It’s sand flats and dead coral, but is was pretty good snorkeling! My wife, snorkeler, had bought an Olympus TG 6 for the trip and had some fun playing with it. She didn’t think her pictures were all that good until we were able to upload them on the computer. Nice camera! She even got a shot of a spotted eel that she didn’t know was there!!
Monday was our first dives, and the first non training dive for one of our group. We picked up tanks and miscellaneous gear for the new diver at Sublime then went back to Marazul. We had a bit of a swim to reach the reef, but not too bad. It was a good dive with a good amount of coral. Though it wasn’t too widespread, there were definitely signs of disease in the coral. I have to say that the fish weren’t as plentiful as I expected. Also, no barracuda or tarpon. We did see eel, puffer, parrotfish, and most of the usual suspects. The second dive was over the sand flats looking more for turtles, rays, etc. We didn’t see any which surprised me a bit given how close we were to Piskado, which is known for turtles. Very large trumpetfish, though.
Tuesday morning was a morning dive at Go West’s house reef, Alice in Wonderland. Great reef! We followed the rope out to the reef, then headed west. Very nice coral, but, again, didn’t see the volume of fish that I expected.
Wednesday afternoon we all did the Go West snorkel trip to the Blue Room. Definitely interesting. While I see the attraction, I would probably not bother again. I realize it’s all in the timing, and the photos that you see are selected for wow factor, but there were about ten fish total in the room area, which made it a bit boring.
That night, the more experienced diver and I did a night dive at Marazul. We hung by the wall to give us a point of reference and had a really nice dive. We had a very large, and very angry, lobster give us what for, we found a nice octopus and watched it far awhile, and came across a well camouflaged frogfish. Also a couple of eels.
Thursday morning was our Go West boat trip to Black Coral Garden and Watamula. No boredom here! Black Coral was a very nice dive with some good small things to find, as well as a couple of puffers and eels. At the end of the dive I spotted a turtle underneath me as I was hanging on the line, just in time to alert the new diver, who had been hoping to see one on the reef.
Watamula was the topping on the cake. The coral was fantastic!! Again, eels, one of the largest puffers I’ve ever seen, and some good size bugs, but that coral was what did it for me.
Friday morning was testing at ADC for our return to the US. Again, very smooth.
While the snorkeling at Marazul was really good, some of our group snorkeled Playa Kalki, next to Go West, and Playa Lagun. The two that went to Playa Lagun felt it was the best of the spots we had all gone to.
Topside activities for the week included a little touring of Willemstad, a great trip to Shete Boka National park, as well as a drive around St. Michiel to see flamingos. We also drove the North road at Christoffel park, which was a wonderfully scenic drive.
Our go to restaurant was Cactus Cafe, but we stumbled across Discover Lagun at Playa Lagun for some unexpectedly fantastic food. Also, some of the folks in our group had a great meal at Restaurant Playa Forti, about a 5 minute walk down the road from us. Friday night we had dinner at Sol Food. We got to meet Sunshine, who, like my wife, is originally from New Hampshire. Great way to end the week.
Erik
Our flights were smooth and on time. Upon arriving in Curaçao we found the shuttle to take us to D&D Car Rental, who had our 2 cars all ready to go. The guys there gave us directions to The Green House for a quick-for-island-time lunch. Food was pretty good, parking was weird, welcome to Curaçao.
We decided to skip Centrum for now and hit it the next day. We stopped, instead, at New California Supermarket in Tera Cora for some basics. They are not as big but are fairly well stocked, and on the way. We then were on our way to Westpunt and Marazul Dive Resort, which are private owned condos in a gated setting. The units that we were staying in were all two floor with one bedroom, two bath, full kitchen. The downstairs bathrooms all had hang bars inside the shower to hang wet gear, which was a great feature. Each unit had a patio downstairs off of the living room and a balcony off the bedroom, which had great views of the water. Marazul is located on a cliff with stairs on both ends leading to the water. The eastern stairs end with a bit of a ladder ramp going into the Caribbean, where as the western stairs take you to a straight out ladder (think pool ladder) to climb in and out on. These entries made for easy diving and snorkeling.
Dinner that night, as well as a couple more meals through the week, was at Cactus Cafe next door at Rancho El Sobrino. Really good food with a few really cute cats hanging out. One of our group stayed there and really enjoyed it. We had to open the gate for him whenever he came or went, which wasn’t a big deal. There is no direct access to the water, so you would need to go somewhere else for diving, though they do have a dive shop, Sublime Diving.
The original plan was to dive Sunday but, with one of the divers not there yet, and someone having to go pick her up, we decided to snorkel that day, instead. You drop into about 25 foot of water at the base of the cliff. It’s sand flats and dead coral, but is was pretty good snorkeling! My wife, snorkeler, had bought an Olympus TG 6 for the trip and had some fun playing with it. She didn’t think her pictures were all that good until we were able to upload them on the computer. Nice camera! She even got a shot of a spotted eel that she didn’t know was there!!
Monday was our first dives, and the first non training dive for one of our group. We picked up tanks and miscellaneous gear for the new diver at Sublime then went back to Marazul. We had a bit of a swim to reach the reef, but not too bad. It was a good dive with a good amount of coral. Though it wasn’t too widespread, there were definitely signs of disease in the coral. I have to say that the fish weren’t as plentiful as I expected. Also, no barracuda or tarpon. We did see eel, puffer, parrotfish, and most of the usual suspects. The second dive was over the sand flats looking more for turtles, rays, etc. We didn’t see any which surprised me a bit given how close we were to Piskado, which is known for turtles. Very large trumpetfish, though.
Tuesday morning was a morning dive at Go West’s house reef, Alice in Wonderland. Great reef! We followed the rope out to the reef, then headed west. Very nice coral, but, again, didn’t see the volume of fish that I expected.
Wednesday afternoon we all did the Go West snorkel trip to the Blue Room. Definitely interesting. While I see the attraction, I would probably not bother again. I realize it’s all in the timing, and the photos that you see are selected for wow factor, but there were about ten fish total in the room area, which made it a bit boring.
That night, the more experienced diver and I did a night dive at Marazul. We hung by the wall to give us a point of reference and had a really nice dive. We had a very large, and very angry, lobster give us what for, we found a nice octopus and watched it far awhile, and came across a well camouflaged frogfish. Also a couple of eels.
Thursday morning was our Go West boat trip to Black Coral Garden and Watamula. No boredom here! Black Coral was a very nice dive with some good small things to find, as well as a couple of puffers and eels. At the end of the dive I spotted a turtle underneath me as I was hanging on the line, just in time to alert the new diver, who had been hoping to see one on the reef.
Watamula was the topping on the cake. The coral was fantastic!! Again, eels, one of the largest puffers I’ve ever seen, and some good size bugs, but that coral was what did it for me.
Friday morning was testing at ADC for our return to the US. Again, very smooth.
While the snorkeling at Marazul was really good, some of our group snorkeled Playa Kalki, next to Go West, and Playa Lagun. The two that went to Playa Lagun felt it was the best of the spots we had all gone to.
Topside activities for the week included a little touring of Willemstad, a great trip to Shete Boka National park, as well as a drive around St. Michiel to see flamingos. We also drove the North road at Christoffel park, which was a wonderfully scenic drive.
Our go to restaurant was Cactus Cafe, but we stumbled across Discover Lagun at Playa Lagun for some unexpectedly fantastic food. Also, some of the folks in our group had a great meal at Restaurant Playa Forti, about a 5 minute walk down the road from us. Friday night we had dinner at Sol Food. We got to meet Sunshine, who, like my wife, is originally from New Hampshire. Great way to end the week.
Erik
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