Friday, November 28, 2025
Last night, the party bus continued at a nearby restaurant for happy hour. Most divers went back to their hotel briefly, showered, made themselves presentable, and found themselves at Ginger for happy hour. So did we. We pre-gamed as we got ready, since we ended up buying a second bottle of rum a few days ago. Can’t let that go to waste!
We arrived at Ginger around 5:30, and met up with the other divers. Fraukje and her sister Mendel were there, as well as four Canadians, two of whom happen to be pilots who knew each other. We visited with everyone and talked current events and everyone was in a great mood after the day’s dives.
Nathan and I left at about 7 to go find dinner. We walked across the street to the pizza restaurant, and wouldn’t you know it, they couldn’t seat us without a reservation. Not sure why it was so busy everywhere, on a Thursday, but it was.
We bumped into Fraukje, Mendel, Daan and Erna trying to get a table at the pizza shop, and we were all turned away, so we all went back to Ginger to have dinner together.
It was a nice evening, and after dinner, Nathan and I went back to our hotel and went to bed.
This morning, we again woke up about 6:45. We have our last dives scheduled for today, so we got up, had coffee and yogurt, donned our bathing suits and sunscreen, and headed to the dive shop by 8:30.
Today’s group is much smaller than any of our other dive days. There are two Americans from New Jersey (bore!), three Dutchmen, and our Divemaster Ron, who hails from LA and Seattle.
We told the couple from New Jersey about jumping off the cliff yesterday, and the wife proceeded to show us her back surgery scars from when she did the jump. Many broken tailbones have come from that particular jump, she said with an air of great confidence. I’m glad we didn’t hear her stories before we did it, but Nathan’s butt is a little sore since the jump.
We decide where to dive, based on where the collective group has been already, and we set off in a van towards the dive site. Once we get to Water Factory, Ron decided that the waves were a little too big, so we drove a little farther to Fisherman’s Pier. We unload the van, get ready, and wouldn’t you know, the folks from New Jersey are a HOT MESS. The husband has someone elses’s BCD, with no weights, and not the correct regulator.
Not sure why, but its always the Americans who are like this. A hot mess who can’t get their poop in a group. Either that, or in any other language we’re not privy to what a conundrum other people are in.
So, option one is that this guy sits out the first dive, and option two is that he makes the rest of us wait while he and Ron go back to the shop and get his personal gear.
Option two it is.
Nonsense aside, they got back, we all suited up, and we actually had a really nice dive.
We saw trumpet fish, tiny trunk fish, tons of parrot fish, Blueheads, golden eels, large lizard fish, cleaner shrimp, arrow crab, anemones, cow fish, and so much more.
After about 50 minutes, we all surfaced, had our cookies, and discussed where to go for the second dive. Ron gave us a few options, and Nathan suggested we go to Atlantis, which Ron said had a bunch of unique sponges.
Gear off, we got in the van, and headed towards Atlantis. We saw a few scorpion fish, lizard fish, barracudas, flamingo tongue, filefish, cow fish, drum fish, trunkfish, sharptail eel, chain moray eel, and a few lion fish.
The dive lasted about 50 minutes, and we got out of the water, put our gear back in their boxes, loaded up the van and went back to the shop.
At the shop, we cleaned up our gear, settled up, and said goodbye. We walked back to our hotel, made sandwiches, rinsed our gear in fresh water, and went down to the pool to read.
We decided to make a reservation for dinner (!), and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing, checking in to our flights, arranging taxis and rides to and from the airport, and enjoying one last afternoon in Curacao.
