Dushi Curaçao
At the last shift change, we left Bonaire behind us and are now south of Klein Curaçao. The lighthouse flashes tirelessly, warning me to keep my distance. Two hours later, just in time for dawn, we are behind Curaçao. Two large illuminated towers lead me to suspect from a distance that they are high-rise buildings. Only when we enter the Spaanse Waters lagoon do I see that it is a huge drilling ship. Curaçao has its own refinery, which is getting a bit long in the tooth. It used to process oil from the shallow waters of Venezuela, which was then shipped via an offshore port. With the sanctions against Venezuela, this business has collapsed and a new operator has been sought since 2019.
The entrance to the Spaanse Waters lagoon is very narrow and shallow on one side. Fortunately, it is just getting light; in the dark it would have been very difficult to make out the entrance, as it is not lit. The shallows in the channel are marked with small unlit buoys. These would also have been difficult to see at night. Even now, you can see the contrast to the Caribbean islands we have visited so far. There are hardly any hills and the dry, barren landscape with many cacti suggests little rainfall. We successfully drop anchor in the front row of the small harbour in the lagoon, which means we have a short distance to walk to the dinghy dock.
Our feelings about Curaçao and the ABC Islands can be summarised as follows: At first, we were a little disappointed that we didn't have time to visit all three islands, or at least two of them. When we took a closer look at sailing reports, we briefly wondered why we had come here at all and were glad to be insured for the San Blas Islands in Panama after all. On Curaçao, there is only Spaanse Waters where you can anchor for more than three days; for all other bays, you need a permit costing USD 25 to stay for exactly three nights. Entering Aruba by boat is expensive and the options are similar. So it was mainly a special four-day diving course that ultimately brought us to Curaçao for at least a few days.
Since Spaanse Waters is off the beaten track, you have to go to Willemstad to clear customs, and the diving school is located in the middle (not by the sea) on the other side of the island, we rented a car. We get the boat ready, have breakfast, and then the car is delivered directly to the dinghy dock. We get a Chinese Great Wall instead of the Kia Picato we ordered, as too many parts are stolen from the latter and we can only park the car on the street. The car number plate with the pretty colourful houses gives us hope for more. First, we head to Willemstad to clear customs. On the way, we see the first pretty colourful houses. We park centrally and, as usual, go to customs first. It is located in the centre of Willemstad. We stroll between the pretty old buildings. However, the shops, clearly designed for cruise passengers, seem less inviting.
When we arrive at customs, we find ourselves standing in front of closed doors with an ‘Out of Office’ sign. The phone number is of no use to us, as we don't have roaming here. Fortunately, an official arrives and lets us in. After a brief conversation, a customs officer explains that we first have to go to immigration. However, she gives us the Wi-Fi code so that we can call via WhatsApp as soon as we are back here. Theoretically, it's not far to the immigration office. Once across the Queen Emma Bridge, a floating pedestrian bridge that can be folded away using a small boat motor, then turn right along the riverbank on the other side to the end. We quickly realise that the gate to the harbour area is closed. Attempts to reach our destination via other shortcuts also fail. In the meantime, the sun is at its zenith and it is sweltering hot. In total, it takes us 40 minutes to reach immigration. Most of the way takes us through the second row of Willemstad, which is still lined with pretty houses, and only the last part leads past the smelly refinery. Despite everything, there is a large intact ‘old town’, which shows that the island (like Aruba and Bonaire) is not in the hurricane zone and there is no volcano.
On the way back to Customs, we stop for refreshments at Mayra's Kitchen, a pleasant restaurant away from the cruise tourist areas, and enjoy an excellent meal. The officials are all extremely friendly and the formalities, once you are there, are quickly completed. As we see and hear the word ‘Dushi’ everywhere, we ask the friendly customs officer what it actually means. He explains that it means ‘sweet’. In Curaçao, however, it is used for all sorts of things, and all girls and women are addressed as Dushi. This is not necessarily an attempt at flirting, but rather means something like ‘my dear lady’. Afterwards, we explore the rest of the city, which seems a little deserted on a Sunday afternoon. However, there are always beautiful corners and alleys to discover, and art is omnipresent. On the way, we discover that it is the last day of the Curaçao Film Festival, so we buy tickets and watch an entertaining film about an elderly Iranian woman who falls in love again, with a tragic ending.
Pretty exhausted, we fall into bed, and the next day is set to start early, as we still need to visit the port authority before we are expected at the dive shop at 9:00 a.m.
We make an early start at 7:30 a.m. and head for the port authority. The traffic on Curaçao isn't as bad as on Martinique, but it's still not to be underestimated. Everything goes smoothly at the port authority and we manage to get to the dive shop shortly after 9:00 a.m. We quickly realise that the name of the diving school says it all: Relaxed Guided Dives. First, we are served coffee and everything is discussed at leisure. We meet Katrin, an Austrian woman who works here with Pieter and Liam, the owners. I had already been in close contact with Katrin via WhatsApp regarding our courses. We get along well and draw up a rough plan for the week. Romana is doing her Open Water Diver course with Katrin, which is expected to take two days. Ines and I start with Nitrox diving (an air mixture with a higher oxygen content so we can stay deeper for longer), then continue with the Deep Diver, where we are allowed to dive to 40 m, and finish as planned with 3 decompression dives (dives with planned decompression stops to reduce the accumulated nitrogen). The whole thing takes at least four days.
Today we are heading to Kokomo Beach for our first two dives. We pack our tanks and equipment and drive to the beach. These are our first shore dives, which means dives started directly from the shore. We get dressed by the car and waddle across the beach with all our equipment. We are greeted by beautiful turquoise water. We swim out a bit and then descend to the reef. On the way, we see a seahorse hanging out, a rare sight. The underwater world is a welcome contrast. After days of crashing waves, spraying sea spray, rocking and the constant hissing of the wind, it is suddenly completely calm. All you can hear is the bubbling of your breath bubbles, and you can only see the waves when you look up. You can lie completely still in the water and watch the fish go about their business. After the first dive, we enjoy a delicious (as the Dutch say) refreshment in the restaurant at Kokomo Beach. Then Ines and I go back into the water with Nitrox. We look for the seahorse again to show it to Romana and Katrin, and Pieter, our guide, actually finds it again. It appears to be a pregnant male. Ines sees a turtle and we also see a few barracudas. Romana completes her exercises satisfactorily and at the end of our dive we see her at the reef together with Katrin. Finally, we head to the beach bar. We drink two Dekobier/Aperol with Katrin and Pieter before the two of them take our equipment back to the dive shop to wash it for us. This gives us time for another drink and to end the day with a sunset on the beach.
When the bar closes, we take our bags and head for one of the beach beds. Ines and I want to take a photo on the beach swing and walk a little way away. Romana is about to join us after finishing her phone call when Ines, talking to her, sees someone in the background packing our rucksack and running off with it into the bushes. She shouts to Romana: ‘The backpack!’ And the two of them run after the perpetrator. It takes me two minutes to understand what has happened, then I run after them. At the top of the hill, I meet Romana alone without her shoes. When I ask her what happened and where Ines is, she says that the backpack was stolen and that the path split and Ines took the other path. I stay with Romana and we walk a little further along the path. Two hikers tell us they saw the perpetrator with the backpack. At least we know he's not with Ines. We walk along the path, Romana barefoot and me in flip-flops, wondering what's in the backpack. It turns out we were lucky in our misfortune. It is ‘only’ Romana's purse with a little cash inside. We all have our mobile phones, car keys, boat keys, passports and our two purses. After a short chase, I convince her that there is no point in chasing someone who knows the area and is wearing good shoes, and we turn back. On the beach, we briefly exchange information with Ines and the security guards, because you can only access the beach through a gate, as it is a private beach club. Romana blocks her cards on the spot using the Wi-Fi. We drive to the police station to file a report. The police officer takes his time and meticulously records everything; after an hour, we are done. Once again, we fall into bed exhausted.
The next day, we dive at one of the most beautiful beaches in Curaçao: Playa Cas Abao. The sand is incredibly white and the water is a cheesy turquoise. Romana dives with Katrin again while we do our deep dive with Pieter. Even at 40 metres, it is still very bright and the white sand reminds us of a ski slope. After a quick lunch at the beach bar, we drive one beach further to Playa Dushi. We are completely alone there, as it is located in a guarded residential area. Here we all dive together. We spend a leisurely afternoon at the diving school and toast Romana's Open Water Diver certification with Schladminger Zirbenschnaps, an Austrian liquor.
The next day, we can sleep in for the first time, as there are no dives scheduled, only a theory session on decompression diving in the afternoon. We decide to go back to Kokomo Beach and walk the entire trail, hoping to find our backpack, even if it's probably without the wallet. The trail leads along the cliffs to a small beach that's almost like a cave. Then we continue towards the road, assuming that the thief parked there. The trail becomes less rocky and more earthy, and we walk through a small cactus forest. Every now and then, we keep looking for the backpack in the bushes. When we reach the road, we split up and search both sides of the road, but apart from Curaçao's rubbish problem, we can't find anything in the ditch or the bushes. We have never seen so much rubbish on any island before. From normal plastic waste to large paint cans, original packaging but broken tiles, an old cash register and even a steering wheel, everything is there. We give up on the backpack and enjoy a few more hours on the beach before heading to the diving school.
At the diving school, we meet Wolfgang from the Klagenfurt diving shop. This means that, at least for a short time, there are more citizens of our small landlocked country in this diving shop than others. Wolfgang will do the decompression diver course with us and at the same time train Pieter to become an instructor for the course. First, he gives us another theory lesson. He checks again whether we have understood how nitrogen builds up and breaks down in the body, calculates the air consumption for a dive with us and checks our equipment. Afterwards, we sit together over a few beers and chat. As we have three dives planned for the next day and Wolfgang has a business appointment, we manage to leave on time. We have one last drink on the boat and then it's off to bed.
Thursday morning starts with traffic jams on the way to the dive shop. Once there, we test the oxygen content of our nitrox tanks, Romana gets a crash course in nitrox, and then we head to the cruise pier. Because there are no cruises today, we can dive the wreck of the Superior. A freighter loaded with jeans and rum that sank shortly before reaching its destination in 1977. Diving instructor Liam tells us that the local population flocked to the wreck because of its cargo. Some are even said to have died while free diving (to get hold of goods), which is no surprise as the wreck lies at a depth of 30 metres. The entry point via the empty cruise pier is special. Underwater, we dive between the support pillars towards the wreck. In between is a nice reef with lots of colourful fish. The wreck looks impressive from a distance. We dive into the empty cargo holds, where sponges and fish have made themselves at home. A whole school of large tarpon hangs above the wreck. Finally, we pass through the bridge and kitchen of the ship before we have to return. On the way back, Ines discovers a cruise map and an octopus hiding under a rock.
Wolfgang joins us for the second dive. Today we have a skills session. For decompression diving, we each get an extra small bottle enriched with a higher oxygen content to reduce the decompression time. We learn how to use it above and below water, new one-handed hand signals and a few other things. When we are finished to the satisfaction of Pieter and Wolfgang, we are allowed to return to the wreck. This time we dive down late, so we get a good view of the entire wreck. It is our longest dive, lasting almost 1:30 hours. We spend the afternoon in the dive shop trying to finish our digital diving courses, have a snack and pay, as we won't be coming back to the dive shop tomorrow. Paying is difficult on Curaçao; the Caribbean guilders don't like our Austrian cards and everyone pays in USD. In the end, we have no choice but to pay in USD.
Shortly before sunset, a few Dutchmen, colleagues of Pieter and Hans, arrive from the hospital for the night dive. We chat briefly and then pack everything for the night dive. We drive to the beach in two cars. After the second car gets stuck on a rough patch between sand and cacti and we have to join forces to push it free, we arrive later than planned. The sun has already set by the time we enter the water. Today, a special spectacle awaits us. We want to watch the ostracods, tiny shellfish, perform a bioluminescent spectacle for mating. Pieter leads us to a sandy spot where we kneel down and turn off all our lights. After a while, vertical chains of lights appear everywhere: first you see a single light, then the next one lights up further down, and then another one at the same distance, until it looks like glowing pearls on a chain. After watching the magical spectacle for a while, we dive back a little way without our lamps. In the darkness, every movement is enveloped in glowing plankton. We feel like Tinkerbell (from Peter Pan) surrounded by glitter dust. On the way back, we are still surrounded by the spectacle of ostracods, which look like fairy lights. It is truly magical and amazing how the eyes can adapt to low light. After stowing away our equipment and getting changed, we have a beer together on the beach. Then we head back to the dive shop. A quick wash, a bite to eat and two small beers later, we are on our way home late at night.
The next day will be exhausting. At 7 a.m., we are on our way to immigration to clear customs, as we want to leave on Saturday. It is Good Friday and luckily there is no traffic. We get through immigration quickly and hope to be able to clear customs as well. The customs officers are still out, and the promised 20 minutes until their return turns into an indefinite amount of time, so we have to go back to Spaanse Waters to return our car and get to the dive boat on time. In typical Caribbean fashion, picking up the car is delayed by another quarter of an hour, but no problem, no one on the dive boat is stressed either. Once everything is stowed away, we set off. There are three dive groups on board and we head for Eestpoint, the easternmost tip of Curaçao.
Ines and I complete our decompression dives. It is important that we always keep an eye on our dive time at depth. At depth, nitrogen accumulates in the various body tissues. During normal dives, you only stay at depth long enough to be able to resurface at any time (without decompression stops). During our dives, we stay at depth longer and deliberately exceed the no-decompression limit, making planned decompression stops to allow the accumulated nitrogen to be released. Planning is important here, because you can't just resurface at any time. We therefore make a dive plan to ensure we have enough air left at the end, which we follow strictly. We also have an extra tank of enriched oxygen (nitrox) with us, which we switch to during decompression stops to speed up nitrogen removal. On the first dive, this allowed us to stay at a depth of 40 metres for 15 minutes instead of the usual 9 minutes without decompression stops.
After the first dive goes to Wolfgang's satisfaction, we are even allowed to hunt the invasive lionfish briefly during the second dive. Since we are not bound by the no-decompression time, we can dive deeper and longer than the rest of the group and find a few well-hidden specimens. Everything goes according to plan on the second dive as well, and we return safely to the surface.
Back in Spaanse Water, after a short debriefing by Wolfgang, we are officially awarded the Decompression Diver certificate and Pieter is allowed to teach the course in future. We say goodbye to Wolfgang and I make my way to the Customs Office. In the meantime, Ines and Romana wash all the diving gear and start preparing dinner. Pieter, Katrin and Hans from the diving school drop by to say goodbye. We end the evening with a meal and drinks together and say goodbye to our new acquaintances and, in a way, to Curaçao, because tomorrow we are moving on. Our impression: dushi Curaçao, it's hard to say goodbye.
Good bye dinner with Pieter, Katrin and Hans on board of Vaquita
Useful tips:
Curaçao and the other ABC islands are not necessarily a classic sailing paradise in the sense that there are many opportunities to explore secluded bays without any complications. Clearing customs is somewhat complicated and, in Aruba, also expensive. The selection of bays where you are allowed to anchor and the rules for doing so are tedious. Nevertheless, the islands have their charm when using the boat as a base. The climate is very dry and the islands are outside the hurricane zone, which is why they are popular for parking boats during the hurricane season. Curaçao offers a range of land and underwater activities, and Willemstad is also worth a visit. There are beautiful landscapes for hiking, fantastic beaches and great diving spots, which are easy to explore on your own. Since you are limited in your movements with a boat, we found it very useful to rent a car.
You first have to clear customs in Willemstad at Immigration (red pin on map), but the direct route was blocked for us (red cross on map below) and we had to take a long detour. If you have a car, it is worth driving directly to Immigration. Immigration uses the following form: OFFICIAL Digital Immigration Card Curaçao. Select private jet as your means of arrival with flight number 000 and port of embarkation: not listed. The port authority is right next to Immigration. There you pay USD 25 for a 3-month anchorage permit in Spanish Waters. All other anchorage permits can also be applied for there. You must specify the exact days (max. 3) and pay USD 25 per permit. Customs on Curaçao uses Sailclear. All officials were very friendly and helpful. You only have to clear customs at Immigration and Customs in the order mentioned. The customs office has Wi-Fi with the password Test2020 (when we were there). Customs officials like to put up a sign saying they are not there. Simply call them on WhatsApp on this number: +599 9 677 9440. The bottleneck at the weekend is the port authority, which is closed. You should still complete immigration and customs formalities and report to the port authority on the next working day.
Opening hours:
Port Authority:
Monday to Thursday: 7:30 - 11:30 and 13:30 - 16:00
Friday: 7:30 - 11:30 and 13:30 - 15:30
Immigrations: Monday to Sunday 7:00 - 21:00
Customs: Monday to Sunday 6:00 - 22:00
We booked our car with RENT A CAR ON CURACAO. It cost EUR 290 for 5 days, including delivery to and collection from Spanish Waters.
There are various dive shops on the island. We went diving with Relaxed Guided Dives, who can also be easily contacted via WhatsApp (+599 9 522 1810). A very relaxed and competent group of divers, who also teach more advanced courses. There are also special dives, e.g. on the windward side, Ostracots, boat trips to Eestpoint or Klein Curaçao, which are best to enquire about. If you just want to go diving, it is very inexpensive on Curaçao and, as far as we have heard, also on Bonaire. You rent a car, pick up the tanks and drive yourself to the dive sites. Most of the time, you just walk straight into the water from the beach, swim a few metres and you're right at the reef. Relaxed Guided Dives offers this, among other things, and has a compressor to fill tanks. You can also discuss the possible dive sites with the diving instructors there. There are plenty of good and easy dive sites.
Curaçao is a great place to stock up on provisions. The supermarkets have a wide range of European foods and the prices are reasonable.
Paying is a hassle. Our credit cards were not accepted in the local currency, and we heard the same from most other foreigners. You therefore have to add a little extra to the local prices, as you have to pay for everything in USD unless you withdraw cash. If you are travelling directly to the San Blas Islands, it is advisable to take plenty of cash in USD with you, which you can withdraw from most ATMs.
