Seru Kabayé between Porto Marie and Daaibooi
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The previous two weeks we investigated the two hills on both sides of Playa Hunku on the plantation Porto Marie. We checked for traces of indian and slave habitation and for forts. This time our attention went to the third hill on this plantation with a view towards the sea, the Seru Kabayé. This is a long hill lying between the bay of Porto Marie and Daaibooi. We wanted to check for remains of a fort or observation post on this hill. And of course we wanted to find out if there are any Nipple cacti on this hill.
Porto Marie near Playa Hunku
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On Thursday July 4, 2013, a small group consisting of François, Fred, Michèle and I went once again to Playa Hunku on the plantation of Porto Marie. We wanted to look again for remnants of slaves habitation in this area and we expected to find remnants of a fort on one of the hills next to this bay.
But first I made a stop at the church of Willebrord. Last week I had seen something that looked like the ruin of a large cistern at a close distance from the church. And indeed this was a reasonably intact building which purpose was to collect water. Originally it had a roof, but the roof apparently collapsed. Parts of the roof are on the floor. There is still water in the cistern. The large roof of the church collects large amounts of water during rainfall and apparently this building was used to save it for a dryer period; maybe even to provide water to the nearby village of Willebrord. There would be no need for such a large cistern just for the church. The size is comparable to a similar building near Fort Beekenburg; that cistern was used to collect water for the former hospital in that area.
Seru Dingo at Playa Hunku
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In the final report written by Rose Mary Allen about "HET VOLKSLEVEN OP PORTO MARI ROND EIND NEGENTIENDE TOT DE HELFT TWINTIGSTE EEUW" (How did people live in Porto Mari around the end of the nineteenth till the mid of the twentieth age?") we find, among others, the following (translated) fragment about slaves in this area: "According to oral history people who called themselves "gueni's" lived at Plahunku. They were slaves". Plahunku is undoubtedly what we now call Playa Hunku. Another reference mentions Dingo as a place where slaves have lived. So the sleuths decided to investigate this and went to Playa Hunku on Thursday, June 27, 2013. With permission from the manager of the plantation Porto Mari the main gate was opened for us at 8:15 AM and also the gate to Playa Hunku was opened specifically for us. So we could drive directly till the beach called Playa Hunku. There we parked our cars and discussed where to start our investigation.
Plantation Fontein
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For me the first visit to the plantation of Fontein, for most of the others a repeat visit. The group was rather small because of vacation of a number of other participants. Fred, Michèle, Eddy, Hetty and I were present as was a special guest, Jasmijn, Hetty's daugther who is currently on vacation in Curaçao.
After checking with the guard at the entrance of the newly built village on part of the former plantation Fontein we got permission to enter the plantation by car; we were allowed to drive into the uninhabited part of the area.
Seru Maco
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The Seru Maco (Maco mountain) was our goal on Thursday, June 6, 2013. We had seen this mountain several times during our visits to the Seru Kabayé. A striking feature of that mountain was that the Eastern side appears to have almost no vegetatiion. That is what we saw when looking from the Seru Kabayé and that is also easily visible on Google Earth. So we decided to take a closer look.
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