Curaçao

This was my wife and my first dive trip. We were newly minted PADI open water divers. We had done one dive beyond our certification class and that was mostly to test out our gear. We chose Curacao mostly for their reputation as an excellent shore diving island, outside the hurricane belt. We packed our regulators in a case, padded our computers and goggles with our wetsuits and neoprene socks, and stored them inside our carry on. Along with a change of clothes, important papers, and snorkel, we were at about 20 lbs. BCD and fins as well as toiletries and all the other non fragile SCUBA gear including all our clothes went into an oversized duffle bag to be checked in.

On arriving to the airport for our very early morning check in, we discovered several very interesting airline policies. We were allowed to check in two bags for free which surprised us because this was the time of increasing baggage fees.  Our duffel bag weighed 60lbs. Well over the 50lbs limit for a free bag. (Of note: many websites suggest that you check in curbside, they are more likely to let several pounds slide and can save you the $100 fee the desk attendant wanted to impose for an overweight bag. A $10 tip to the curbside attendant may be worth it but not always an option for a 6am flight). We threw our wetsuits and toiletries into a foldable backpack and took our fins out of the bag to come down to the acceptable weight. Checked in the backpack and hoped that all would arrive.

Our flight was uneventful and arrived in Curacao around 2pm. Luckily our luggage arrived as well! We quickly discovered the high 80 degree weather with very high humidity. It was instant sweating. Customs moved slowly and we claimed our bags after clearing them. It was a bit of a walk to the car rental area in the hot sunny day. After another wait we were assisted. We opted for a Kia Picanto that can comfortably carry two people and gear (of note: most of the cars on the island are very small, for 3+, an SUV seems like the way to go). We elected both optional insurances and for 5 days with unlimited miles came out to $323. It was another walk to another desk in the heat where we finally picked up our car. They did not have any GPS available to rent but I had saved a map of Curacao to my Nexus 7 for offline use, it was a lifesaver as you do not need an internet connection and the GPS chip can help you navigate. The speed around most of the island is 40km/hr with it increasing to 60-80 km/hr around the main loop. (of note: look up traffic signs for Curacao as they are very different than American signs).

Atlantis Dive Resort

After a little navigating, we found our home for the next week. A one bedroom apartment overlooking their little cove and house reef. It was right next to the Boase luxury resort and had gated parking for apartment residents. The apartment was on the second story, extremely (impeccably) clean, with a balcony and chairs to sit out on the patio. The bedroom is by the door, followed by the bathroom (shower only, the only mirror, and dim lighting) followed by a functional kitchenette, living room with tv (cable in all different languages) and the balcony shotgun style. The apartment was comfortable but one of my only complaints of the apartment is that their website does not mention that you only get a certain amount of electricity per day and it depends on the size of your apartment. We were told it was mostly enough electricity to run the AC in the bedroom (the only unit in the whole apartment) at night and other basic needs. It would cost an additional $0.50 per kwh. As mentioned earlier, Curaçao was very hot and humid and by what I am used to in Texas, the rest of the apartment was unbearably hot. This was very unfortunate because of the beautiful view and the tv were both in the living room. They told us that trying to cool the apartment would be very taxing on the AC unit and would be expensive. I placed the provided fan by the bedroom door blowing out, turned down the AC all the way and blew the cold air into the rest of the apartment. It costs about $10 a day to do this and cooled down the apartment to the high 70s which was bearable. They also have a flow through water heater in the bathroom that makes the water hot but has to be flipped on with a switch. There is a small safe in the room that you program with your own code. A couple other things about the resort itself: 1. their cancelation policy is very strict and there is no forgiveness if your trip gets messed up for whatever reason.  2. The staff is polite and efficient when approached, they are not very personable or very good with the hospitality aspect of their business with regards to Americans. 3. Their facilities were awesome and gear prices reasonable.

The Atlantis House Reef

There were two entry points. One was right in front of the Atlantis resort, between some large boulders. The other was to the right of the Atlantis resort, on the other side of the pier there was a rubbly beach. Both can be accessed publicly in between the Atlantis and Boase resort. Entry between the boulders resulted in several steps with the last step being in about 3 feet of water and several feet out. The water was very calm in the cove, the trade off is that it is cloudy and for two days while we were there, there was a sport fishing boat parked in it. We did see a lion fish, urchin, and several schools of large fish in the cove. It was about 15 ft deep at the most. At the point there was a tree that marked the entrance. There was normal size waves at the point and the wall started about 30 feet beyond that. Swimming around the point towards the beach yielded much clearer water but fishing off the rocks is common and lines could be found in the water. Visibility was about 50 feet and a depth of about 20 feet. Coral was sparse but we did see a large puffer fish by the rocks where the fishing took place. Boat traffic was moderate around the point, a buoy is definitely recommended. The wall in this area we were told drops to 240 feet. We found this reef much more enjoyable to snorkel rather than SCUBA. The beach entry was very rubbly and extends about a third of the way into the pier.

Porto Marie

We actually ended up diving this reef more than we expected. The eastward reefs were a little more rough and their entries more rubbly than this reef. Playa Kalki was quite a bit further of a drive and we did not particularly care to stay that far from Williamsted especially with this being our first dive trip. This was about a 20 minute drive from Atlantis but well worth it. It was slightly crowded during the weekday and can get really crowded over the weekend. Once at their entrance, you can go right into their parking lot or straight down the ramp. The dive shop (very helpful), a place to setup your gear, showers, changing room and restroom are on the right and bar on the left of the ramp. You can drop off your gear and go to park. Tanks were $9. There's a map of the double reef where you set up your gear. We entered the water next to the pier. Small surface waves were present but the beach entry consisted of sand and small stones. Our first dive we swam straight out and dropped to 20 feet about 90 feet from the pier. Visibility was 80-100 ft for all our dives. Beautiful mushroom coral, brain coral, and tubular coral with large schools of fish. Despite the semi crowded beach, the diving was solitary with the occasional encounter with other groups. We saw a couple eels hiding in the coral but overall this was a really pleasant newbie dive. The second dive we decided to go left of the pier. We did not see much coral and decided to submerge. We were right at the second wall, there was a path that bypassed both reefs and you ended up at the wall in 100 ft water. We reoriented to the right and soon found the reef and some lovely diving. The setup of this reef is a swim out, a reef, a drop to 30-60 ft that's a sandy bowl and a second reef followed by a much more dramatic dropoff and deeper water. There's eels, squid, parrotfish, and pretty much every other Curacao sea creature at this reef. On our third dive we snorkeled to the buoy and descended, swimming to the right. We swam in the bowl and enjoyed as both reefs came together. You can rent a key and locker at the bar for about $1.20 with a $7 deposit. There is a charge to use the beach and their facilities but we were never charged even though we offered to pay both days. Well worth the drive!

Tugboat (the one on the eastern side of the island)

Our last day before flying, we decided to do snorkeling. Having read a lot about tugboat we decided to head that way. If you pull up the satellite image of Curacao on Google maps, you will see what appears to be a large ship anchored at the site. Once we arrived there, the big ship was definitely there and we swam about 60 feet from it. In no way was it threatening and it actually blocked a lot of the waves. There was a dive shop there but it appeared to have been closed for a while. There were some large stones in the area with some grabble, but once at the water it was mostly sand. We snorkeled to the left along the cliff and right before the wall was the tugboat. It was in about 10 feet of water and very awesome. Some divers do dive the site but we felt that it would be wasting a tank to SCUBA such a shallow wreck and it gave us something to do on the last "no dive" day. You pass several beaches that can be snorkeled or dove, Curious2dive was in this direction.

Other SCUBA shop interactions

We emailed several shops ahead of our trip so that we could better plan it, this is our limited experience with them:
The Dive Bus- extremely friendly, good English and very responsive to emails. Helpful posts can be found on several message boards on the internet. A very good website with reasonable prices. Several of my emails resulted with them directing me to their website which was a little frustrating because I believed the information I needed was not there. They were more than helpful with follow up emails and emailed me several times before the trip to see how we were doing. Much appreciated!!!!
Curious2Dive- very responsive to emails and also sent an email about a week before our trip to see how we were doing. I believe that they may be the only dive shop on the island that actively take disabled divers out. Very friendly!

Shopping

Prices can be expensive. They have no cows on the island so keep that in mind when buying meat products. Shopping is done at grocery stores or warehouses. The one across from Atlantis seemed pretty similar to most stores in the States. Check expiration dates!

Gas

You get gas by prepaying the attendant at the window. The pump will stop once the amount is reached. Yellow is unleaded. For our KIA Picanto, driving 5 days, we used half a tank which is about 15 liters and $25.

Currency

The Nafl ("Florine") and ANG ("Guilder") is about 1.75 per $1.

Car Rental

We rented our car from Avis. Just about every rental place is at the airport but Avis was the only one that stated you can do an after hour return. After calling all the companies, it seems to be true. To return the car, you drop it off in one of the spots that you picked it up in, lock your keys in the car and you are done. To keep the car clean, we bought a tarp and draped the inside whenever we went diving.

Of interesting note, we were told lion fish is a specialty on the island. We went to PAMPUS by downtown, where the big parking lot is. While I was nervous eating it, it was delicious, very well prepared, and I am still alive. The red snapper was also good.