Island Cura Explained Clearly

What do you do on an island that is overrun with green iguanas? You turn them into a soup. We came here for the iguana soup and they ran out. Have no fear, we will try iguana soup before we leave this island. We've taken a little stroll onto the bridge that connects the two different parts of Willemstad. This bridge is about to swing wide open and let the boats pass through. You guys, we found flamingos. They're so cute. Walk like a flamingo. It's finally happening, you guys. We're trying our iguana stew. This is I guess iguana pieces in here. I don't know at all what this is going to taste like.

Good morning, adventurers. And welcome to another beautiful day in Curaçao. So, if you guys watched our last video, you know that we popped down to Curaçao to go to the Sandals Resort for a little vacation. If you didn't see that video, definitely check it out. It was beautiful. But, we are not done with this island yet. Yeah, we've heard so much about Curaçao during our travels, so we are super excited to finally be here. We're going to be traveling all over the island, seeing as much of it as we can, and of course, eating as much food as possible. And believe it or not, we are actually going to be trying dishes here that we haven't found anywhere else in the world. So, we are currently exploring the

capital city of Curaçao, which is called Willemstad. It's divided into two sides. We are currently on Punda, which means the point, and the other side is Otrobanda, which means other side. We basically just started off by walking around the city trying to get a little bit more familiar with it because it's very different than the typical Caribbean vibes that we get on other islands because it feels like you're in Europe. And then, of course, you're going to see all these Dutch colonial style buildings all through the town. I think that you get less of those as you leave the town, but there are a ton of them here and they are very colorful and very charming.

It's been really fun just strolling around the town and finding all of these funky little alleyways. I mean, they have an umbrella street and with all this artwork on it. There's been a lot of like murals and little hidden quirky things all over. So, Curacao is obviously stunningly beautiful. It has these amazing colorful buildings all over the place. The water's crystal clear, but I just kind of found that it can be a little bit of dushi. You will see this word all over Curacao and if you're an American, no, it does not mean what you think it means. It actually means a bunch of stuff. It means good, nice, delicious. It's a term of endearment. So, I could say that

Allison is being very dushi today. I feel like we're going to adopt this now and say it forever. If you go downtown near the bridge, you're going to see all these heart-shaped locks and we just learned that there actually used to be big heart structures here that people would attach these two, but the locks were too heavy and it made them fall down. So, they had to remove them. And here's our lock, E and A for Eric and Allison. Aw. Just kidding. Someone else left that, but that means that we don't have to, right? Exactly. Nailed it.

Popped into the local market. It is a Saturday at like 1:00 and I'm very excited because we are going to try some very unique Curacaoan dishes. Is that how you say it? I think so. And the line is very long, so I think that means it can be very delicious. So, this has been quite a process. We waited in one line for approximately 20 minutes, then I waited in another line for approximately 15 minutes to hand somebody a piece of paper, and then they yelled at me to go sit down and they'll bring it to me. I cannot stop sweating.

I don't know what is wrong with me. It is so toasty, guys. And even though this is open air, the air is not really getting in here, but that's okay. I am very hungry, so I am very excited whilst being also very toasty. What do you do on an island that is overrun with green iguanas? You turn them into a soup. This, however, is not that soup. This is oxtail stew. We came here for the iguana soup and they ran out. Have no fear, we will try iguana soup before we leave this island. There are plenty of places to get it. So, we're just doing the oxtail and beef stew today. This should just fall Oh, yeah, right off the bone. You don't even have to try. I got mine with white rice.

We also got their more traditional style, which is white rice with lentils. Ooh, that is fatty and salty and perfectly tender. It just falls apart in your mouth. There's so much spice and flavor in there. Oops. Yeah, oxtail when done right, oh my gosh, it's just like so delicate and savory. Ooh, it's delicious. So, worth the wait? Worth the wait. Since Allison got to try the oxtail, I'm going to try the beef stew. I got to admit the oxtail looked better cuz it looks just more legit. This just looks like pulverized beef to me. It looks a little tripey, but I think it's real beef. But I mean, the flavor is what matters.

Yeah. Well, obviously the flavors are really good. It's like super savory, lots of different spices in there. It's more meatball. That's kind of the texture that it gives. It's like a meatball texture, which I wasn't expecting, but it's actually kind of nice. And then there's a lot of flavor in the rice. Like, yeah, this is pretty damn good. We'd definitely order again even if we have to wait in that line another hour in the brutal heat. Well, that was absolutely delicious, but it has somehow gotten even hotter out here. I need to cool down and I need dessert. And I'm going to get both of those things accomplished right here at this little smoothie truck, fruit stand smoothie truck.

you got there? Yeah, whatever. Let's Yeah, give me a smoothie. Well, this place is magical. They make too much every time, so you can either sit there and like drink it down and refill it or they'll give you two to go. So, basically we got a small and large for the price of one large. But it was only 10 USD for these two. And I got fresh pineapple and watermelon. Eric got banana and strawberry. Oh my goodness, that's just what I needed.

Yeah, cuz you guys can see this there's a little bit of cloud cover, but mostly sun and it is just baking us. Guys, we put on so much sunscreen today. I'm so sweaty. I'm disgusting, but I don't care anymore. On the north shore of Curaçao, there is this lovely little clothing market and they have every beautiful fruit and veggie you could dream of. Yeah, it is about as fresh as it could possibly get and there is just so much everywhere. And then of course, if you keep going like they have all over the town, you're going to find a bunch of little tourist shops where you can get

all the classic tourist fare. Before we go any coffee Before we go any further, we need coffee. And the best place to get that here on the island is Van Gogh. Y'all, this place is so adorable. It's in this old house. It's a specialty coffee shop and a roaster. This is the best iced latte that we have had in any Caribbean country. It is. ever. But don't just come here for the coffee. They have these incredible looking pastries. They have absolutely delicious, beautiful breakfast plates that you can get. But because they have so much Dutch influence here, you're going to find it Dutch treats like this on a lot of menus. This is a saucisse

saucisson broye which is exactly how you pronounce that. It's basically just a sausage roll and it looks absolutely fantastic, man. They know what they're doing here, huh? Check that out. A big old sausage on the inside. It's very simple. Oh, yeah. It's good. The sausage is super savory. There's a bunch of layers in there actually and it's super flaky, just absolutely delicious, nice and warm. Um I actually thought it was going to be like a little bit on the sweet side, but it's not at all. Very savory little pastry. For some reason that box over there is labeled Van Gogh. I think it's supposed to say Van Gogh. Is that a

different name for Van Gogh that we weren't aware of? I don't know. I wonder if somebody said it and the person was like, I don't know what you said and they wrote instead of Van Gogh, Van Gog. I don't know. There's something really funny about those words together. You know what I just love about Curacao is just the ambiance. You've got the sound of the waves crashing, you've got the locals playing their music, having a good time, and then of course there's this. But yeah, I had no idea that Willemstad is overrun with motorcyclists. And they use Yeah, I don't know if it's the whole island. I guess we'll figure that out soon enough, but boy do they just come through in these huge groups and all of

their bikes are so loud. We've taken a little stroll onto the bridge that connects the two different parts of Willemstad. This is known as the Queen Emma Bridge or the Swinging Old Lady. Why is it called the Swinging Old Lady? Well, these little structures right here are actually pontoons. So, it's a basically a giant pontoon boat. You'll notice when you walk onto this bridge, it does not stay still. It is creaking, it is bobbing, it's like you stepped onto a ship. Oh, and you hear that ringing? You know what that means? They're firing up the engine over there and it's going to rev up and then swing this bridge open. How cool.

Luckily, I think it's just this little bitty boat over here. Just for that little boat? so. Awesome. don't have to go very far. Well, that was super freaking cool. It was adorable. Yeah, such a unique experience. It's definitely unlike any bridge we've ever been on in our lives. Yeah, normally they make you get completely off, but you just get to stay on and enjoy the ride. You can see the larger bridge over there. I forget what it's called, but it is way taller than this one. That one is not floating. That one is hovering over

the water. I guess it's big enough so the large ships can go through and it doesn't have to open up for them. But have no fear, if this has to swing completely open for a big ship to come through, they start up a ferry service across. It's totally free, so don't worry. No matter what, you will not get stranded. We just came to the other side and it gives you a completely different perspective on the city. Like it looks just stunningly beautiful from here, huh? I know when you're over there, you're too close to it and they've got so many like little pavilions set up, so you can't really take it in. But from over here, you definitely can.

Well, there was a dish that we really had our heart set on and this was the place we were going to go to and apparently the restaurant is closed when it was supposed to be open, so that's not going to happen. Just to give you a hint, the dish we were going to try looked a little something like this. All right, so I guess we're going to take a little breather and see if we can look up an alternative because this is a local dish that is like a must-try thing when you're here in Curaçao. We're not going to give up on it, dang it. Okay, well, confirmed, this restaurant will be open tomorrow. And tonight, I have found another place right down the road, this swinging old lady brewery, so

local beer and apparently they sell Dutch food, which we were wanting to get anyway, so we'll eat this tonight, that tomorrow. It's going to be great. Luckily, we have cell data right now here in Curaçao because when we're traveling internationally, we always use HolaFly to stay connected and we wanted to give them a quick shout-out for partnering with us on this video. They're available in over 200 destinations, which of course includes Curaçao. They make it insanely easy to stay connected. You just select the country you're visiting, select the duration, and install the eSIM. And just

like that, you're surfing the interwebs. Their plans give you unlimited data, but the coolest feature is always on, which gives you 1 GB monthly backup every month with nothing added to your bill. So that means you can be instantly connected in any situation. HolaFly has given us a discount to give to y'all. Just head to esim.olafly.com and use code endlessadventure for 5% off. We just popped back to our hotel for some much-needed AC time. Y'all, we definitely scored with this place. This little hotel is just across the little canal, I guess, from the main part of the city. So, it's really quiet over

here. Also, this room, look at this. This is less than 100 USD a night. This is the way to do Curacao, huh? We're right next to downtown. I know. Walking distance, it's great. And they actually have a whole pool, a little restaurant out back. It is not too shabby. This spot is great because it has this huge outdoor area with a really nice ambiance where you can see the other side, which is the most beautiful side. And it seems a little more lively, although very much more touristic than our side.

But this place comes very highly rated, so the food should be delicious. And they actually have a little tap room over there that's really cool on the inside. So, definitely come here if you like beer. But they also have more Dutch food here, y'all. They have little bitterballen and kibbeling. Which are the funnest things to say. Dutch words are the best. I love them all. The kibbeling is just a bits of battered and fried fish. Yeah. And then we got some wings cuz they had them on the menu and that sounded really yummy. So, these little bitter balls are actually not that bitter at all. They're breaded and deep

fried essentially meatballs, and they've got an IPA mustard on the side. That was the classiest bite you've ever taken. It's really yummy. This is very gooey in the center, as you can see, and it just freaking collapsed when I bit into it, even before I bit into it. I don't know that I would have known there was meat in here. It just kind of tastes like deep fried dough. The mustard is very overpowering. It's very flavorful, very salty, very crunchy. The consistency is more like a pâté or something like that. It's definitely not a meatball. It's way squishier.

Should we do a bitterballen cheers? Bitterballen, if you can handle it. Oh, I can handle these balls. These Yes, you can, sir. Well, I think we have officially spent enough time in the city. Tomorrow, y'all, we are getting out of here. We're going to see the whole island. We're going to do a road trip. We're going to see ocean views. We're going to eat more delicious food. We're going to see They have a national park here. It's going to be an awesome day. And luckily, the island is so small, we can do it in one day. So, we'll see you there.

Okay. Bye. It's happening. You guys, the restaurant is open today, and this is the dish that we were trying to get. This is a lionfish and chips. He is a invasive species here. He's not native to the area. I think he was brought here in the '80s, or they There's a lot of ladies involved. They look pretty wild, and they're pretty mean. They eat a lot of fish that feed on the reef and clean the reef, so it ends up killing the reef. Also, I mean, they definitely look like troublemakers. I mean, there's no way a fish swimming around looking like that, and he's not up to no good.

They also reproduce like crazy. We read that a female lionfish can lay 2 million eggs a year. These lionfish are venomous. They've got these little spikes that if they poke you, I hear it hurts quite a bit. You swell up, and I think it's deadly to predators, which is why they don't really have any predators here. But, they're trying to create a demand for the fish so that we can hunt them and eat them, and hopefully it dwindle their population. I was told that this tail here you're supposed to break it in half. Oh, there should be a big bone in there, not a little one. And then you just eat it like a chicken wing.

Oh, I got the wrong. It's really nice. It's just like a classic whitefish. It's a little more of fishy than your classic fish and chips, but almost in a good way. I actually really like it. It's got a lot of flavor to it. I like that I also can feel really good about eating this guy, cuz otherwise he'd be swimming around poking and stinging everything with this. I mean, look at this mean quill, y'all. That is violent. filled with poison. No, thank you. a dart out of that. Yeah. I mean, that's exactly what they did. They speared our lime with it. I'm assuming there's no venom left at this point, right?

I hope not, because you might end up like a Ace Ventura. Ray darts is too much. You know, I kind of thought it was going to be more of a novelty than anything, but uh this is one of the best fish and chips that we've ever had. It's just so perfectly crunchy and salty and kind of buttery. Lionfish, who knew? I know. Some of my favorite fish and chips that we've had. Yeah, and I'm glad to do my part. Mhm. Yeah, get out of here, you jerk. All right, but we got to quickly scarf this down, cuz we got more food adventures on the horizon and the entirety of this island to see.

I guess we didn't mention this, but we actually rented a car. That's how we got from the airport to Willemstad, but we are leaving Willemstad today, and we are currently driving over the bridge. It's I think it's called the Queen Juliana Bridge, and it's actually the tallest bridge in the Caribbean, and it is freaking huge and grand from the ground, y'all. It is so high up. As you're driving around the capital, everything is super colorful and vibrant. There's all these really interesting colorful buildings, but the minute you get out of town, it becomes a lot less colorful. I mean, you'll still

see the occasional like brightly painted building, but for the most part, it becomes kind of like a dry arid desert landscape. The resort was like so beautiful and lush, but out here, it is very desert-y. There's cactus everywhere. There aren't big trees. Everything's a little gray, almost. But our plan today, y'all, is to head north, like all the way up, and kind of do a loop around the northern part of the island. We want to see beaches. We heard that there should be some flamingos out here. Basically, we just want to like get all the good views today. And luckily, this island is very petite,

so we can see a lot in one day. Yes. You guys, we found flamingos. They're so cute. And some of them are very, very pink. They're almost orange looking. Dude, it's like a highlighter. They're so bright and pretty. So, from what I understand, this area used to be salt flats, and now the flamingos come here and it's more of a flamingo preserve, and they just wander around feeding all day, and you come out here and you can get fairly close. I heard somebody kind of stays around and watches and will blow a whistle if you get too close. I haven't seen anybody, but if you have a

zoom lens or anything, you can get amazing shots of these guys. We did find another group, but they were all asleep. Yeah, boring. But, these ones are giving us a nice little show. So, you can actually walk all along this little path here that takes you kind of into the water and you can find different flamingos. Make sure that you wear uh shoes because this is all coral. This is not rock or sand. It's tough, rigid coral, and it will slice you right up. Yeah. Flamingo. Allison's getting really excited about these flamingos.

Look at me. I'm like, "Ooh, flamingo." You might have a whole new dance move going on. Move over Macarena. Yeah. Walk like a flamingo. I just love how awkwardly long their necks are. It this looks like a little like vacuum cleaner hose sucking stuff up from the water or something. It's pretty alien-like. And I didn't realize that they keep their head underwater for so long. One of the flamingos just took off, and man, are they majestic. They're really long. Their neck is just like straight out.

They're huge and so colorful. That was magical. Welcome to the Blue View Restaurant. The name is very appropriate. Yeah. Oh, there's a view in there. We were driving around, and all of a sudden, the views just opened up to this crystal clear blue water and just cliffsides lining the coast. Pretty freaking magical. But, this is what makes this spot so special. They have glass bottom floors right below the tables. Pretty freaking trippy. Special, terrifying, you know, whatever adjective you want to use.

Yeah, we made Allison sit on top of this little glass spot here. I'm just not looking down. Only forward. Well, we had to get drinks that match the water, huh? I would guess. And of course it has blue curacao in it. Yep, we got to get one more drink in, right? Mm, it tastes like vacation. It really does. It's finally happening, you guys. We're trying our iguanas soup, or well, here it's a stew, I guess, actually. This is, I guess, iguana pieces in here.

It kind of gives iguana a little bit, right? Yes, very Look at this weird bone. Yeah, there's a lot of Oh, it's like almost like fishy looking. Is this meat? And it's so weird, it's like the world's tiniest little ribs. It is. Oh, there it is. I don't know at all what this is going to taste like. Honestly, I would have just thought this is stewed pork. I read that it's basically like chicken. Yeah, they call them the chicken of the trees, I think is what I read. that's right.

It is chewy like chicken, but because it's stewed, it's almost like pulled pork consistency. And the stew is really salty and savory, so I think it's kind of overpowering any meat flavor that you would have. It's delightful. The only thing that gives away that it's iguana is the weird, awkward little bones. Look at these. That's his little rib cage. What the heck? And it's funny because there's literally iguanas crawling all over that rock over there. Somebody just goes and grabs one, and then they stew it up and give it to me. You know, it's actually surprisingly delicious. This iguana's pretty good eating. Who knew? The flavor's good. The bones not so good.

You guys, we were just exploring the area near the restaurant, and uh we came across this. This is a manchineel tree. And there's this little warning that says that you can't eat the fruit because it's poisonous, and also if you stand under it while it's raining, that is poisonous as well. Have you ever heard of such a thing? No, it's kind of terrifying. Terrifyingly awesome. But it also has these weird little bag things hanging from it. I'm not going to say what they look like. It's a little bit like this.

You know what that is? Well, we made it to one last lookout, y'all. I think this will do. Yeah, this will do. Man, this view is super cool because there are all these different pools, like different shades of blue, all these hills up in the distance. Yeah, you really get a sense of just how cactussy this island is. very windy, and I'm going to get my camera off this tripod before I drop it again. Oh, no. We'll have a repeat of the Faroe Islands. Well, y'all, I think we're going to wrap it up for this little adventure in Curaçao. Our goal with this video was to get a pretty good sense of the capital city, which we did. We spent

a lot of time there. We stayed there. It was freaking awesome. Highly recommend spending at least a few days there. But we also wanted to get out and explore more of the countryside and go to some of like the lesser-known areas up north, and I think we definitely accomplished our goal. It is time for us to go home and shower, and we fly out what, tomorrow, I guess? Yes, yes, we do. Oh man, back to the states, and we don't really have any adventures planned, so it'll be a surprise for us, just like it's going to be for you guys. With that, goodbye, adventurers.

We'll see you on the road.