Photography Tour of Curaçao

We had not been in the ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao for a few years, but we had already seen much of what the tours offer, and knew they would be busy if there were more ships in port.

We only took a walk down the main street in Oranjestad, Aruba and turned back when it looked like we could get a rain shower. It was very busy and we had the longest walk from the port entrance to the ship out of the 4 vessels in town.

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Ticky-tacky tourist shot of Regent Grandeur

We remember this boat entrance to the
hotel from our first trip to Aruba,
probably in 1990

One view of town from the ship

We visited the islands in A-C-B order, so our next stop was in Willemstad, Curaçao. Larry elected to stay on board, but I wanted to get some sketching photos, so I booked the 'Capture the Moment' tour. Our guide, Cris, said they usually called it a Selfie Tour, but as nobody in the group was interested in borrowing a selfie stick, she stuck to the name the cruise line had given the tour.

We began by walking from the ship into the recognizable centre of the town, and across the Emma Bridge, the world famous floating wooden bridge that was the only connection between both sides of town until the big blue Juliana Bridge was built in the 1970s.

Only the emerald green and yellow buildings are
still original dating back into the 1700s.

The Emma Bridge pontoons

The Emma Bridge is opened when ships need to enter into the protected harbour where we were moored. Curaçao was a major trading hub for the Dutch, especially for the slave trade in the 1700s and 1800s, and later on, up until the 1990s was a major refinery for Venezuelan oil. Now the island depends on tourism for almost all of its economy.

We took a short walk in town, passing by the floating market. Here vendors have stalls right on the water's edge with their boats right behind them holding stock. Fish, fruit and vegetables are sold here, as well as souvenirs.

One of the façade painting on the yellow
Penha building. It was originally built for the slave
trade but now deals in duty free fragrances and jewellery

This cute little trio in a small square near
the market

Some of the fruit and vegetable stalls
at the floating market

The market from the other side

We passed through a park on our way to our
bus, and found this. The ultimate in recycling!

We climbed into our mini-bus and were driven across to the north side of the island to Shete Boka National Park. The north side of all the islands is the rougher one, and we got to see that first-hand here. The landscape is very sparse - just lava rock and cactus plants, and the ocean pounds into the shoreline with real violence. I wouldn't want to fall into the water by accident; chances are you wouldn't survive it.

The waves crashed on the rocks and then back into
the next ones coming in, causing some huge sprays
near the viewing area.

This is the very north end of the island. Nothing here
but rocks and cacti.

and geckos and small iguanas

Someone in government has a sense
of humour! We should have signs
like these at home.

During our drive around, Cris gave us some background on the history of the island and taught us all a few words and phrases in Papiemento, the native language. She also told us a story she heard as a young child when she was disobedient, which all led up to a brief stop we made along the way.

The story she heard from her mother told of a time when the trees had legs and could walk around. (Yeah, Mom, sure...) They all got together for a party, but the rule was that they had to be back where they belonged before sunrise. They were having such a good time that the sun was almost up before they noticed it, and they all started running back to their places except one. By the time he noticed the sun it was almost too late. He ran as far as he could and sat down to catch his breath. The sun came up and planted him where he sat:

This is obviously a very old tree, as Cris heard this story about 50 years ago. The 'do as you are told' moral of the story wasn't lost on her at the time, but when she tried it on her own daughter more recently it didn't work at all. 

After driving most of the way back to Willemstad, we made a final stop that I didn't recall reading about in the description - at the Hato Cave. As a rule, I'm not crazy about caves if they are small and dark, so I did a quick Google search on this one and it looked okay.

Here are a few shots from inside. There are 6 caverns all together, but you can only take photos in a couple of them, as there are small fruit bats living inside the cave and light flashes would disturb them. The stalagmites and stalactites form very slowly in the cave, so everything we saw was millenia old, not just centuries.

To give an idea of scale, here's a couple
posing for a photo inside the cavern. There
is a hole in the ceiling where the bats go in and
out at night.

This stalagmite almost looks like the
Virgin Mary. The light is coming from our
guide's flashlight.

That was our final stop on the tour, and the bus drove us right back to the ship. We didn't leave until almost 10:00 p.m. and had a lovely sailout past the town and through the Emma Bridge.

Looking at the Juliana Bridge after we turned around
to leave.

The 'skyline' of Willemstad all lit up

With just as many lights on the Emma Bridge

We didn't have far to go to get to Bonaire yesterday. Again, we had no planned excursion, and although we thought we'd go for a stroll in town, I got busy with the blog and we ended up staying on board. Today is a sea day and tomorrow we'll be in St. George's, Grenada where we have a longer island tour of about 6 hours. It has been quite a while since we've been there, and we'll see how it looks.

Pacific Rim for dinner tonight. I'll have to get some photos for the next food post.

The Food Experience

 Regent offers a great choice of food on board, with both buffets and table service dining experiences offered every day. And La Veranda, the buffet dining room for breakfast and lunch, becomes the Italian restaurant called Sette Mari at dinner. Along with this are the three specialty dining venues - the French option Chartreuse, Prime 7 steakhouse and Asian style Pacific Rim. Both Chartreuse and Prime 7 are open alternately at lunchtime with lighter menus. And then there is the Pool Grill which serves fresh made pizza, sandwiches, salads, hamburgers and hotdogs during the day and is often open in the evening for a very casual meal option with some elevated dishes. All this on top of the main dining room, Compass Rose. Anyone who says they can't find anything to eat on this ship hasn't looked very hard!

Here's a selection of photos from our meals so far.

We'll start with Chartreuse. We've eaten dinner there twice already. It is the most elegant of the restaurants on board, with a French inspired menu to match. Everything from escargot and cheese soufflé to filet mignon and Dover sole, and some really interesting desserts is on the menu. But it is easier to show than describe these dishes.

A delicious salad

The goat cheese tart

An interesting presentation of escargot

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Lamb chops

Île Flotant, an island of egg white floating
on a bed of vanilla sauce. It tasted like a cloud!

The cheese soufflé

Filet mignon

Tarte Tatin, apple tart with cinnamon
whipped cream and ice cream.

Next up, here are some dishes we had at Prime 7. We've been there for lunch as well, but haven't taken photos. I'll have to remedy that next time and put some photos in the next food post.

The 'amuse-bouche' of a little glass of
tomato soup with a cheese foam

The harvest salad. Quite the presentation and
it is delicious as well.

Surf and turf.

The mushroom and pepper tian with goat cheese
topping. They sure like their goat cheese, but then
so do I!

The Caesar Salad is almost big enough for a meal!

We both had roast beef the last time we were there.
It tasted as good as it looks.

The standard little confection plate - caramel
fudge and S'mores bars

The Key Lime Pie is a favourite

And finally for this post, we'll look at some of the dishes from Sette Mari. The menu is quite large, as are some of the dishes! Even though you'd like one item of every course on the menu, it would be impossible to finish.

They always bring out a selection
of breads, bruschettas and
cheese to start off.

The Osso Buco is not always on the menu,
so I made sure to get it right away.

Larry ordered the special Chicken Parmigiana -
too big for even him to finish it!

We went to the buffet and found the
cannolis. Mine had chocolate chips on it,

and Larry chose pistachios.

I'm leaving Pacific Rim out for this post, since we've only been there once and don't have many photos yet. We'll also cover Compass Rose, the lunches at Chartreuse and Prime 7 and the Pool Grill next time.

I have already been to one Culinary Arts Centre class and have a second one scheduled for next week. I'll post those two together. It turns out that the chef who is teaching the classes was the same one, David Shalleck, who was on Oceania Vista in 2024 and also on Oceania Riviera in 2017 when we both took a class in the Culinary Centre there. No wonder he recognized us when we met him the first day!

Cozumel Taco Tasting

 This was the first time we had left the ship at Cozumel in a very long time, not that we've been there very often in the past few years. We thought it would be interesting to see how the town has changed, and try out some local style tacos at the same time.

Fortunately we were docked at the town pier which was close to everything and right across from the original Cozumel tourist shopping plaza. We weren't alone, though. It was quite busy with a total of 5 ships in town with the largest of them at the Carnival pier a little farther away.

There were 21 people on our tour, so we were split over two minibuses to take us between our three venues. None of them were actually very far apart, but it would have added at least an hour to the tour time to walk between them.

Our first stop was at the Mercado Municipal, the public market. The taco stand there, Taqueria Molina, had lots of seating and a huge menu of all sorts of Mexican delicacies. Here we were told to try the Tacos Surtidos, made with a mixture of pork meat, skin, and meats from other parts of the animal like tongue.

A seating area at the market

We had seats at the counter and could watch the action
through the glass.

More fillings with the cooking action in the
background

My Tacos Surtidos, with homemade corn
tortillas. Larry's tacos had chicken instead

One of the fruit and vegetable stands
at the market

We climbed back into the buses and drove over to the main street by the water. Here we were taken to a spot called 'Senor and the Queen' which bills itself as a 'boozy diner'. Here we also had our choice of tacos and drinks. Some of our fellow guests had Margaritas and really enjoyed them as well.

I had Tacos Pastor, which are made with shredded pork and included diced pineapple and pickled onion. Larry chose beef tacos that came with a very spicy sauce on the side.

The interior of the diner. Very retro!

My Tacos Pastor. Delicious!

Larry's beef tacos with refried beans on the left and
the super spicy sauce on the right.

Before our final stop, we spent a little time at the town centre where there is, of course, a market with tourist shops and also a good sized park. While some of our number elected to go with the guide for a tequila tasting, we wandered around for the half-hour and found a few interesting photo subjects, not being at all interested in the shopping that was not included in the tour description.

A statue in the market square

And one in the park

Someone had painted the 'rainbow staircase'

And of course, every place now has a
photo sign to pose in, on or in front of.

Once we had everyone back on the buses, some with tequila bottles in tow, we were driven over to our final stop at the Al Mar Beach Club. This was a very nice place with a big terrace, but it seemed to me that they weren't going out of their way to provide a great tasting taco. Nobody even explained what kind of taco we were getting, and the topping did look a little skimpy compared to the previous stops. Although they were fine, there was nothing special about them except the slice of avocado on top. I think they were hoping that everyone would purchase a Margarita or a beer. Again, our Margarita drinkers didn't disappoint, and it felt like we were there for a little longer than necessary.

The only takeaway I had from this tour was that I'd like to make my own corn tortillas for tacos, because they are really delicious and soft. Even though we'd had 6 tacos each, we weren't really full. What I missed was a little more explanation about tacos and their importance in Mexican cuisine, and things like that. There was none of that on the tour, so it was a little disappointing.

At least we had a bit of time to see the town and get some local food.

That was the only port we visited on this segment, so I'll post some of the onboard restaurant experience next.