The Habitat Curacao trip report

Left Philly on Friday. USAIR managed to take 5 1/2 hours to get to
Miami. Plane late coming in, then needed a maintenance person to free
a valve so they could empty the toilet holding tank. USAir put us up
Friday night, but our lugage was locked down in a security transfer
area so no clothes etc.
Left Miami Saturday morning 1 hour late on American Air and got to
Curacao at 3 PM. Budget rental saw the line out the front and around
the corner so they let all but one attendant go on break, took two
hours to get the truck. Got to tha Habitat by 5:45 and checked in, the
room were showing wear, but fine. Hit the grocery store and was
smashed by 8 PM
The resturant at Habitat melted down due to the number of new arrivals
and it took 2 1/2 hours to get mediocre food. One person was told
after 2 hours that they were out of what she ordered. We gave her the
remainder of our rum punch drink coupons, and she seemed happy.
Did a shore dive at 9 on Sunday and found the coral to be in good
contition, but there was moss growing on pretty much all of it. The
reef was covered with fish life so it seemed to be ok.
We did a number of boat and shore dives and found the same thing,
coral in good shape, abundant fish life, moss starting to grow.

We say octopus and turtle and a lot of free swiming eels. There was
more varied fish life than anywhere else I have dived. The only down
side is they allow the locals to fish anywhere they want including the
marine park, so there are no big fish

Would I go back ? yes
Would I stay at Habitat ? yes
Would I change anything ? yes, I would not dive a shore dive site
until I spoke to a dive shop member that had fived it before.

Things to look out for
Whatch out at the gas stations, the price of fuel is not
marked as dollars or guilders so when you give them money the punp
will shut off at what you gave them, but if you gave them a 20 US they
set the pump at 20 NS. It is up to you to go ask for your change. If
you pass a local car with a young (below 40) male driving be pretty
much assured he will feel his masculinity has been questioned and
tailgate you until either he turns or you do. Do not expect gormet
food. Other than that it was a great place and the diving was
terrific. Mid 80's during the day and mid 70's at night was very easy
to get used to. There were no bugs so you could leave your doors and
windows open at night to sleep. Be careful with your wet suit and damp
towels on lounge chairs, they do have scorpions that seem to like the
moisture. Their sting is like a very large wasp/

On Mar 11, 8:53 am, log_...@verizonnet.addthedot (Rod) wrote:

> Did a shore dive at 9 on Sunday and found the coral to be in good
> contition, but there was moss growing on pretty much all of it. The
> reef was covered with fish life so it seemed to be ok.
> We did a number of boat and shore dives and found the same thing,
> coral in good shape, abundant fish life, moss starting to grow.

I believe it's called algae, not moss. We Mossmen get sensitive about
this.

On Mar 11, 10:53 am, log_...@verizonnet.addthedot (Rod) wrote:
> Did a shore dive at 9 on Sunday and found the coral to be in good
> contition, but there was moss growing on pretty much all of it. The
> reef was covered with fish life so it seemed to be ok.
> We did a number of boat and shore dives and found the same thing,
> coral in good shape, abundant fish life, moss starting to grow.

> Would I go back ? yes
> Would I stay at Habitat ? yes
> Would I change anything ? yes, I would not dive a shore dive site
> until I spoke to a dive shop member that had fived it before.

When I was there, the only shore dive I did was the one right off the
dock at the resort. I thought it was great. Is that not the one you
did?

On 11 Mar 2007 10:08:23 -0700, bracuk@axxent.ca wrote:

>On Mar 11, 10:53 am, log_...@verizonnet.addthedot (Rod) wrote:
>> Did a shore dive at 9 on Sunday and found the coral to be in good
>> contition, but there was moss growing on pretty much all of it. The
>> reef was covered with fish life so it seemed to be ok.
>> We did a number of boat and shore dives and found the same thing,
>> coral in good shape, abundant fish life, moss starting to grow.
>
>> Would I go back ? yes
>> Would I stay at Habitat ? yes
>> Would I change anything ? yes, I would not dive a shore dive site
>> until I spoke to a dive shop member that had fived it before.
>
>When I was there, the only shore dive I did was the one right off the
>dock at the resort. I thought it was great. Is that not the one you
>did?
>
>
I did Habitat reef many times, we also drove to Playa Kalki and did a
shore dive, this is where I got into trouble with current, and to
Vaersenbaai and did two shore dives.

On Mar 11, 2:41 pm, log_...@verizonnet.addthedot (Rod) wrote:
> It is not long and stringy like algae it looks more like arugla

Christine Arugla? She's definitly not long and stringy.