Our trip to Curaçao in November of 2023 was our first time diving in the Caribbean. We chose Curaçao as it was easy to get to - there is a direct flight from Toronto to Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao; because my Dad had dove there and enjoyed it; and because it still had coral reefs which were in decent health. Our trip was primarily focused on scuba diving - we dove for 4 days of the 7 we were on the island. The reefs are quite close to the island, making its easy to do a shore dive and see lots of coral and sea life without needing to boat out to the reefs.
The trip was organized somewhat last minute, so I ended up booking both our flights and accommodations through Air Canada Vacations. The hotel we stayed at was the Renaissance Wind Creek Curaçao, which was a hotel right on the ocean near one of the cruise ship terminals. It didn’t have a beach, but it did have a pool with sand, which was close enough for us. It was easy to get from the airport to the hotel, and the hotel was located close to a number of restaurants. There was also a small grocery store a short walk from the hotel, which made it easy to get snacks for breakfast and lunch on dive days when we didn’t have time to go to a restaurant. The hotel was located right beside a cruise ship terminal, and we saw multiple ships dock during our week-long stay at the hotel.
While the focus of the trip was on scuba diving, we also had 3 days where we weren’t diving, and we used that time to relax and explore Willemstad. The country is still part of the Netherlands, and its interesting to see the cultural and architectural influence the Dutch have had on the island. There is still a strong culture of serving fries with mayonnaise, which I originally thought was a bit strange but I did grow to enjoy. We had a number of enjoyable dinners - many were on our side of the bay, but several evenings we crossed to the other side. One particularly notable dinner was at Cafe De Tijd, a BBQ restaurant with delicious ribs. The evening after we finished diving, we enjoyed a cocktail at the Iguana Cafe, which, counter to its name, didn’t have any iguanas. It was an enjoyable place to watch the world go by. Our last evening we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner at Caleo.
When we weren’t out exploring the town we relaxed at the hotel beach. There were a number of permanently set out umbrellas with lounging chairs, which provided me some much-needed shade. Luckily the beach wasn’t too busy, so even on days we were diving if we wanted a place to sit in the shade we could find one. While on the beach I read Pierre Burton’s The Last Spike; I’d read it when I was younger, and it was an interesting book to re-read.
We dove with Ocean Encounters, which had fantastic crews and great equipment. Their dive shop was not within walking distance of the hotel, and I didn’t want to rent a car, so we organized pickups and drop-offs through the dive shop. On the mornings we dove, one of the dive shop staff would pick us up at the hotel, and after we were done one of them drove us back to the hotel. We dove for 4 days of the 7 we were in Curaçao; and each dive day followed a similar routine. We were picked up shortly before 8 AM in the morning, and it was roughly a 15 minute drive from the hotel to the dive shop. Once there we’d get our equipment and see which dive boat we were on; the boats typically left at 8:30 AM. Each of the dive days we did 2 dives off the boat, with a roughly 1 hour surface interval in between dives. We’d make it back to the shop around 12:30; where we’d take our gear off the boat. We would then have a small lunch of snacks we’d packed, and around 1:30 PM we’d get geared up and do a shore dive just outside the dive shop. Once we had finished the shore dive and gotten our gear put away it was usually around 3 PM. The dive shop had a convenient locker system, so we were able to leave all our equipment in between dives so we didn’t have to pack it up and take it back to the hotel each afternoon.
The shore dives, when heading north from the dive shop, take you past a coral nursery, where the local dive community is working with marine scientists in the Reef Renewal Curacao program to regrow coral. These were pretty unique dives - instead of seeing coral growing on the ground, many bits of coral could be found attached to tree-like structures floating upright, anchored to the seabed. It was encouraging to see the positive momentum the local dive community has towards restoring the state of the reefs around the island, and I’m hopeful they continue to succeed with this project.
Below are a selection of the photos I took while underwater. The photos were taken using a Monster Digital 4K Action camera, which is similar to a GoPro. I had used this camera previously while diving on the Great Barrier Reef and in Hawaii, however its ability to handle the clear water and bright lighting in the water around Curaçao left a lot to be desired, and I wasn’t able to correct the colours very well. Apologies! We had a great time diving in Curaçao - the water was a beautiful temperature and the reefs seemed quite healthy. The efforts they are putting into restoring the coral are coming along well!
We did see several lionfish on our dives - this invasive species looks impressive but is damaging to the local ecosystem. The dive shop we went with organizes lionfish-hunting dives, as a way to try and bring the species under control; however we did not end up doing one of those dives. Perhaps next time we’re on the island?
