The most Eastern beach on the plantation of San Juan is Playa Largu (large or wide beach). From the sea a cliff can be seen with a number of niches or cave entrances. This could be a place where indians took a break or stayed for some time. So we decided to bring a visit to this cliff. After meeting at the home of François we continued with two jeep-like cars to the plantation San Juan. At the plantation house we paid the entrance fee and we drove on to the beach, where we parked our cars.
Michèle was with us this time. She decided to stay on the beach to take pictures. The others, François, Fred, Carel, Eddy, Hetty and I left the beach and went in the direction of the cliff. Soon we found a dry-stone wall about the height of Hetty, so pretty intact. We continued to the first large niche. We found a lot of traces of former water flow (stalactites and stalagmites) but no traces of indian habitation. We continued along the cliff where we found a number of other niches, some small others quite large. All with nice stalactites, terraces formed by the water flow and also visible coral remains in the wall as proof that this cliff originated as an underwater reef.
At a certain point, almost where the beach under us ended, we decided to continue our hike closer to the sea. We went till the point that is known as 'Punt halve dag' (Point half day). It is unclear if the name means that it took about half a day to get from here to the city or to the other end of the island. And it is also unclear if a half day means 12 hours or 6 hours. For us it doesn't matter but probably if you were on board of a ship that passed this point it would. From there we went back in the direction of the beach. We looked at several places to find a spot where it would be easy to descend to the beach, but in the end we needed the help of Michèle, who was at the beach to show us such a spot.
We rested on the beach under a large tree. Our next target was the saliña just landward from the beach. There is some water in the first part and the rest of the saliña is dry. In this dry part we found a lot of trees seemingly dead. They formed nice natural sculptures.
This concluded our hike. We went back to the house of François where we got drinks and snacks prepared by Ai Wha and were we had the option to watch the soccer match on the TV screen inside. But in the end we all stayed outside and enjoyed the drinks, the snacks and each others company.
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In blue our track along the side of the Seru Largu
Playa Largu
Nicely sculpted Palu di sia
A dry-stone wall
François in front of a low ridge with a niche underneath
Brasilwood tree
Frozen water
Traces of dripping water in the past
Small stalactites
A cave hidden behind a lot of cacti
Terraces formed by the water
Clearly these rocks formed under water
Large Brasilwood trees
Columns formed by dripping water
This cave entrance is too high
More stalactites
Two stalagmites look like two people
A crab is clinging on and still alive although not moving
Another Brasilwood tree on the upper plateau
As we expected the rare Mammillaria mammillares is also present
A Toteki on a tree is looking for food
This Palu di sia has created its own support
Stem of a large Brasilwood tree
Another Brasilwood tree
Fred is taking pictures of the Mammillaria
An eroded Kadaster measuring point
Punt halve dag (Point Half day)
Flower of the Tuna
It is good resting under a tree on the coral beach
Flowers of the Oliba
This saltpan looks like a frozen lake
Lots of 'tree statues' in the salt pan
