Curaçao 2024

We got off to a relatively slow start on our first day after our travel days. We were quite content with the warmth and our outstanding accommodation. In the morning, we checked-in (and paid for our stay in cash USD), took our rental car (Chevrolet Spark, "Sparky"), and headed east to Kokomo Beach, so we could stop at the Centrum Supermarket on the way home. I had read that Kokomo might offer interesting snorkeling and other tourists staying at Marazul had watched an eagle ray close-up the previous day at Kokomo. There were no eagle rays for us, and we found the snorkeling at Kokomo to be underwhelming. We spent a good hour in Centrum spending $200+ in groceries. 

After lunch at home, we walked over to Sublime Diving (prearranged) to sort out our dive rental gear. Sublime is a small operation and Ellis, the owner, was a nice guy and apparently an excellent dive guide. We were given a lock combination so that we could collect our gear and tanks in off-hours.

Then, we put our snorkel gear on and jumped into the water below Marazul and had a look around at the walls, before enjoying a sunset. There was quite a lot of bird activity that evening and we watched tuna chasing after smaller fish.  A pair of tuna breached a couple of times.  

We were well rested and we collected gear and tanks, and managed to fit everything in Sparky. The Alice in Wonderland dive site was nearby (Playa Kalki) and we got organized. The folks at Go West said that we could use their wharf to enter the water; there was some wave action that morning so entering at the beach could have been tricky.  Alice in Wonderland  is considered one of the better shore dives on Curaçao and we found it OK, if anything, a little disappointing. There was a fair amount of bleached coral. Sheila had her rental BC slowly auto-inflate during the first dive. The plan was to keep things simple and do a second dive there in a different direction, but one of the remaining tanks had an O-ring leak and we opted to return to the dive shop to swap the tank out. 

In the afternoon, we brought the dive gear to our unit and then down to the water's edge and made a dive straight from our place. We swam out to the reef; the dive site is called Korta Pe, but I refer to it as Marazul. We had to play around with the sticky BC inflator to make it stop inflating, and then dived without issue. We found the Marazul reef to be as good as Alice in Wonderland. We spotted an octopus during our safety stop.

We started the day a little later and met the acting dive shop manager to swap out the faulty BC and we brought an extra tank (in case of an O-ring leak) with us to Kleine Knip, which is a nice little beach. Our plan was to make two dives there in different directions. We had an enjoyable first dive, then swapped out the tanks. However when we entered the water for the second dive, one of the regulators was leaking from the first stage, so we opted to abort.

After lunch, we went for a Marazul snorkel and in late afternoon, we went back to the dive office and swapped out the faulty regulator.

We had loaded the tanks in Sparky the day before, so we had a simple short drive to nearby Playa Piskado. It was early in the day and we had a grand choice of parking spots. We suited up and found one of the tanks had a leaky O-ring, so I fiddled with it, but it still leaked. I went back to the car for another tank. That turned out to be leaky (from the handle) as well. That was the last straw for Sublime Divers. We were done with their gear. 

As it turns out, we were a little early for snorkeling Playa Piskado. The turtles hang out waiting for fisheman hand-outs, but the turtles we spotted were largely resting on the bottom. We returned the dive gear to the shop and had lunch before heading for Playa Lagun. When we were planning the trip, we had considered staying at Playa Lagun, but when visited it, we didn't find it all that appealing. We made a snorkel there; it turned out to be below average. On the short drive home, we stopped to have  a look at Playa Jeremi; it looked promising.  Later in the day, I settled my account with Sublime Divers. Thus far, the diving and rental gear was really not up to "standard". We were going to take the week-end off from diving and start up again on Monday with Go West Diving gear. However, the sunset from Marazul was up to standard. 

Our general plan was to focus mostly on the western end of Curaçao but it was time for a supermarket run and we wanted to check out Tugboat Beach and the city of Willemstad. It's over an hour's drive from Westpunt to Tugboat Beach and the traffic east of Willemstad slowed us down, so it took us an additional 15 minutes.  An oil drilling platform (in for repairs) towered over the small rocky beach complete with a beach bar. There were a few divers getting organized in the parking lot. But by the time we got into the water, there were only a couple of snorkelers and they were leaving. It is 100-150m swim to the 30 year old tugboat wreck that sits at about 5m depth. There were a number of fish inside the wreck holds and we found the snorkeling in the shallow bay interesting; we spotted 4 different types of moray eels.

After we had changed back into our street clothes, we drove a short distance and wandered Fort Beekenburg ( built in 1705) for half an hour,  before continuing onto Willemstad. We parked in the large, free Renaissance parking lot, not far from the cruise ship berths. We wandered through the streets for an hour and half. The city has been gentrified, particularly near the cruise ship port. Thursday's are the best day to visit town, because there is more going on including fireworks, but it hadn't coincided with our shopping schedule. We elected to stop at the Carrefour supermarket on the way home. It fit the bill but it had less selection than the Centrum (especially produce) and it carried more French products than Dutch & German items than Centrum (no German beer at Carrefour)..

In the afternoon, we jumped in the water at Marazul and snorkeled over to Playa Piskado (about 1 km away) and later enjoyed another sunset.

I had read a few blogs on climbing "the mountain" and we opted to start early (ascents after 10:30am are not permitted due to the heat). We were staying fairly close to the park office, but we still got up at 5:00am and were in the queue a little before 6:00am. After we had filled out the forms and paid the fees, we drove up a paved single lane track in the dark to the parking area. There was a definite buzz of Sunday morning hikers. We started out with a head torch but it lightened quickly and we kept a steady pace to the highest point on Curaçao at a whopping 372m. 

Our unhurried ascent took about 50 minutes and there were about ten people up there when we arrived. I noticed a ledge on the eastern side of the official summit and we sat there and watched the sun rise above a cloud bank. When we left the summit area, it was busier and there was a steady flow of people coming up. I'd say almost half of the people were locals and the other half were mainly Dutch tourists with a sprinkle of other Europeans and Americans. We enjoyed the descent because it was brighter and we had time to check out some of the local vegetation. Yes, it was sweaty, but not as sweaty as expected. 

The park fees also permitted us to drive to the east coast. It seems that most of the other summiteers must have gone elsewhere, because it was quiet in the rest of the park. We wandered around Boka Grande and then stopped at the historic plantation house, now a park museum, before heading home for lunch.

The swim/snorkel from Marazul over to the turtle beach was a simple and rewarding way to spend an hour and half in the water.

Monday morning brought a new beginning to our dive holiday. The previous day's early wake up, carried over and we had loads of time before our reporting time of 8:30am at Go West Diving (they suggested staying clear until the daily boat dive group had organized themselves). We picked up our rental gear and a tank each for another shore dive of Alice in Wonderland. We figured that we should give the site a second chance and we did seem to enjoy it a little more that day.

Go West is the only dive operator to visit Watamula Reef and we had signed up for their scheduled Monday afternoon boat dive there. Watamula Reef is considered by many as one of the premier Curaçao dive sites. They had enough participants (five including us) to run it and we were out on the high seas by 2:30pm for the short 8 minute boat ride. Marco, the Italian dive guide, led the outing. Once again, there was a fair amount of coral bleaching. It was a good dive, but not an outstanding dive site. It was our only guided boat dive of the trip and it made us appreciate the do-it-yourself shore dives. No issues with the gear.

Rain was in the forecast and we opted to take a day off of diving. It did rain, but  it cleared off by mid-morning. We took our time getting to nearby Kleine Knip Beach (4km from home). We snorkeled north towards Grote Knip. We encountered the same turtle in both directions. Then we encountered an octopus alongside old coral out in the open sands. It gave us a good show before it sought out a better hiding spot.

In the afternoon, we drove south to the west facing Daaibooi Beach. It is a popular spot with for sun tanning and bathing; it included a couple of free-ranging chickens on the beach. We came across a few marine animals of interest, then on the way out, we realized that a recreational fisherman was cleaning his catch. So when the fish heads went into the water, a few young turtles wrestled with fish remains. Daaibooi Beach has a local reputation for good french fries, so we tried them out.

The Williwood sign caught our attention on the drive home for the usual spectacular sunset.

We collected our dive gear and four tanks at Go West when they opened. We had been diving with Nitrox/Enhanced Air (32% oxygen), and figured we should try out old-fashioned "air" (21% oxygen), like we used to breath. The guidebook and internet forums indicated that the beaches in our area were as good as most dive sites on Curaçao, so we continued to dive local.

We went back to Kleine Knip, to dive in the opposite direction to our previous dive. It is a 100m swim out on the sands before reaching the edge of the reef. Our dive philosophy is to follow the fish and travel in the direction of fish. We ended up doing a "S" swim and surfaced further from the entry point than expected. We packed up and made the short drive to Playa Jeremi. We parked under a large tree, so the 1 hour surface interval was comfortable. Jeremi was also a fine dive, though not exceptional.  

We drove over to Go West Diving at Playa Kalki to swap our used tanks for filled tanks. We did feel a noticeable difference between air types (much less tired with enhanced air) and went back to Nitrox air for the next day. 

That 5:00am start a few days earlier still had aftershocks as Sheila was wandering outside following the moon at 6:00am. However, we didn't get going till 7:00pm and we drove to the east end of the island, and passed through urbanized areas. We wished that we had started out earlier. No drama, we were at Directors Bay before 8:30.am. The security staff appeared shortly thereafter and we were in the water just after 9:00am. We swam down a steep crevice and found it appealing heading right (north), but shortly thereafter turned south towards open sea. We were rewarded by a lovely wall, the best of the dive sites that we had visited on Curaçao. Very nice.

For our second dive, we returned to Tugboat Beach, did our one hour surface interval and wandered into the water below the drilling platform. The platform is a working environment and divers are prohibited from venturing under it. We followed a nice slope below the beach and then came up into the shallows. We then stayed on the shallow beach level and returned to the car. 

We made a stop at Centrum on the return to home. We couldn't start the car and called Rene. In less than 5 minutes, Jackie appeared. She jiggled the parking brake and it started up once again. We returned the dive gear to Go West.  The diving had been good, but not great and we turned to snorkeling thereafter. The sunset was obscured by cloud that day.

We got to the NW corner of the island before 8:00 am. The 3 or 4 km of dirt roads were slow going, but not an issue for Sparky. We wandered  the Watamula Blow Hole and the most northern point of Curaçao for about an hour. Then it was back down to Playa Jeremi (we had dived there few days earlier) for a pleasant but not remarkable snorkel. In the afternoon, we snorkeled from Marazul to Playa Piskado and back. Sheila went without fins so she could swim more. We encountered the usual number of small turtles as other times (7 or 8 turtles per outing). We were getting fussy about our sunsets, but it was still fine that evening.

We drove about 20km to Ascension Boka for what turned out to be about an hour ramble at the coast. Sheila was enraptured by the crashing waves and Glenn climbed a small rocky hill for a view of the island. The mosquitoes at the car park were hungry. 

We carried on and reached Cas Abou Beach after another 15 minutes of driving. Cas Abou has classic fine white sand and is a popular paid beach ($6 per carload). The snorkeling was OK but it was elevated by our sighting of a flying gurnard. It responded to our presence and put on quite a display.

We drove south to the San Juan plantation arriving at 8:00am and had to a wait a few minutes before the road was opened. There was a series of dirt roads to access the coast, but they all seemed like smooth sailing for Sparky. We opted for Playa Manzaliña, as it was in the middle of a set of beaches. There was a small camping group at one end of the smallish beach. We jumped in and headed south. We did see some marine animals, but we were quite impressed with some of the small coral gardens.

We were back home for lunch and had an enjoyable swim/snorkel to Playa Peskado. There had been a school of young barracuda hanging out below Marazul at the beginning of our stay and they were back. There were about 75 in total, but in three groups. One of the groups in particular seemed nonplussed by the snorkeler diving down to have a better look and I managed a couple of better photographs of them. The turtles were out and about. This was our last evening in Curaçao and the sunset was another winner. One of the Marazul unit owners was out in their sailboat as the sun went down.

Most good things come to an end. We had a late check-out of 1:30pm pre-arranged with Rene (thank-you) and Jackie was to bring us to the airport. We had the morning for a swim/snorkel (no wetsuits to keep them dry for travel). Our snorkel was punctuated by 5 lively squid that largely moved in unison.  We were wondering about island time and whether we were cutting our pick-up time too close but Jackie was waiting for us at 1:30pm. We had plenty of time and an hour wait at the airport gate for our mid-afternoon flight.