After roughly  9 hours flight with KLM from Amsterdam the plane is landing in Hato. If you are planning to stay at Curacao you should book a directflight  (not via Aruba). In Aruba there are no luggage boxes at the airport, no restaurants and if you like to spend your time  in Oranjestad untill your ongoing flight starts, you have to carry around your whole luggage  :-( On Curacao the airport  Hato is located directly opposite the capital Willemstad on the other side of the island. We booked the flight directly at KLM -  this was a little cheaper as in a travel agency  :-) 

It takes 30 minutes with a taxi from the airport to Habitat Curacao and a taxi costs between 20 - 30 Dollar (try to bargain). Booking the transfer at the travel agent  would have been more expensive.  While travelling to the hotel one notices very  soon, why cactuses are growing so well on Curacao: The climate on Curacao is quite dry. During the day temperatures are around 34 - 38°C with a high  humidity. We have been there in the rainy season (October - February) and got for 4 weeks not a single drop of rain. There is always a good  strong wind ( Passat) blowing, which makes the temperatures absolutely bearable.

Habitat Curacao is located in a  nature reserve -  before the Taxi reaches the hotel you have to pass a road block, which occurs as a guarded barrier. When reaching the Habitat with it  open styled receiption, you  will be surprised about the silence. One thing you know immediately : here is no mass tourism. Coming to know people on Curacao you will soon notice how friendly they are. This you find also with the staff of Habitat Curacao. As a diver you will  feel at home at Habitat Curacao after few minutes, just because one of the first ask questions at the receiption is: Can you show me your diving license ?

At the receiption desk is explained everything about the hotel. A speciality is you have to announce if you are NOT going to dive for one day. You simply return your weights and fill out a form. All in all  Habitat Curacao is simply the best base we know so far (especially the dive guides). The Habitat is ruled by  "dive and feel free"... as long as one keeps to the rules. Which means:   24 hours a day DIVING - without registration. Just pick up the full tanks, enjoy your dive and leave nothing but bubbles. Registration is only necessary if you like to take part at a boatdive. Even at a boatdive there is no restraint to follow the group . 

A  boat leaves twice a day for two boatdives. After getting a short briefing about the dive site, you are free to follow the guide with the group or to discover the site by your own. Even if you belong to divers, who have  low air consumption it causes no problems, you can stay as long as you like. Such behaviour is perfect for an underwater photographer. When the last diver is in, the tour goes on the second site.  :-)

As mentioned before,  dive and feel free. On the other hand it is  expected that you know what you are doing. For those who do not believe in physical laws there are plenty of deco cabins nearby...

The sea is very warm - even in a depth of 30m the thermometer shows 28°C. Very soon you get used to look on your depthmeter more often than usual. Caused by the warm water and the excellent visibility one has the feeling to be just in a depth of 10 m.  

We booked at the Habitat Curacao a Juniorsuite with kitchenette and a big balkony. All rooms have aircondition and are furnished with 2 Kingsize beds  - which means enough space for 4 persons . We did not book meals, although food and drinks at the Rum Runners (restaurant and bar) are very good.

Thrice a day a shuttlebus travels to Willemstad (free of charge). The hotel has also cars for rental. There are a number  of Pickups, which can be rented  by the hour (min. 3) or for complete days. Normally the cars are used for exploring the island and making a diving excursion. We also used it for doing our shopping. At the Habitat there is a little shop ... but we preferred to drive to the supermarket . The Supermarkt is located near Willemstad on the right handside. Concerning prices: as a rule of thumb german prices multiplied with 2 and the result in dollar.  

For divers without own equipment, there is everything for rental. Starting with the complete diving equipment over lamps up to photokameras and housings. If you are an underwaterphotographer you will love Curacao. The water is very clear and there are plenty of motives (animals and plants), which are worth to be pictured. Most of the divers are also photographers. For this reason the photoshop offers s the deveplopment of slidefilms (E6). Once a week (on thursday 's slideshow) there is are photo competion. The slides are presented in the Rum Runners and the guests are selecting the weekly winner by applause.  

Next  to the fabulous underwaterworld Willemstad is a very attractive object to take pictures of. For countryside pictures one has to have a good eye to gain good pictures..... the landscape is quite difficult.

Coming out of the cool hotelroom, the photoequipments needs some time to get rid of the condensation water from the inner linses. So be careful with taking snap shots.

One thing is for sure: As soon as we in cash, we are going to visit Curacao again.