Porto Marie, a second visit to the village
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During the first visit to the plantation house and village we found the remnants of several small houses to the North-East of the plantation house. But we didn't cover the whole area where houses are marked on the Werbata map, so we went back one week later, on March 26, 2015 to investigate the remaining part.
But first we entered the area to the South-West of the plantation house where a lot of columnar cacti could be seen; often these indicate former habitation. On the Werbata map nothing is indicated here apart from some green lines that indicate boundaries between adjacent agricultural fields. In that area we found a lot of artifacts but all broken down to very small pieces. We concluded that these artifacts where destroyed when clearing this area in the past with a bulldozer. We also found a dry-stone wall, one of the green lines on the map, and behind that wall the area seemed undisturbed. We didn't find artifacts here. Most probably there was indeed no habitation here although the area was used for agriculture or for keeping cattle.
Porto Marie, plantation house and village
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On Thursday, March 19, 2015 we went to the plantation of Porto Marie. Not our first time but there is still enough to investigate. This time we visited the ruin of the plantation house and went searching for the remains of the small village on the same side of the asphalt road as the ruin of the plantation house. On the Werbata map dating from the beginning of the 20th century a lot of small houses are marked to the North-East of the plantation house. An extra reason to investigate this area is because the management of Porto Marie asked us to find out if anything of historical value is present in this area so that future plans can take this into account.
We met in front of the gate at 8 AM; at that time the area is not open for public yet, but someone would come to open the gate for us. We had two guests this day, Chris Winkel and Charles Do Rego. Inside the plantation we parked the cars close to the dirt road that leads to the ruin of the plantation house. From there we continued on foot.
Rooi Domi
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On Thursday March 12, 2015 we went to the area of Santa Cruz. We had permission from the family that lives in the plantation house to park our cars next to the house. From there we first went searching for a well that is marked on the Werbata map. Apparently the map is not very accurate in this area because at the marked spot there was no well. We found a large round well about 30 meters from the marked spot. On top of this well there had been placed a very large windmill. The tower was still there but the mill is fallen down. There was a bit of water in the well.
On the other side of the marked spot on the map we found an even larger well, partly collapsed. This well seems to be from a more recent date than the other one and is for that reason not the one that is marked on the Werbata map. This well also had water in it and by throwing stones in it it seems to be deeper than in the other well.
Roi North of Seru Pretu in the Christoffel park
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In the context of investigating as much of the lesser known parts of the Christoffelpark we went again to the area of Zorgvlied; this time our target was a roi to the North of the Seru Pretu. And because we didn't plan to come back at our starting point, we parked Fred's car, a pick-up truck, at the viewpoint Boka Tabla and went from there to the viewpoint closest to our starting point, viewpoint Knip, with two other cars. We had one guest this day, Martijn, son in law of Karel Aster. The others were François, Fred, Carel de Haseth, Karel Aster, Eddy, Hetty and I. From viewpoint Knip we walked via the asphalt road to a location close to the roi; there we went into the vegetation to go to the starting point of this roi on the side of the Seru Pretu.
Sailing boats at Fontein
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During a previous visit to the remnants of the former plantation house Fontein and the ruin of the magazina we noticed sketches of sailing boats on the inside wall of the magazine. This Thursday, February 19, 2015 we decided to go back to better inspect these drawings. After proper identification at the gate of the Villapark Fontein we got permission to enter the area. We parked our cars on a dirt road close to the entrance because the person at the gate had told us that the dirt road in the direction of the former plantation house was closed off. So we decided to walk to the area of the ruin of the plantation house. Soon it was clear the we could have taken the cars, because the road seemed to be open. But hiking is not really a problem for us and certainly not over a dirt road.
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