Curacao:   Soft Adventure Via Sea and Land

Photos and Story Tab Hauser

Curacao is what I would call Bonaire’s bigger bustling big sister island that is 24 miles away.  Curacao is an island of 180,000 that lies 40 miles long and 3 to 5 miles wide.  It sits 40 miles north of Venezuela and 48 miles east of Aruba.

Recently an assorted group of middle age men spent 5 days on a “soft” adventure trip. Our goal was to get away from work, our lovely significant others and “some” of our responsibilities.  The reason we came here to Curacao was to dive,  go ATV’ing (quad riding as it is sometimes called) wave running, fishing, hiking as taking an occasional nap at the pool.

I picked Habitat Curacao Hotel as our place to stay because it is known as a dive destination. They advertise 24 hour dive freedom.  When I stayed in Capt. Don Habitat’s Bonaire hotel back in 1992 I remember the place as a divers resort. Everything else was secondary.  Habitat Curacao to me had a similar philosophy.  That is dive when you want to and to your own ability and common sense.

Habitat Curacao is about 25 minutes from the airport. The down side to it is that it is a 40 minute ride into town. The upside is that Habitat Curacao’s house reef is beautiful.  Most of us dove on the house reef 6 times in 5 days including one late night dive.  Habitat has 32 ocean view rooms, 24 garden view rooms and 14 two bedroom Lanai Villa suites.  Both ocean and garden view have upper and lower levels. For the ocean view request in advance the upstairs rooms as it has a better view and more privacy.  Our opinion of the place was mixed. The rooms were nice enough. They did not clean them all the time or that well and the only way I got shampoo was taking it off the cart the next to last day as they said it was not always available.  My room had two beds a good A/C wall unit with a TV having 7 channels ( none with news).  The bathroom was basic but shower pressure was not good when more than a few people took showers in your building (like after a dive boat came in). Also, hot water was also not constant. Each room came with a small refrigerator and 2 burner stove.  The hotel at this time only has wireless internet at $5 per day in the lobby area. For those that do not have a car, there is a complimentary shuttle 3 times a day that goes into town with pick ups only twice a day.  Taxis can be arranged for about $30. Information can be found at http://www.habitatcuracaoresort.com/

Food at the hotel was run by a different company. In our opinion the dining experience here was no better than “average”. The hot breakfast buffet was $10 while the continental buffet was $6 and was basic. Lunches averaged about $15 and dinner $30 minus drinks.  Service was average to below average. The waitress staff could use a bit of polishing and in some cases seemed lazy.  One time we asked for something twice then went to the waitress at the kitchen counter who decided it was more important to fill out a few receipts than get something for us when we needed it.  We rented a van for the week so we ate dinner here only twice.  The restaurant and hotels center piece of attraction was its bar.  Drinks we found reasonably priced with a 2 for 1 happy hour 6:30 to 7:30 a popular and festive time.

Left to Right: Gary Krellenstein, Mike Ehrlich, Tab Hauser (with knife), Brian Cohen, Kevein Hecker & Ken Steinberg.
Some of this group is on their 11th annual trip

Diving

The dive staff is where Habitat Curacao shines. Ann-Marie runs the dive operation very well.  She is friendly, attentive and after the day is over, happy to chat about diving over a thirst quenching Amstel Bright (with lime).  While we were there two ladies ran the dive boat.  They were friendly and their dive briefing was accurate and informative.  Each lady on board took turns leading anyone that wanted to follow them below the surface. About half the divers on the boat trip set their own profile and went on their own.  Of the 4 boat dives, we followed the leader for about half of some of the dives and finished on our own the second half.   One thing all divers were advised on was to surface  in one hour as a courtesy to others.  There was no speech on coming up with low air or penalties for going too deep.  Here, they emphasized knowing the limits on your own. To me this was a refreshing way to dive.   I have been to resorts where they want you near the boat with about 1000 psi and on the boat with 500 psi.  I know of times where one person in a mandatory guided group made the others come up 20 minutes early because they sucked down their air too fast.    

Camouflaged Stone Fish (poisonous)                                                

Creatures Hiding in anemones and tube sponge above and below

Coral Close Up

 Friendly Turtle at 40 feet                                                                               Pretty Coral and Small Tropical Fish

Our group did 2 morning boat dives. The destinations included Rediho City, Pelican Beach, Mushroom Forest and Harry’s Hole.  What we saw on these dives were beautiful coral formations and lots of small tropical fish. At Mushroom Forest we did swim with a friendly 2 foot long turtle.  With the exception of Mushroom Forest, navigation was very easy. You simply hugged the wall in one direction and then came back in the other. Mushroom is on flatter area where we stayed at about 40 feet. Here we swam in large circle coming up once to check out the boat’s location. (which moved due to its mooring breaking away).  At Harry’s Hole our group came back to where the boat was moored with a little more air than expected due to a shallower profile kept for this second dive.  We enjoyed the extra 10 minutes swimming around all the soft corals and sand patches under and near the boat at 20 to 25 feet below because of all the small fish activity. It was here I spotted a juvenile spotted drum fish swimming back and forth with what must have been 100 newly hatched fish around it under a small ledge.  It was easy to photograph this fish as it ignored me while my camera was no more than 18 inches away. I also set the simple digital camera I was using to video and filmed it for about a minute.

Juvenile Drum Fish with new hatchlings around it                        Adult Spotted Drum Fish

The House Reef:

What is nice about the house reef at Habitat is that is beautiful, easy to dive and you can not get lost.  Starting from their recently updated diving dock there is a rope that goes straight out to 90 feet. Our plan for all shore dives would be to follow the rope to a specific agreed upon depth. We would then go 20 to 25 minutes in one directions raise our depth 10 feet or so and then go  back until we got to the rope.  During the dive we would see plenty of hard coral all along the wall. The wall was so heavy with the different Caribbean types of coral that there would be no sandy areas until you got to around 25 feet.  The reef had plenty of fish one would see for this region.  The two largest creatures we saw here was a grouper about 2 feet (2/3 meter) and a green eel that had a head nearly a foot long head (1/3 meter).  It probably was once of the largest eels I have seen in my 17 years of diving.   Each dive we did here included a safety stop by swimming in the shallow area near the moored dive boat looking for the elusive frog fish that hung out in a specific area. Unfortunately that our group did not find it. The shallow area ranged 15 feet on the top of the wall to nine meet in the middle of the flats and offered lots of soft coral an anemones to view.   On our last night  our group did a midnight dive. For 2 of the group it was their first night dive. The rope, calm seas, no currents and full moon made it pleasant experience seeing several fish sleeping in holes. One group from upstate New York did a few sunrise dives at 6:15AM to view the day fish waking up and the night fish finding places to sleep.

Beautiful French Angel On House Reef

From Our Midnight Dive                                                                                                 Ken

Water temperature for our spring trip was 80 degrees (27C) with visibility of about 75 feet. All mornings had calm seas and the boat rides to the first reefs were 20 to 30 minutes with the second stop 15 minutes closer to the hotel.   Our routine for to the first two days was a 2 tank boat dive, followed by lunch, lounging by the pool and then a late afternoon shore dive.

If you are staying here you can also dive the house reef at Ocean Encounters further west. Both hotels have reciprocal agreements for their guests.

Prices for shore diving is $24 per day. A 2 tank boat dive is $55 and includes all the shore diving you can do.  Rates include tanks and weights. Lights for night diving is $2 plus $9 to buy a 4 pack of C batteries. (if you go, bring batteries).

Non-Diving Activity:

After doing a mid-morning dive on our third day we headed to Eric’s ATV Adventures. To get there five in our group took our van to the east side of the island just past the Sea Aquarium.  Here, Eric had six yellow and red Honda ATV’s waiting for us.  We were showed a map of where we were heading out to. This included driving through different neighborhoods on the economic scale and on to a dirt roads by the ocean.   After going through the safety briefing, we donned helmets and then practiced in the dirt parking lot a few minutes before it was off on our adventure.

      Starting Point Of ATV Tour                                                                Zoom Zoom Gary Krellenstein

On The Windward Side With Powerful ATV's                                        Michael Ehrlich into the sunset 

While driving through the streets to get to the north east coast Eric used utmost caution in having us cross intersections by stopping first and waiting for us all to cross. The local drivers were also cooperative by sometimes stopping traffic so we can all go through.  We made our first stop at a radio-cell tower to see the view and learn about the geology of the area.  Our second stop was at an ostrich farm surrounded by aloe fields.  Here we saw a man cleaning eggs larger than a softball to be placed in an incubator. We learned that the ostriches on this farm can reach almost 9 feet (3 meters) in about a year at which time they are slaughtered to make steaks, chop meat and sausage.  Eric picks up the tab for refreshments here. The choice he recommended was a chilled aloe drink that was quite refreshing and quenched our parched throats. We also all tasted an aloe wine that none of us wine lovers in the group would run out and get. If they sold the all natural aloe drink in the States I would not hesitate to buy it.

It is important to know that handling an ATV is not like driving a car but closer to a motorcycle.   Driving it requires shifting from a clutch less transmission. In some ways it is like driving a motorcycle with 4 wheels. You need to be relatively coordinated and realize you just can not speed recklessly about or you can get hurt from hitting a rut or hole. Eric in a few of the difficult areas did stop and advise our group what gear to be in and reminded us to be cautious. Our group had some experience in ATV’s riding in the rain forest of Dominica and the desert of the Baja so was given a little extra liberty with the machine and trails. If you go and are not experienced, tell him and he will make a trail catered to what is the best and safest for your needs.  Lastly, Eric had us stay on trails and not bushwhack around ruining the land. 

For more information on Eric’s ATV adventure go to http://www.curacao-atv.com/  Tell him www.tabhauser.com sent you

Fishing:

The last morning in Curacao we chartered two fishing boats with Ed’s Fishing.  Four in our group elected to do a ½ day trip to see if there were any marlins, dorado, wahoo or tuna around.  We met Edwin and his wife Yolanda on the west side of the island. The good news that we fished no more than a ½ mile out because of the drop offs. The bad news is our boat only landed a small tuna and a barracuda. The other boat out with us struck out with out having a single hit.  Yolanda and Edwin make a good team. Edwin handles the boat most of the time and the fishing part of the operation. Yolando speaks excellent English and acts as host. This couple moved from Holland a year ago to start a better lift with their daughter.   She is also prepared not only with soft drinks, water, beer and sandwiches, but also soy sauce and wasabi for the sushi we requested Edwin to cut up for us on the dock as a snack when we left.  Ed’s Fishing can be found at www.caribbean-fishing.com .  Here you can make reservation and find out rates as well as what is running.

Heading Out

                                                                                             Similar Looking Tuna

                                        Sashimi Tuna Dockside After a half day fishing in Curacao

Town:

Having an afternoon flight on our last day we took advantage of walking around town for a couple of hours.  I highly recommend this as Willstad is a busy bustling center.  It is here you will find some of the best old Dutch architecture on this side of the Atlantic. Due to our limited time we only saw Temple Mikve Israel – Emanuel, the floating fruit and vegetable market and enjoyed seeing the locals go about their business among the pretty buildings while having lunch. Temple Mikve Israel – Emanuel is the oldest continuously used synagogue in the western hemisphere.  If we had another day or so I would consider a walking tour to learn about the history and buildings here.  (I would like to note that we visited one of the casinos the last night after having a nice dinner at the French bistro by the fort. We found the casino at Holiday Beach drab and not exciting to be in. On top of that, they misdealt a hand of black jack and did not stop the play after given the wrong cards.  We also stopped into the Breezes resort to look around and were not impressed with their casino either. Our group would not recommend Curacao if you looking to gamble as a daily activity.)

                                                                                   Floating Fruit Market

Temple Mikve Israel – Emanuel

Temple Mikve Israel – Emanuel

Downtown

Some Thoughts:
Curacao is not just another pretty Caribbean island devoted to weekly tourists and daily cruise boaters. It is a working island devoted to industry, trade and oil refinement.  It is not the most scenic of islands I have visited in the Caribbean compared to St. Lucia, Dominica, Tortola and others, yet it is a place I am glad to have visited for what it did offer.  We found the people nice and the diving excellent.  Had we spent a few more days here we would have gone hiking in one of the national parks and perhaps hit a few of the beaches on and off the main roads.  There are some newer hotels near the dive spots. If we come back we would probably shop for a different hotel on the same side of the island just for a change.  The Habitat Curacao’s is a pleasant enough place but it is all about diving here. As a dive destination I give it 5 stars.  As a hotel / resort I give the place  3 stars.   If they put a some extra effort into a few things like better showers, cleaner rooms and amenities to name a few things as well as improved the food and service  I would have given them another star.  For information on just about everything you need on the island go to http://www.curacao.com/

            Sunrise at Habitat Curacao

Last Good Meal With A View Of the City

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