Habitat Curaçao, 1999
Author: Faik Erem

We just came from Habitat Curaçao about a week ago. We had stayed there for 12 days and had more than 25 dives. We saw a wide variety of fish, creatures, and coral which all are well known by many of the divers on this board. So rather than giving information about barracuda, trumpet fish, parrot fish,sea bass, black urchins, ocean triggerfish, spotted moray, spotted goatfish, smooth truckfish, and many more, I would like to focus on accommodation on the island and comparing Curaçao with Bonaire. But before I must say that I found myself very lucky to see a yellow frog-fish first time in my life and took several shots of her. When I first decided to spend a diving holiday in Curaçao, I was in doubt if it was the right decision. Because when one reviews dive magazines and such boards as RSD's, Bonaire seems much more attractive. Maybe I did not want to visit Bonaire again where I dove in April for 2 weeks although I liked it very much and to see another island. The second difficulty was where to stay. After surfing on the internet and reading reports about Curaçao, I had 2 choices left. "Lions dive" or "habitat Curaçao". Here, I want to thank you Doc V. helping me for the right decision for Habitat Curaçao. Underwater of Curaçao is same as Bonaire and maybe the diving sites in West-punt and also mushroom forest are much better than Bonaire. We also made at least 5 drift dives in Curaçao. We met with many turtles in different dives and took many shots. Other groups saw nurse sharks but unfortunately no encounter for us. There are many hotels in Curaçao to stay and all have diving features. Generally they are located close to the town. However, if your main purpose is diving, with no doubt, the destination should be habitat because in all hotels, diving is a feature but in habitat, hotel is a feature. It is a 3 years old Hotel. Need more and more plantation, larger beach and larger dining place and better service but diving facilities and diving team is excellent. The rooms are quite and comfortable with A/C, refrigerator and also kitchen so you can cook if you like. As they say ,there is "diving freedom" in the resort. You can dive whenever you like. Put your gear on and jump into the water during 24 hours or load the tanks from the lobby to your car and drive. Mike, Chris, Baba, Doctor D and the other diving stuff are very nice and professional people and at your service whenever you need them. Thanks to all of them. The resort is probably one of the few places in the island where you can make a night dive without a boat and begin the dive just from the resort to the house reef. As a last few words, when you visit Curaçao, do not forget eating a dinner in Blues Restaurant at Avila Beach.

Thats all.

Stay wet DSAO Dive Safe And Often