Curacao diving
Jan 4 Pierbai Reef – Saw a giant Manta Ray, our first one ever, boy was that an amazing creature. What a fantastic way to start a dive trip, 15 minutes into the first dive and you see a manta ray! This was a great wall dive with an easy shore entry. We dived with Tip of the Dive Bus crew and my wife, Sue, great first dive in Curacao. This site has lots of fish with excellent coral varieties and it is just across the road from the dive bus shop.
Jan 4 Car Pile – Big school of tarpon, we reached 107 ft on this dive. Again, lots of fish just a little further south on Pierbai reef. Artificial reef filled with barges and old cars and trucks and girders, very interesting dive. Both of our dives were around 55 minutes. Ate dinner at Hooks Hut, fun place right on the beach, food was good and a short walk from the Marriott.
Jan 5 Porto Mari – Did both dives here, one to the left and the second to the right. The first dive was the better of the two but both were very good. Saw several eels, morays, spotted and golden tails. This is a fantastic public beach with a nice bar restaurant on site and you can rent tanks there if you need to? Sue and I loved this dive site. There was lots of fish and easy access to the reefs. The dive bus served lunch besides picking us up and taking us back to the hotel. Ate dinner at Tempo Doeloe, which is a beautiful Indonesian restaurant within walking distance of the Marriott, try the rice table, scrumptious!
Jan 6 Directors Bay – We did two dives here, one to the left and one to the right. Lots of eels seen, this was a beautiful bay with cliffs surrounding it. Kevin was dive master and we dived with Tinnaka, Meno and Saskia from Holland. Big wall dive with gentle currents and lots of fish. Ate dinner at L’Aldea, a Brazilian steak place like Fogo de Chao that was a nice garden setting that the owners must have spent a fortune to build. This place has 3 buttons at each table, one for service, one for manager and one for check, if you press one, the waiter shows up within 10 seconds, I couldn’t believe it. They also give you a button that’s green on one side and red on the other, red means don’t come to the table with more incredible food, green means feed me! The meats here are superb and they have one of the best salad bars my wife and I have ever been at, and we live in Chicago and go out to eat all the time. The service at this place was as good, or better than any restaurant we’ve eaten in throughout the world. It’s a pretty far distance from the Marriot and the bill was around $150 for two with drinks and desserts, but it is a great restaurant and worth the drive. Try the cheese cake, my wife was drooling the next day just trying to describe it.
Jan 7 Snake Bay – Two dives here, one to the right and one to the left with a bit of surf to contend with, but if we can do it so can you. They have a nice little area to gear up, with a couple of shaded picnic tables to eat at when you’re through diving. Just an amazing amount of fish here, huge schools of tangs, grunts and others types. Saw plenty of eels, barracudas and an amazing wall of coral with literally millions of Christmas tree worms on them. We saw three of the biggest lion fish I’ve ever laid my eyes on here and both dives were around 50-60 minutes. Kevin and Andy did a fabulous job of nestling us through the surf without incidence and their knowledge of this island is making this trip one of our favorite dive vacations of our lives. Ate dinner at Rosendaels, another nice garden seating restaurant with very good continental cuisine where we both had a good steak. We’d like to extend our thanks to Kevin at the Dive Bus for this recommendation.
Jan 8 Tugboat – Two dives at this location, one to the left was a wall dive where we saw several eels, barracuda, lion fish, and incredible coral formations. There was a pretty good population of all kinds of smaller fish, but nothing big. We finished off the 60 minute dive with a tour of the sunken tugboat which is in 20 fsw. A lot of anemones surround the tug and it’s just a stone’s throw away from the entry point. The shore area you enter at has a nice dive op located there with a big deck to have a picnic on, which we did every day we dived. The second dive was to the right with a wall for a while with more of the same kind of critters and then we went under a large pier with a 100 ft yacht tied up to it. There was a ton of sponges and smaller critters and the light filtering through the pier supports made it look like a cathedral. Maximum depth for both dives was 70 fsw with most of the time at 40-50 fsw. Today was the last day for diving on this trip and Andy of the Dive Bus did another great job as dive master and we look forward to diving with him and all the Dive Bus crew in the near future.
We stayed at the Marriott and for my wife and I it was perfect. It has a great pool area with a nice beach that Sue has to have and a kick ass pool bar that serves a good lunch which I spent every afternoon at for a few cold drinks. The service at the hotel was always good with nice rooms and a comfortable bed. The Dive Bus picked us up every morning either at 8:45 A.M. or 9:15 A.M. depending on which dive site we were going to and we got back to the Marriott in early afternoon on most days. If you like to eat out at different restaurants I would highly recommend a stay here. A cab to Willemstad cost $12.00 - $20.00 or so depending on where you get dropped off. I wasn’t interested in renting a car, but that’s always an option too.
In summary, if you have never been to Curacao to dive you just have to go and if you want first class service with a ride to great shore diving sites, guided by some of the best dive masters I’ve ever dived with, then call Mark and Suzie at the Dive Bus, you’ll make some great friends, learn a lot about the island, solve some of the world’s problems
and the diving is world class.
Pictures of the trip
The Dive Bus - WELCOME
Curacao Hotels | Marriott Curacao Beach Resort & Emerald Casino
Jan 4 Pierbai Reef – Saw a giant Manta Ray, our first one ever, boy was that an amazing creature. What a fantastic way to start a dive trip, 15 minutes into the first dive and you see a manta ray! This was a great wall dive with an easy shore entry. We dived with Tip of the Dive Bus crew and my wife, Sue, great first dive in Curacao. This site has lots of fish with excellent coral varieties and it is just across the road from the dive bus shop.
Jan 4 Car Pile – Big school of tarpon, we reached 107 ft on this dive. Again, lots of fish just a little further south on Pierbai reef. Artificial reef filled with barges and old cars and trucks and girders, very interesting dive. Both of our dives were around 55 minutes. Ate dinner at Hooks Hut, fun place right on the beach, food was good and a short walk from the Marriott.
Jan 5 Porto Mari – Did both dives here, one to the left and the second to the right. The first dive was the better of the two but both were very good. Saw several eels, morays, spotted and golden tails. This is a fantastic public beach with a nice bar restaurant on site and you can rent tanks there if you need to? Sue and I loved this dive site. There was lots of fish and easy access to the reefs. The dive bus served lunch besides picking us up and taking us back to the hotel. Ate dinner at Tempo Doeloe, which is a beautiful Indonesian restaurant within walking distance of the Marriott, try the rice table, scrumptious!
Jan 6 Directors Bay – We did two dives here, one to the left and one to the right. Lots of eels seen, this was a beautiful bay with cliffs surrounding it. Kevin was dive master and we dived with Tinnaka, Meno and Saskia from Holland. Big wall dive with gentle currents and lots of fish. Ate dinner at L’Aldea, a Brazilian steak place like Fogo de Chao that was a nice garden setting that the owners must have spent a fortune to build. This place has 3 buttons at each table, one for service, one for manager and one for check, if you press one, the waiter shows up within 10 seconds, I couldn’t believe it. They also give you a button that’s green on one side and red on the other, red means don’t come to the table with more incredible food, green means feed me! The meats here are superb and they have one of the best salad bars my wife and I have ever been at, and we live in Chicago and go out to eat all the time. The service at this place was as good, or better than any restaurant we’ve eaten in throughout the world. It’s a pretty far distance from the Marriot and the bill was around $150 for two with drinks and desserts, but it is a great restaurant and worth the drive. Try the cheese cake, my wife was drooling the next day just trying to describe it.
Jan 7 Snake Bay – Two dives here, one to the right and one to the left with a bit of surf to contend with, but if we can do it so can you. They have a nice little area to gear up, with a couple of shaded picnic tables to eat at when you’re through diving. Just an amazing amount of fish here, huge schools of tangs, grunts and others types. Saw plenty of eels, barracudas and an amazing wall of coral with literally millions of Christmas tree worms on them. We saw three of the biggest lion fish I’ve ever laid my eyes on here and both dives were around 50-60 minutes. Kevin and Andy did a fabulous job of nestling us through the surf without incidence and their knowledge of this island is making this trip one of our favorite dive vacations of our lives. Ate dinner at Rosendaels, another nice garden seating restaurant with very good continental cuisine where we both had a good steak. We’d like to extend our thanks to Kevin at the Dive Bus for this recommendation.
Jan 8 Tugboat – Two dives at this location, one to the left was a wall dive where we saw several eels, barracuda, lion fish, and incredible coral formations. There was a pretty good population of all kinds of smaller fish, but nothing big. We finished off the 60 minute dive with a tour of the sunken tugboat which is in 20 fsw. A lot of anemones surround the tug and it’s just a stone’s throw away from the entry point. The shore area you enter at has a nice dive op located there with a big deck to have a picnic on, which we did every day we dived. The second dive was to the right with a wall for a while with more of the same kind of critters and then we went under a large pier with a 100 ft yacht tied up to it. There was a ton of sponges and smaller critters and the light filtering through the pier supports made it look like a cathedral. Maximum depth for both dives was 70 fsw with most of the time at 40-50 fsw. Today was the last day for diving on this trip and Andy of the Dive Bus did another great job as dive master and we look forward to diving with him and all the Dive Bus crew in the near future.
We stayed at the Marriott and for my wife and I it was perfect. It has a great pool area with a nice beach that Sue has to have and a kick ass pool bar that serves a good lunch which I spent every afternoon at for a few cold drinks. The service at the hotel was always good with nice rooms and a comfortable bed. The Dive Bus picked us up every morning either at 8:45 A.M. or 9:15 A.M. depending on which dive site we were going to and we got back to the Marriott in early afternoon on most days. If you like to eat out at different restaurants I would highly recommend a stay here. A cab to Willemstad cost $12.00 - $20.00 or so depending on where you get dropped off. I wasn’t interested in renting a car, but that’s always an option too.
In summary, if you have never been to Curacao to dive you just have to go and if you want first class service with a ride to great shore diving sites, guided by some of the best dive masters I’ve ever dived with, then call Mark and Suzie at the Dive Bus, you’ll make some great friends, learn a lot about the island, solve some of the world’s problems
and the diving is world class. Pictures of the trip
The Dive Bus - WELCOME
Curacao Hotels | Marriott Curacao Beach Resort & Emerald Casino
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