The Island Nobody Knows!! Caribbean’s Hidden Diamond!!

What have I told you? There's an unspoiled queen of the Caribbean, an island you've never heard of. This is Ceiba. Isn't this epic? This might be one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. How do you get from Stacia to Ceiba? You can either fly or you can take the Makana ferry. That's what we're doing this morning. It is 6.30 in the morning. We're checking in. We're getting on the ferry. It's right there. Let's go. Look at this. Amazing ride, huh? Right now I feel smooth. Just lay back. Right here we got Stacia. We have St. Kitts and Nevis. And over here we have Ceiba. And that's Ceiba right there. Look at that. Incredible, massive. It's like a diamond in the ocean. Freaking huge cliffs. You can see right at the top, lots of little houses, all white. This is incredible. One of the prettiest Caribbean islands I've ever seen from the water. Captain, we survived. Thank you so much, bro. You're welcome, man. Have a safe trip, man. Enjoy. Thank you. All right, guys, let's go. Let's do this. We're going to see Ceiba. It's eight in the morning here in the windward side of Ceiba. And for breakfast, you have to visit this place called Busy B. This is a Dutch bakery. You guys know I love my Dutch pastries. Let's go inside. Let's meet with the owner. Eat some good food. So by the way, so this is Rachel. Hi. So Busy B. Busy B. So we have ground beef, spicy chicken, ham and cheese. This is with a hot diggity dog inside. There's spinach goat cheese, cheese. It does remind me of like a pate, but like a Jamaican pate, but also it could be. It's a pastry dough. So Jamaican pate normally is with a different kind of dough. So who's Rachel? Rachel's from the Netherlands. And I've been here for 20 years. Came here as a diving instructor originally. And I had this business for 18 years. And so Busy B is a Dutch bakery. Yeah. And who's the clientele? A lot of Dutch. Filipinos working here. I love it. So tell me something special about Cebu. Cebu is just so pretty and it's quaint. And it's still quite untouched. I hope they remain that way. But it's a nice place. Safe. We have a lot of Dutch on the island, but also a lot of Americans coming as well. Because I did see some Americans. Yeah. I think the main tourists at the moment are American. When I started here, we had more European. So I hope they mix it up again a little bit. But yeah, a lot of expats too here. I guess this island feels like everybody feels like a family here. Yeah. All the locals. Yeah. Because everybody knows each other, right? Yeah, true. Yeah, you see everybody like three times a day. It's hard to avoid somebody. Yeah, yeah, sure. I'm sure it's like, hi, hi, hi, hi. And you have all this bread. Look at this amazing Dutch bread. Sadly, the baker went home already, but they have incredible bread. You know what we'll do? I need a coffee to wake up, by the way. I took a really early. You do have to. Yeah, yeah. You can see the coffee's on the list over here. Okay, okay. Busy B's, we're going with some pastries. Very Dutch right here. We got the beef pastry, and then this is the cheese one. Got an almond cookie, and I got my double espresso. This place is a vibe, guys. This is the headquarters of town. Literally right here. From the Busy B's in the morning. Everybody knows each other, all locals. I'm gonna try this right here. The beef, you know, it does remind me more like of a Cuban-style pastry. The way they do the baking. Minced beef, well hard crumbles. Lots of layers. You know, I didn't know they had this in the Netherlands, but you can find this throughout the whole world. Every country has an empanada, a beef, or you know, a pie. And it depends what you want. This is the cheese one right here. Look, you can see the difference around the top. All cheese, mostly parm. Oh, that's very nice. Very good. A little salty. Again, basically the same thing. This is with cheese. The cheese is phenomenal. Guessing they got good cheese here in Ceiba. You guys, it's Ceiba, it's not Ceiba. The Dutch make some of the best almond cookies of all time. Yeah, I'm gonna cut it in half. Look at that. Incredible almond, crumbly. You can see super decadent sugar. I love how buttery it is on top. I've been having a lot of these in St. Martin. All right, the sweetness of the almond. This is one of the stuff in here. Just so buttery. Those remind me of, remind me of St. Martin. I don't know what just happened. She's like, you have to try the Ceiba Spice Coffee. What is this? So it's like a double espresso. They put like guava berry. So there's some of the rum in there, whipped cream. And then I think they put nutmeg on top. Oh, that's, yeah. Oh my God. It's actually amazing spice. Oh my goodness. It's amazing, actually, mate. The nutmeg. I'm gonna drink it. Mm, the guava berries. It is like a spiced cappuccino. Hey, it's five o'clock somewhere, right? There's spices in here. That's Ceiba, Ceiba Coffee. This is Julio. I just met him here. He's part of the Breakfast Club here at Busy Bees. You're Julio from Ceiba. Who's Julio? Yeah, Julio is, yeah, I'm the fire chief, the local fire chief on Ceiba. I also happen to be the island council member of Ceiba. So yeah, extremely proud to be Ceiban. That's Julio in a nutshell. And so for, let's say an alien came from Mars, landed here in Ceiba, and didn't know where it was, what would you tell if it asked, like, hey, where am I? Yeah, you're on Paradise, one of the best islands. Well, I always refer to Ceiba as the strongest island, but also the highest point in the kingdom of the Netherlands. And so what's your spot here on the island? Where do you go to get away from it all? Well, first of all, Busy Bee, of course, and every morning we come here at seven o'clock and then we head down. I go to work at eight. And yeah, on the weekends, a nice hangout spot is Juliana's Tropics. So we go there and hang out. So it's really cool. And of course you have to go visit the Wells Bay. It's where we have sand that comes in every so often. And yeah, it's a very getaway. You know, you get away from the island, from everything. It's literally, yeah, a hole in the wall. So you really are away from everything. So when I saw Ceiba on the map, we were in St. Kitts, I saw Ceiba, I saw the station. I was like, we're going there. And then when I looked up all the information, what it's famous for is that airport, because the smallest runway in the world for the small jet or small plane. Amazing place. I mean, we just got here, but I'm so happy to be here. Ceiba looks just stunning. Goat curry or curry goat? I would say curry goat. All right, time to explore the windward side. Look at this, a cemetery right here. You have St. Paul's Conversion Roman Catholic Church from 1860. Wow, beautiful color. Is it open? Oh yes, we can go inside. Wow, a little church, almost 200 years old. How can you imagine being here 200 years ago? It was like, I don't even know, a thousand people on this island to get here. There was no cars, it was on a horse. Wow, this is literally teleporting me to a different century right here. Well, this is incredible. You know, when you travel, traveling is beyond the sights, beyond the food. There's something deeper in traveling. And when you visit places like this, churches, synagogues, mosques, you dive deeper into your spirituality. You know, I like to do this all the time. I'll come here, I'll sit here, I'll pray 10, 20 minutes, and I reconnect with, you know, with the Lord and myself. And yeah, I'm very thankful to be here. And by the way, I love the stained glass over here. We got the lamb. Over there, we have some wines, some tulips, of course. It is Dutch, of course. We're in a Dutch church, right? All right, guys, let's go. I mean, you exit the church and then you end up in the cemetery. So this is Cheryl. She's originally from Ceiba, obviously Dutch citizen, and now you live in the States. So for the people watching who have never heard of Ceiba, what would you tell them about this island? I would tell them it's paradise. It's a place where you come to get away from that world over there, from America. It's everything the opposite if you want to relax, enjoy nature, friendly people, and really good food. So that's a lot of reason to come. So she has a YouTube channel. Yes, I do. So you just made a video on Ceiba? I did. I made a video onto the airport, the world's shortest commercial runway. So you land there today? No, I came on ferry. Oh, you came on the ferry, okay. Well, you'll have to come back to land on the airport. We're taking off. We'll do the takeoff. The takeoff is good too. So you were born here. How has the island changed over the past? The island has changed tremendously in growth. Well, you know, we have the medical school, which was being built before I left. But now we have bigger hotels. We have the new hotel just open, 30 rooms. I used to work for a small hotel, Captain's Quarters, like 12 rooms. And as I drive through the island now, I see growth everywhere. The new harbors coming in, which is massive. And what's your YouTube channel called? Adventure Tours Travel. Hey, follow her. We're gonna meet with Rubia from Tasty Takeout. We're gonna have some fish and maybe some capsulon. Hello, hello. Hi, Will. Thank you, thank you. I followed you Will. David, pleasure. I follow you, hi. How are you, how are you? I'm trying to follow you man. So you're Rubia? I'm Rubia. So Rubia, what are we doing today? Well, we're doing some red snapper. Yesterday we had oxtail for you, but it wasn't here. So today we're doing some red snapper and some peas and rice. Some peas and rice? Some green salad. And you're also doing capsulon, I see. Yes, I'm also doing capsulon. I also have a catering job right now, so I'm busy. Okay, and you're Sabian? Yeah, I'm from here. For the people who have never heard about this island, what would you tell them about Saber? If you want somewhere to chill, Saber's the place. If you want quietness and everything, Saber's the place. What's your favorite thing to do here? Hang out with my friends at a bar on Friday. Bar on Friday? Yeah. Lightning. The dive bar, the dive bar? No, no, no, no, no. By Maribel's. We hang out there on Fridays. So you can catch her there on Fridays? Oh, wow, look, we have the red snapper here. Pargo in Spanish. It is so good. So you added some spices in here? I got all the spices, and I can't tell you all the secrets, so we just throw everything in. We don't measure anything, we just dash it in. What do you have? Fresh make blended mango juice. My sister makes this. Let's just give the oil some flavor, you know? Let's give the oil some flavor. I guess she's just putting three snappers into this pot. Yeah. It's like popping. You want some chicken, sir? Some chana. That looks good. Yeah, and also some corn for you, sir. Mm-hmm. So the story of the capsulon is a little complicated, but it was started by a Turkish gentleman there in Rotterdam. Basically, one day, his barber came over, and then they were hungry, it was super late at night, and then he's like, just put everything together, and he just threw meat, he threw cheese on top of a bunch of french fries, he threw it in the oven, brought it out, and that's it, it was invented. So it's like Turkish origins in the Netherlands, it's a fusion. It's like a deconstructed doner kebab. Mine's a little different to the way you make it, okay? You're doing it a little different from the original. I don't put the cheese, because a lot of people down here don't like the cheese. No cheese. So what is that, like a garlic sauce? That's a garlic sauce. Okay, this is the chicken. All right, so we have some chicken. Is this local? No, chicken breast. Saba don't have much things here. We import. Saba imports everything. Everything we have to import. Everything from St. Martin, basically, right? St. Martin, then it comes from the States, you know? Of Puerto Rico. Oh yeah, so everything is imported into Saba. So we've got the garlic sauce on the bottom, then she added the french fries, then she added more garlic sauce, then we added some chicken. You want some chili sauce? Yeah, heck yeah, what is this? Oh, that's like a sweet and sour, like a sweet chili glaze. Chili, so yeah, sweet and sour sauce. I'm just gonna add a little bit of some lettuce, some roughage. This is a full meal right here. Yeah, if that person buy this, you know they don't want nothing else. Capsulon, dude, it's amazing. And most people like a lot of garlic sauce. So heavy garlic. It's almost like I'm in Lebanon, all that garlic. One more thing I have. One more thing? Yeah, Venezuela's all about that garlic too. But that's because of the Lebanese influence, by the way. This is what the Dutch come to buy. This is what they want on it. They want the sriracha. Yeah, do you want any? I love it. Sriracha, nice and spicy. This man like pepper. Pepper. I like pepper water. To be honest, I can't believe I'm having Capsulon here in Ceiba, amazing. Netherland influence all the way in the Caribbean. Nice sriracha, it's gonna give some nice spice. Got that creaminess of the garlic. Let me get some of the fries too. Right there. It is like a deconstructed donut without like the pita bread. It's so saucy. But you have everything right here. You have the carbs, you have the protein, you have the veggies. It's phenomenal. I'm personally a huge fan of garlic and the spice. And who doesn't like fries? Who has the best fries, the Dutch or the Belgians? I thought it was American. Mm-mm. So what's the history of French fries? Well, it's very simple. Back in World War II, the Americans went over to France and they started eating French fries. They saw, you know, French eating fries and they were like, you know, must be French fries. But it's actually, you know, the original fries come from Belgium, Belgian frites. You know how Americans are. Grasslands, birds chirping, flowers blooming. You got the sun coming out. It's amazing how the clouds just keep coming. The rain comes, it goes away. Feels very similar to Miami. You know, it rains for like five minutes and then it's gone. Very Jurassic Park vibes. So every Thursday, Rubia has this on the menu. So it's my lunch every Thursday. Week in, week out. Capsulon. By the way, congratulations. That capsulon, phenomenal. So good. I already had my lunch. That's it. So over here we have rice and peas. We have the fried snapper. Then we're going to have the chana on the side and then a little bit of salad. You mean like some crazy fish? Yeah, why not? So what's the story with the fishing here? This is all locally caught. Yeah, yeah, so it is. So this is the red snapper. So we have a good lobster fishing, fishery, snappers, and of course like mixed pot fish. So the one you're eating is a red snapper. So it comes from the Saba bank. So it's about a thousand square miles is what the fishermen here are- A thousand? A thousand square miles. So it's as big of a location as Rhode Island, you know? Wow. You're going to see there's like nothing forever. There's nothing out here. So they have a thousand square miles like right here. Yeah, so it's like a shallow bank. Shallow bank. Yeah. If somebody gets to sit with you for an hour and you would tell them about your life, what would you tell them? Well, I'm making 57 this year. I live in Europe half of my life. So I got nine years back home now. I decided to open my own business. The first one, well, things didn't went well. So this is the second business now I opened. But I think so far, things is all right in my life, you know? I'm accomplished everything I want to do, you know? So, and my kids are well, healthy and everything. Yeah. So what does family mean for you? Family for me, it's very important. Very important. That's why I came back home because my mom is here. So I say, I got to come back, you know, to be with my mom also. Family is very important. And here is all my family. When Europe was in everyone, just like six of us was living in Europe. Everyone was on the island, you know? Yeah. Do you see a big difference between your generation and the younger generation? Yeah. They have to meet it when we go. The younger generation, you know, a bit more laid back. To me, there's laid back. They don't see the bigness of life. You know, there's so much they could do. And I think when they do decide, it's too late. You know what I mean? They could do so much, but they just don't see it. Kids, stop scrolling. Well, you can scroll on my page. We're eating some fresh fish, Sabin. Sabin. Pull out some of this beautiful fish. Look at that. Oh, nice. It's going to be some amazing meat. Oh yeah. That's good. It's a little spicy, that sauce. But the fish is so fresh. Oh my God, it's so buttery inside. So this is like the most local thing we're going to eat today in terms of like local food. It's all about the seafood here. Seafood and obviously some Dutch specialties. Next to it, we have this beautiful chana. This is like India or Trinidad in a bite. Do you guys agree? Chana all day? Mm, this is sweet. Oh yeah. So much flavor. I can taste the bell pepper in there. Nice, soft, like al dente. Chickpeas. The problem here, we have some rice and peas. Mixing it with some of that sauce. For me, this is Caribbean soul food. Rice and peas paired with red snapper every day. Perfect combo. Look at this rain. Let me close this window. Bringing some local mango juice. So the mangoes, they bring them from St. Martin, but they do have season when they have mangoes. Mango is my favorite fruit. Oh, this one's pure. Just pure pulp. From Miami, we get mangoes in the summer. I just keep eating them. In India, that is a national fruit. Yeah, enjoy. Rubia, thank you so much. You're welcome. It was phenomenal. I love the fish, but the capsule on, wow. Wow, thank you, thank you. Love it, love it. You want a heat cake too? Pumpkin spice cake, topped with cream cheese and frosting. Taste it, taste it. Wow, okay, let's do it. Why not? Come on, taste that thing. What are you trying to do to me? Pumpkin spice cake. Oh, I can't wait. She doesn't want me. They love feeding me here, guys. I can't even get this big cake, huh? Come on, grab that pumpkin. Grab it, grab it quick. Oh, so soft, cold. You know, the creaminess on top with the cream cheese, huh, and frosting. What is it? Caramel sauce? Caramel sauce. A little nutty as well. You go ahead. It's phenomenal. Till the next time. I'll see you. I'll see you soon, okay? Okay. Thank you, thank you. You're welcome. So what is the island of Ceiba? You know, it used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles. Now, it is completely different. It's like a municipality, not a province of the Netherlands, but a smaller region. Ceiba, Stetia, and Bonaire that are part of this. Again, St. Martin, Curaçao, and Aruba, those are countries within the Netherlands kingdom. So here, they have their own executive council. They control if people buy land here, construction code, everything is controlled within here, and civil servants too. The one big difference is here, it's Dutch. They get their Dutch passport, but most people do speak English. They learn Dutch in school, but I'm noticing it's mostly English spoken here. And it's beautiful right here at the bottom. This is like the most iconic spot. Over here, we have both flags, Ceiba, Netherlands. This is the main government building here. I mean, imagine being here every single day. This is your office. Look around you. Look at these houses. Old school houses, very Dutch feeling. This is beautiful. You know what I like about the bottom is you're really at the bottom. Up above us, we have all these beautiful peaks, very rugged terrain. I mean, imagine waking up here, here in the rooster, and then climbing the mountain. From there, you look over everything. I can have some coffee up there. This is amazing, but what do you guys think? Stacia, Ceiba, or Bonaire? Which is the best? And this is the most photographed church in town, Roman Catholic Church, Sacred Heart from 1935. So you have these massive stones, nice white. I like this, like, burgundy color. This is the door. Let's go inside. They leave the doors open to let people come in. Wow, so it's similar to the other one we saw. Very similar. This one's a little newer, by about 30 years. You have some stained glass. We have the sun over here. So like, it's all sun, and you still have the little area on top, so you can take the stairs up there and get a view overhead. Look at this mural, incredible. So cool. Look at Jesus over here. The sun rising. The lambs. This is like Italian Renaissance meets the Caribbean right here. This is very beautiful. This is a huge mural. Whoever did this, congratulations, you did a great job. I've been here praying a little bit, and I wanna imagine a world where there's a war and no one shows up. Then we wouldn't fight anymore, right? We're all brothers and sisters, peace and love. I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm praying for world peace. So this is where I'm staying tonight. This is called the Cottage Club, and it's one of the hotels owned by a Saban. His name's Mark, and this is the original building over here, and then on the bottom, you have around a dozen cottages. Let's go to my room. Follow me. Welcome to my cottage at the Cottage Club Boutique Hotel. Look at this beautiful place. Incredible. I love this old-school historical architecture. You have this wall separating the kitchenette. You have a little area over here to have your coffee. Over here, we have a fridge. I mean, great place to stay if you're gonna spend most, like, two or three nights. And then over here, we have a king-size bed We have a huge trunk, some extra pillows, some reading material in here. I love this, very boutique. Over here, nice little desk. You can set up your workstation, a TV. Who has time for that? One of the most important things, you have your AC right over here, nice and cool. Over here, we have the bathroom, and then over here, we have an amazing terrace. Look at this. Beautiful, stunning view. Look, right over here. In the morning, you can see the planes take off, land and take off, because the airport's, like, literally behind that rock over there. What a view. This is just, it's stunning. The mountains. No goats here, though. No goats on this island. Maybe a few snakes. Esther and Tori, you're gonna take me up to the mountain? Well, we gonna have Robyn take you up the mountain. Okay, okay. So, what is this called up there? This is Mount Scenery. So, that's the highest peak in the Kingdom of the Netherlands? Yes, that's correct. Wow, that's incredible. I mean, it's covered right now. It's amazing how here, like, out of nowhere, there's a little shower rain, and then it's beautiful sun. Yeah. Look at that. It's a sunshower right now. Ceiba's famous for its hiking, and we're gonna go on a short one, like 30, 40 minutes, up to the top of Mascagone, right above us, right here. Follow me. Let's go. Miami ain't so far away. Local rums. Those are local rums? Yeah. This is the gift shop. Beautiful stuff from Ceiba. Look. Nice magnet for the fridge. Ceiba magnets. What else we got? We got maps. We have the flag. This is a very unique flag right here. It's the colors of the Netherlands, but with a star in the middle. All right, so we're going on the hike here in Ceiba. So Robin, what are we doing today? We're gonna hike to Mascagone Hill. It's part of the Mount Scenery Trail. Mount Scenery Trail is a little bit more up, and then you reach the highest point of the Dutch kingdom, but we're not going all the way. We're going halfway to a very nice viewpoint. Perfect. So it takes around 15, 20 minutes to go where we're going. If you wanted to go all the way up, it's like two hours, roughly? Two hours, yeah, I would say something like that. It's 1,068 steps. Wow. It's leg day, let's go. This is amazing, actually, bro. Look at this. The history of this trail, normal on Ceiba, there weren't any cars. There were no vehicles at all. So if you wanted to transport something, you had to do it on foot. Ceiba is not flat at all. Everything goes up and down. But the easiest way was to go on the trails. So the easiest way to go on the trails, all around the island like this, up and down the island like this. This is hard, guys. Oh, very steep. I really thought that Gubbio was bad. This is intense. 15 minutes like this. So the first roads were built here right after World War II. Before that, it was all these trails for 300 years. And this is one of the oldest ones. And they carried all the material on these trails. Imagine, with donkeys, right? With donkeys, yes. With donkeys, wow. This is actually amazing. No sun, just shade. Nice and cool. A lot of roosters, huh? A lot of roosters, that's all I hear. The history of Ceiba is quite unknown. We know for sure that the Indians were here because there are some sites here that we have proof of pottery and et cetera. After that, Ceiba became a pirate island. And pirates, they didn't write anything down, of course, because they didn't want anything to know or anything to publish to the world. That's why the history is quite unknown. But for sure, we were pirates. After that, we started farming. So everything you see around here used to be farmland. If we go a little bit higher up, we can still see the terraces of the old farms. And everything they farmed here went to Stacia. Stacia, known as the golden rock. And what do you do when you have some money? You import goods. And so Ceiba sold all the groceries to Stacia. Let's go, let's continue. Bring comfortable walking shoes. If you're 65 and older, this is gonna be hard. So if you're wondering if there's animals in these trees, actually, there's one monkey, and he got here like 13 years ago off a ship. They did spot him like 18 months ago, so he is here. There's one monkey. There's eight different species of bats, but there's also the black iguana, which is the Ceiba iguana. And theory is that it got here, a green iguana got here, or a bunch of them got here. And because they didn't get enough sunlight because of the clouds that form around the volcano, it eventually changed its pigmentation to black to absorb heat, right? Something like that. Yes. So he basically evolved from a green iguana to a black iguana. Can we see one? There are some sites, but not on this trail, though. Not on this trail. A little bit lower, a little bit closer to the sea. By the way, guys, right over here, we have the walls of what the old residents used to have for their farming. So there was no trees here. They would farm everything right here. It does look like how you would see in Asia, like rice paddy fields going down the mountain. You got the walls right here, walls right over there. Hiking up this mountain, going through this lush rainforest, and then out of nowhere, we got these ruins. What is this? Amazing how nature just takes it back after it's let go for so long. It says it's from the 18th century, so not ancient, but for most Americans, it's old enough. So Robin's saying this is like a three out of 10 in terms of difficulty. For me, this is probably like a seven. There's no joke. Don't worry, guys, there's AC at the top. I mean, this is like a natural AC, you know? See a snake? Oh, yeah, yeah, I see it, I see it, I see it. So this is the Red Belly Razor. Exists here. He's taking a bite. Sabre, Stacia, and St. Martin. We have a very good population. They're not dangerous. They mostly eat crickets and frogs. He's beautiful. Yeah. All right, now he's gonna put him down. He's gonna let him go. Nice. We saw one, amazing. The hike was worth it. Look at this view, windward side. Beautiful, lush green, Stacia right over there. Wow, looking over this beautiful Dutch town. I love the whitewashed buildings, plus with the red, orange rooftops. Incredible, what a gem. Looking out at the ocean, have this incredible breeze. Makes you think about life. Mas cojones, do you know what this means in Spanish? That's mis cojones, what are you talking about? So Robin, Sabre, most people in the world have no idea where we are. What would you tell people of the world? Where are we? What is Sabre? Sabre, it's the unspoiled queen. I mean, it's hiking paradise. That's what makes it so special. And then for the Dutch out there, probably they've never been. Yeah, what would you say to them? They can expect nice people, warm welcome, and lovely nature. But on this island, we speak English. Yes, we do. But in the Netherlands, we're quite good at it. Yeah, when you want to get away from everything, what's your special place? On the island? On the trails, especially the top of the kingdom. Oh, the view is amazing. You hear the birds, you hear the frogs. You can just take your moment, have a nice lunch, and relax. Here in Sabre, they used to have a lot of Dutch children playing with cannons. One photo, please. Yeah, yeah, no problem, no problem. Hey, how you doing, David? Pleasure. Are you Surinamese, or you're from Sabre? Yes, Surinamese. Oh, yeah, you're Surinamese? Surinamese in Sabre? Yeah. Why Sabre? Because my wife find a photo of work here. Okay. Yes, at the hospital. So that's why I'm here also with her. And almost two years. Wow. Yeah. So you're definitely missing the Bernabonen, huh? I miss everything. Masala dogs, yes. Everything. So what's one special thing about Sabre for you? The nature. Yes, especially the nature. Yeah. So completely opposite of Suriname, huh? Completely. There we have a traffic throw. You already saw it on, so peaceful. Not so busy. What should people know about Sabre? Yes, if you like hiking and diving, then you should definitely come here. Snorkeling. Yeah. Snorkeling as well. Snorkeling, yes. Masala dogs or Bernabonen? Bernabonen. Yeah, Bernabonen. Masala dogs all day. And we're headed towards the bottom and we're on this winding roads, you know, stuck on the side of the cliff of this mountain. You have the ocean over here. We have houses over here overlooking this incredible Caribbean Sea. It's crazy driving, guys, in terms of like hilly, winding, it's exceptional. You know what? Don't rent a car here. Take a taxi everywhere. Easier. This is what I call a tight squeeze. There's like no way to get through it right now. Woo! It's not made for two cars. Right here, we have the bottom. That is the capital of Sabre. Why do they call it the bottom? It's at the bottom of this valley. Beautiful mountains everywhere. It's starting to rain a little bit, a little cloudy. I mean, this is the weather here. Rain comes and goes. Beautiful town. Whitewash. Very similar to the windward side, but obviously this is the capital. And then at the very end, you get to like the port area and that's what we got here today from the ferry. Ernest Hassel. Ernest, how are you doing? How are you doing, Ernest Hassel? Amazing. So you're making some croquettes for us today? I'll show you just now. Awesome. And so you're from here, from Sabre? From the rock. From the rock? Born and raised? Born and raised. Wow. Vacations here and there, but that's it. So you've seen it evolve over the past 50, 60 years. Has it changed? Yeah, mostly. Well, my main job was construction, but I do croquettes as a... As a hobby? Yeah, I can call it that, yeah. So what's in these croquettes? What makes this Sabian? The main meat is ground turkey. Oh, okay. So we'll go in and then we can make a start and then you can try it. All right, let's do it. Okay, let's go in. Hey, how you doing? Hi, how are you? David. Pleasure, nice to meet you. All right, here we go. Walking through the house all the way over here. Oh, wow. This is the croquette room. The croquette room. Let's do this. All right, so he's lighting up the fire. That's some good butter. And what's your name? Carol. Carol, where are you from? Colombia. Okay, Colombiana. Yes. De que parte? Bogota. Bogota, nice. All right, so we have a lot of butter over here. That looks like the turkey? Yeah. All the ingredients you think is in here. Look at this, this is the ingredients that's going into the croquette. Oh, this is gonna be phenomenal. It's like minced turkey mixed with some spices. Is that what it is? Oh, it smells good. Here we go. We're gonna put all the ingredients in to the pot. Wow. So what's in this? Just turkey, some spices. It's all a secret. Look at that butter just bubbling up with the meat. Wow, that's a lot of hard work. Can I try? Oh, when you put the flour in. Yeah, that is when it's. Oh my God, look at that, it's popping right now. A little too hot, a little too hot. You know, it smells like an amazing, like I wouldn't say a curry from India, but it has that scent. So the turkey's supposed to be ground turkey, but still I have to put it in the machine because it's still like stringy, you know? That's why I have to crush it too well to get it. Just look at that. Also mash it yourself. Got it. All right, so this is like almost like a salsa. This is onion, red pepper, green pepper, and celery. No ground up. Well, it's gonna give it a lot of flavor, a little umami vegetable flavor. So what are you putting in here? Milk now. Some milk? Yeah, two cans of carnation milk, evaporated milk. That's that really good milk, that makes it nice and sweet. Some more water to it. Nice, perfect. What's that, is that pepper? Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's a nice pepper. That's spicy, huh? Gives it a nice tang. All right, now we're adding the thickening agent, the flour. Okay. Almost like making a cake. Yeah, similar. Reminds me of when I make the pancakes. Yeah. Gotta keep adding water. Yeah, buttermilk. As you can see, stirring it like crazy, getting, making it nice and thick. Look at that. We live in modern times, so we're using modern technology. Yeah. See, you know? Like, why hurt your arm when you got the machine? It's still hard. He's putting some more piping hot water. Whoa, okay, like one more shot. Whoa, gotta be careful now, now that it's hot. Wow. ASMR, Nate, ASMR. Wow, spreading it on the pan. Wow, let's see how this works. You know, it looks like, it does resemble mofongo, or like, just like a pumpkin puree, like in terms of color. Very like, I don't know if it's like a light sand orange, or like a dark sand orange. I don't know, something like that. Very nice. So he's putting it into this, this is like to make sausages. I've seen a few different sausages being made with this, but I've never seen croquettes in my life. I've never seen how they make it. So, this is the first time for me. Incebo, huh? Now you know. Now I know. All right, so it's going in here, and it's going in the machine. Okay, let's see, how does this work? Ooh, look at how it's coming out. Does resemble something else. What? Look at that. That's very long. Yeah, you're gonna cut it right there with that. You cut it, okay, perfect. So that's one. I don't know the speed you go at, but I try my best to do this. No, it's becoming like thin in certain areas. I gotta do this nicer. It's difficult though. It's not easy. It's like bulging up, bro. It's, you know what it is? It's hard to move it. That's it. Yeah. Yep. Well, now she's cutting it into the croquettes. Perfect. I don't see you dropping them in, right into the scrambled eggs. It's huevos, I don't see it. Huevos. It's all huevos, yeah. This is the binding agent. The croquettes are like these beautiful, like cigar-shaped little vessels of delicious turkey mixed with spices. As you can see, they're soaking inside the eggs, and then he puts it into the breading, breadcrumbs. And then from there, straight into this. And then from this, you're gonna fry it, right? From there. We're gonna drop it into the croquettes to fry. Okay. It's gonna be hot. You know what, it does look like the Cuban style, color-wise? Color-wise and size-wise. You know, each one's different in terms of like the way people do the croquettes. You're adding mustard to the croquettes? Yeah, that's what croquettes go with, it's the mustard. Yeah? Is that your specialty, like that? Never seen this before. Yeah, that's one thing I don't love, is eating scorching hot things, but I will try this one right here. This is gonna be amazing with this view. Never imagined I'd be in Ceiba, having croquettes overlooking this beautiful island. Look at that. Yeah, so, in terms of croquette already, feeling-wise, it does look and feel like a Cuban croqueta. That one's usually like ham and cheese. Obviously, never with the mustard. That's different. Mm-hmm. Turkey, that's unique. You know what, it's definitely softer. Great spices. Yeah? Mm-hmm. Thankfully, he put mustard in that ketchup. I'm mustard all the way. Oh yeah, I gotta have like two or three of these with a beer, relax right here. That is really good. Hey, George Ernest has the best croquettes in Ceiba, and I guess in the Dutch Caribbean? Oh, oh, be careful. Hey, thank you so much. Thank you, appreciate it. Thank you. And this is for you, right there in the camera. It's for you. It's happy hour. We're at a bar called The Dive Bar, and this is Deep Dive Brewing Co. They actually have a brewery on the island. This is the owner, Wim, right here. And right here, we have Wim, the owner. Hey, how you guys doing? I'm Wim from Ceiba Island in the Caribbean, Dutch, and this is my dive bar. So what do you guys do here? Yeah, so we brew beer locally on the island. We're really pro-local, local products, local everything. So we brew about 12 different kinds of beer. This is our chief brewer, Tim. He takes care of the whole thing and brews it, and we sell it. Who's Wim? I'm originally Dutch, but a child of the world. Grew up between Europe and the United States, and now I've been here for 20-something years. So it's good, man. It's home. Wow. Why Ceiba? Look, look. You gonna tell me that I can't stand like this and tap you? I'm gonna tap you a beer. Look at this. Is this really bad at work? You know? How bad can this be? Every day, you're gonna smile. That's amazing. Check this out. This is one of our IPAs. You're gonna love it, man. Yeah, not too cloudy. Looks more like a sessionable IPA. Filter all our beers. It's good, man. You also have a restaurant up here? Yeah, we have a restaurant and a small hotel. We've got about 17 rooms. Small restaurant, little pool up there. Then we got a gift shop down here that Jill runs. And the rest is just being out here, having a beer with friends and having a good time. Wow. Yeah. So for the people out there who have no idea where Ceiba is, what Ceiba's about, what would you tell them if an alien just landed here right now? And was like, where am I? Oh man, it's crazy. It's, you know, less than 2,500 inhabitants, 13 square kilometers. It's tiny. No crime, no nothing. People are super kind. It's, you know, if you want to, in French, we say dépayser, which means, like, uncountried. Like, you want a cultural experience? You come to Ceiba, for sure. So I'm telling the story of the people of the Caribbean. Yeah. And, you know, so if somebody could sit down, will you? Oh, right there. Right there? That's right there? Yeah, these are Anika. She's from Ceiba. He's from Ceiba. I'm telling you, it's all locals, man. There's, at any given time, we have maybe 60 tourists on island, 70. Wow. Because it's that small, you know? Yeah, yeah. So. If somebody could sit down with you for an hour, go into your life story, what would you tell them? Oh, man, that's a long story, bro. Oh, yeah. Might need more than an hour. I know, I know, I know. I'm going to switch to the beer, man. All right, I'm going to join you, man. I can't wait to try your stuff, man. All right, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it. It's nice. Here you go, two beer produced on Ceiba, locally. Cheers, man, I hope you enjoy it. Cheers, cheers. Mmm. Hey, buddy. Another local resident. That's my dog, Hermes. Oh, this is delicious, but hey, Hermes! How you doing, Hermes? Let's go to the real star. Yeah, yeah, there he is. The new star. There he is. Oh, he's so beautiful. Third place, David. No, he's so beautiful. He's a transplant. He's originally from Iowa. No, he's like a little teddy bear. I can tell, I can tell. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's good, man. Oh, man, this is juicy. That's tasty. Definitely drinkable. Wow, so smooth. Yeah, not too cloudy. Yeah. In terms of, like, thickness. Wow, so we got stouts, we have Belgian IPAs, we have a big mix. I mean, I love this, because I'm- Is there anything from pilsner to stout to doubles at 8.1%? If you want to play big man, you go ahead. Don't come here and drink Heineken. Not about that. All right, man, I'm gonna pour you a flight, and we're gonna start off with a lager. Easy one, 5%, fully, 100% locally brewed. Beautiful color. We're gonna follow it up with a stout, 5.5%. 5.5%, it's like kryptonite right there. Then we're gonna follow it up with a Belgian IPA. Belgian IPA. Yeah, 7.5%, a little stronger, but beautiful color. And we're gonna finish it up with a tropical wheat, about 5.3%, but really good. Tropical wheat. It's our version of almost like a white beer, like a Hefeweizen, but filtered. All right, so here we go. The escargot lobster. Never heard of this dish. So they do it the same way they do escargot. They put the snails inside here. This is very French, but we've got some locally caught lobster in the butter. My God, lobster and butter goes well together. Seafood all day. This is absolutely delicious. It's like drowning in butter. Oh yeah, a little crunchy on the outside. Super tender. And they also throw this focaccia. What you do with this, you just like drown it. Let it soak up, absorb. Same way you would eat escargot in France. This is such a great invention. I'm gonna do this in my house. So fresh, real sweet. All right, let me jump over here. So this is the tuna tartare with mango. This is like a mango sauce right here. Here we go. Right there. Seaweed on top. Seaweed salad on the bottom. Mango, fresh tuna. Oh my God. It has definitely like an Asian taste to it, but fresh, amazing. Actually so tasty. Wow, looking over this incredible water. From here, nothing all the way to Venezuela. This is actually like too good. Food is not just eating and putting it in your mouth. It is the connective tissue of life. I'm literally here because I eat food and try food all over the world. They brought me here to this view, to these incredible people and it's the connective tissue of life. Some people might think food is shallow, but it's so much more than that. So this is called a beer flight. Whenever you go to any brewery around the world, ask them for a flight of beer and you'll be able to sample a few of their beers. This is actually the biggest I've ever seen in terms of like the size. Usually it's like two ounces. This is four ounces. So this is like a 16 ounce, one pint. We have lager style, Belgian IPA. And right here we have the wheat, tropical wheat. Let's do this one. This is what most of you guys are gonna be drinking all over the world. It is a lager, very light, 4%, crisp beer. This one's actually phenomenal. Wow, a lot of flavor in that. Fruity. This is stout. My introduction to the dark beers, my introduction to stout beers was when I visited Guinness in 2008 and it changed my life. It's like a chocolatey, nutty, smoky, super chocolatey, this one. And over here we have the Belgian IPA. This one for sure is strong. The Belgians drink heavy. I went to Belgium, check those videos out. Check them out, they're somewhere here. It was like 7%, yeah? 8%. Every beer in Belgium is 8%. That's how you know they're strong men. And this is the wheat ale. It looks very different. It actually looks like a pilsen. How clear it is? It's wheaty and crisp. It's actually a little creamy. I'll say the winner for me is one of these. Maybe the Belgian. I love my Belgian people. Hey, thank you so much for everything. Hey, you are... Enjoy the rest of your trip. You know, you're like a light in my day. Thank you. No, no, seriously, being here with you in your property, seeing these koi fish, these red ear sliders, guys. That's the red ear slider right there. Beautiful turtles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at that little... It feels like I'm in a little Buddhist hotel, monastery in the middle of the Caribbean. So I'm here with Reggie. Yes, sir. Who is Reggie? Reggie's a young man that grew up in Ceiba, was born in St. Martins, and had a little dream to open a homemade food restaurant. So that's what I'm pursuing right now. And so what are you doing for us today? Oh, you got some boil up today. Some fresh... Boil up? Yeah. Not oil down, it's boil up. Yeah, it's an old traditional Ceiba pot. Ceiba cabbage was makes it special because you don't find the Ceiba cabbage everywhere and anywhere, but we have it here. And yeah, we have some fresh pork and provisions. Boil up. So what is boil up? Do you think it's like oil down? Follow me. Boil up right here. Yes, sir. This is it. We got some nice dumplings. And this is the boil up. It's actually my favorite pig I killed because I rear the pigs. He raises the pigs, he slaughters the pigs. Yep, and I cook the pigs. And this one is just the provisions and stuff. Okay. But the green stuff what you see inside is the Ceiba cabbage. Ceiba cabbage? Yeah. So what is like local here? Ceiba cabbage is local? Yeah, Ceiba cabbage. We get tanyas, we get potatoes, we get all that stuff here. Oh, wow. Look at the provisions right here. Some more provisions. Look at that. Yep, we got some banana, plantain, potato. This is the one thing you'll see throughout the Caribbean is the provisions. The ground food. All the root vegetables. Yep. Yeah. That's what makes it. You know, until I started traveling the Caribbean, I didn't really understand it because you have to really go and eat it, you know? This one is the Ceiba cabbage. Oh, Ceiba cabbage. Look at that. So this one, you see, if you put it in the meat and you eat it, it tastes like the meat. This is my dinner. Oh, wow. This is his pig. This is what it's looking like now. It's being well tenderized. What does that mean? He's like, yo, you don't **** with a piece of meat, do you? Oh, wow. Look at that. Oh my gosh. Look at that gelatin right there, dude. Wow. That looks like an amazing broth. Oh, yeah. Wow. Look at that meat. The flavor comes from the Ceiba cabbage. So this is- Very powerful. Yeah, yeah, for sure. This is incredible. Next up, we have the dumplings. Your favorite, no? I love dumplings. Dumplings is a national dish of like 40 countries. It's crazy. It's always that dough. You gotta have that dough. You have to be able to have some substance to that body. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Look at that. What is that? That looks like- Different shape dumplings. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nice broth. Yes, sir. Oh, I can't wait. All right, here we go. I'm actually excited for this. This is amazing. Look at this. The provisions. You got dumplings. You have this. Oh my God. That is Zabian pork. Look at that. I can't even believe how soft it is. I'm all about organs and like gelatinous flavors, so. You know what? I love your pig. Oh, he's so good. He's so good. He was my roommate for a while. That was phenomenal. Actually very, very tasty. Very gelatinous. It's cooked in that pot for how long? Hour and a half. Hour and a half? Yeah, slow, slow burn. You gotta have lime and pepper. You gotta put some lime on there. I don't know if you're a fan of pepper, but. I am a fan of pepper, of course. Just be careful. You guys know how much I like my pepper. You don't know how much I like my pepper? Yep, yep. But if you never had that one. Oh no, no, no. It's gonna be good. You gotta try the Simba cabbage. Y'all been trying that one. Let me ask you, for you, what is family? Family means everything to me. I love my family. For sure. And then, especially my grandmother, my mother. They taught me a lot about food and stuff. Taught me. You know, when I was young, it was all about eating the food. But then as I got older, I realized the food that they was cooking is more healthier than the one we're getting right now. Because they don't, they didn't deal with food that came processed or anything. They came with food that came from the earth. That's why they live a strong and healthier life. So I said, I want to do the same, you know? I want to cook food that I know when people eat it, I'm not putting them down. When they get up from the table, they can feel like, yes, I just had a good meal. I'm good. I'm ready. I can go. I mean, this type of eating is traditional, old-fashioned, but it's so good for you. You're eating the real earth right here. Everything that God provided right here. So thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, no fried chicken right now, man. No fried chicken. I want a deeper question. If your younger self can talk to you right now, what would he tell you? Make better choices, I would tell him. I guess I would say just stay on the same path because I can't change anything or else I won't be here where I am now. Because a lot of my friends say, oh, I wish I was 23 again. I said, no, I don't wish I was that because I don't know if I'm gonna live to see this age. If I go back to 23. We're never going back. This is it. We're only on a one path, one route. I'm 40 now. I'll be 41, 42. When I'm 125, still kicking, I'm gonna keep trying to go, you know? Sure. I'm gonna keep going. And you drink heavy, huh? In the 40s? No, my friends are poking me with these beers. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Trying to loosen you up. Hey, Boil Up, is that what it is? Boil Up. Is that like trademarked? Yeah, that's Boil Up. I've never heard of that. It's amazing. Thank you so much. No problem, brother, anytime. So what was his name, the pork, the pig? When I think about it, I just feel sad. Poor guy. Next time I see you, we're gonna eat right here. Valley View. Can't wait, Valley View. Yeah, off you. Another place you can stay at is the Scenery Hotel. It's an amazing boutique hotel overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Look at this. What a beautiful view. I really enjoyed my stay here. Really modern, luxurious boutique hotel. We're currently in a tower of the shortest runway in the world, in Ceiba. And we're about to watch this plane take off. It's turning around. Oh, wow. That was clean. Smooth takeoff. Yeah, it's pretty light today. Pretty light today? Yeah. Winds are good, so perfect conditions. Have you ever had any close calls? Sure. Yeah? Yeah, one landed just before a storm. Just came in a couple minutes. Wind changed and he was on final. He ended up right there on the end. Just like when he dropped, he just stopped right there. Whoa. Landing here is tough. That's the hardest thing, actually landing. Taking off, it looks pretty easy because you're going off a cliff, you just hope it doesn't go in the water, right? That was the tower of the shortest runway in the world. Now it's time for the plane. We got exclusive access to the shortest commercial runway in the world. 400 meters here in Ceiba. Look at this incredible mountain. You have the Caribbean Sea and we're about to watch a plane land. It's definitely not easy. Only three commercial airlines fly here and we're waiting for our plane for Winair. All right, guys, the plane is about to land right now. Look. Here he comes. Wow, look how he drops. He almost reverses the engines right there. That was so quick, guys. As soon as he landed, he hit the brakes and pulled back. You could see the plane just go like this. Wow, that was nothing, huh? 400 meters? All right, we're boarding the Winair flight. It's only a 15-minute flight. How are you guys doing? Good morning. We're ready. I'm excited. Short flight. I'm excited to take off. David, pleasure. Nice to meet you. Awesome. Yeah, yeah. Small plane. Gotta be careful here. We got business class for the first time. Morning. How are you? Good, good. All right, let's do this. How many people on our flight today? Nine, that's it. So we are in business class. All right, guys, we're about to take off in the shortest commercial runway in the world. This is it. You ready, Captain? He's ready. Oh my God. Here we go. Oh my God. Okay, so the second we took off, you could feel it drop and then go up. My stomach was like. This is not for your average traveler.