Curacao - July 2006

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Curacao, N.A. - As I had said in my previous post, my first dives in Curacao were so good I just had to go back. So instead of heading to Bonaire we altered plans and made our booking to stay at the Habitat Resort.

Once you have decided when you want to go, you need to do a few things - the easiest way of course is to book your package through the affiliated travel agency with Habitat in your country. Just email the folks at Habitat and they will let you know whom to talk to. Your package should include your rental car - you'll need this and keep in mind that you'll want to be hauling dive tanks and gear to the various shore dive spots so something with some room for all that will be needed. We stayed at the Habitat resort and included all the shore diving we could do (24X7) as well as including breakfast each morning. Remember that your flight home will probably preclude you from having breakfast on your last morning. Breakfast is served from 07:30 - 10:30. Try to get to the dive shop by 4:30PM so you can get your weights and any rental gear you will need. Anne Marie and her team will take very good care of you! They will give you a short orientation about the dive facility, the dive site and a few particulars you'll want to know about - like how to avoid their dive boat lane - stay on the bar side of the rope!!

Once checked in and oriented, your easy diving vacation is now up to you and the speed at which you want to go. Here's a website I recommend you have a look at to orient yourself about the various shore diving sites around Curacao - it's homework before your trip and it's worth the read - http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/Curacao/index.htm#1

Our first few dives on our arrival afternoon/evening were at the Habitat House reef - we enjoyed a sunset dive and then a night dive later in the evening. As the Habitat site is such a nice spot and very easy to navigate it served as a very good checkout/orientation dive for my group. As coincidence would have it our first dive was my 200th dive - couldn't have asked for a better spot for that to happen.

A little about the Habitat Dive site: Above the surface is a divers dream come true. The facility is a three level facility. At the top is the dive shop where you check in and get whatever gear you need. The middle level is where the classroom for this PADI 5 Star facility. While I was there this trip I saw numerous people taking certification courses from a very competent staff. On the bottom level is what I would term as the dive platform. It is a large deck area which has a locker room, fill station with Air and Nitrox fills, two tubs for gear rinse, one tub for camera rinse, a fresh water shower, hangers for wetsuit drying, a large wooden table for gear assembly as well as a couple of benches for gear assembly. From here its a very short walk down a pier to your entrance to the water. It really can't get much better than this - as good as a live-aboard and just as easy - and the pier doesn't rock!

Diving the wall at Habitat is very enjoyable and is one of the best sites I had the chance to dive. It was the site that convinced me to return to this island to dive this summer. Marine life is prolific, sponges and worms are prolific. Coral is beautiful. Water is warm. My dives in June and all my dives on this trip (14) were without any appreciable current or surge at any of the sites.

We dove at Porto Marie which is just down the road from the Habitat resort. This is a must-do site as well. The facilities at this public beach are also very good - not quite as good as Habitat's, but very good none-the-less. Rinse tanks - which in the weekend were a little over-used, and showers are available. There's toilet facilities as well as lockers. Also a nice lunch time restaraunt is right on site which was very nice as we had a small lunch while enjoying our surface interval. The reef at Porto Marie is very nice. At the beach entrance there is a double reef effect. Both are beautiful and you will feel like you are diving in an aquarium - I know its an overused term, but I know of no other way to express the feeling of diving among such dense marine life with clear viz.. Read what folks have to say about the site at the website I gave above. When you get there, have a look at the map of the reefs that is painted on the wall next to the restaraunt. It will help you plan your dives. You could easily spend a couple of days diving at this site (we did and I could do another couple of days here as well). The entry fee for this beach is US$2.50 - given the facilities it's a bargain! Shower cost 25 cents in the local currency - that's about 15 cents US$.

Another site we dove at is Cas Abao. While the facilities are not quite up to what the previous two were, it was a very nice place. Restaraunt (limited nibbles and sandwiches/fries, etc.), shower, toilet facilities - all present. The reef is an excellent wall type dive and just as full of life as the previous two. Entry from the shore is simply a walk off the beach and into the water. A short kick out to the reef. Turn over on your back while finning out so you can enjoy the view of the beach as you make your way out to the reefs edge. It is a beautiful beach and shoreline - take the time to appreciate it..

Life below the surface on the western shores of Curacao is plentiful. Shore diving at your own pace is a very relaxing way to spend a diving holiday. Curacao now has a permanent place on my list of favorite dive destinations. There are still 19 more shore dive sites left for me to explore. Something to look forward to!

Cheers and safe diving,

Monty

www.montychandler.com