Diving Curacao Island Thanksgiving 2006

By Gene Lucas Pictures By Joann Lucas

Arriving at the Airport 2 hours early has given us time to wonder about our fall dive destination of Curacao, Neitherlands Antillies. All Dive trips start by going to bed late, and getting up very early. This trip was no exception. Out last trip to this Dutch Island was in the fall of 1997. We are very excited about getting down there and seeing the changes that have evolved. It is a 4 hour flight to Miami and and 3 hours to Curacao from there. Curacao is 3 hours ahead of us on Atlantic Time Zone, so by the time we arrive at Hato airport it is 9 pm. We immediataly breeze thru customs even with a passport that is set to expire next month. Your passport is supposed to be valid for at least 6 months after returning home. Our resort for this trip is The Habitat, it is on the west side of the island and overlooks the ocean. It is about 35 miles off the coast of Venezuela. This is our first dive trip in two years. On this trip Joann and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary on Thanksgiving. This also happens to be the resort we got married at! The first order of business after arriving at the resort is to get a room and get some sleep. In the morning after a big breakfast we will do our first dive of the week. It will be a short check out dive off the beach. We are just checking our weights and gear to be sure it is all working properly. Short turns out to be 55 minutes, because the water is so warm and refreshing. Once that is out of the way we head back to our rooms for a quick shower and then to the Oceans Restaurant & Bar for lunch before heading out for our first boat dive in 2 years. The ocean this afternoon is smooth and calm. One thing I still remember about Curacao diving after 9 years is the current can change directions during a dive. You can have the current behind you both going out on the dive and coming back. The 2 dive sites for this afternoon are Mike's Place and Hell's Corner. The second boat dive will start at 8:15 in the morning. We meet at the restaurant at 7:30 for breakfast , and south american coffee. Curacao is one of the few Islands in the Caribbean where the water is safe to drink. They have a desalination plant in Willamstad that supplies water to the island. So drink up mates, no worry. Over Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, mashed patatoes, gravy, pecan pie, and Pina Coladas, we decide an early am dive is a must. So we plan on meeting at the dive dock at 5:30 am. Friday 5:00 am we are up and getting dressed for a pre sun up morning dive. We will be diving "Nos Cas" That is Papiamento (Local Language) for Our House. This will be my first dive ever before the sun rises. We are in the water and out over the wall before 6 am. This is basicly a night dive, except the sun will be coming up in 15 minutes. Oh geez I wish I was a morning person now. We make a pretty bad move by heading down current, maybe because we are still asleep. Once we have timed out and start backup current we are seeing the error in our ways. The current has been non exeistent all week untill now. We kick and kick and are making very little progress. We had gone down stream for 30 minutes so the return into the current will take longer. If you stop kicking you will drift backwards and have to regain that ground again, by kicking that much harder. My legs are still burning. Once we are back on terra firma we just move our dive gear over next to the tanks that are ready to be loaded on the boat when it arrives. This is around 7:30 am, our boat will arrive around 8:00. This will be our last boat dive of the trip. We will be diving The Cave and Coral Gardens dive sites. As soon as we are in the water for the first dive the dive master from Germany is trying to get our attention he has spotted another sea horse. It is about 6 inches tall and wrapped around a small plant in about 30 feet of water. Once we all get a good look we start heading up current for our dive. All of the people on this trip with us have been diving for years, no one is really worried about having to look out for any one. This makes the diving much easier, all you have to do is just blow bubbles and have fun. In between dives we stop off at the cave. A few of us go under the wall and inside is a cave with a 30 foot ceiling, and 50 feet around. The cave is in about 20 feet of water. They call it the Blue room. Once inside it has an erie blue color to it. As we head back to the boat you have to hold your breath and go back under the wall of the cave. The second dive goes quickly and we are heading back to the resort. The captain had been telling jokes while we were waiting to make our second dive. He is Dutch or German and has an obvious accent. This has been another great dive trip and I am starting to get into the return home mode. We are watching the weather to get temps back in Denver, and making plans once we are home. We will leave for the airport at 1:30 on Saturday flying American Airlines back to Miami then to Denver.

These are a few of our Favorite Curacao Pictures

Click on these Pictures to enlarge

Joann Pool Side	Chicao	Looking North	Coral Estates	Dive Dock	Room view	Resort Pool
Family Rooms	Joann Habitat	Flower	Dive Boat	Prop	Welmastad	Joann
DownTown	Bridge	Dancing Bells	Little Switzer	Cruise Ship	Sunset On Ship	Sunset