Roi Tabak
- Details
On Thursday June 4 2015 the archaeology sleuths went to an area that borders on San Juan. In the past this area was part of the plantation San Juan, but in 1941 this areas was purchased by the grandfather of Chris Winkel, dr Pieter Hendrik "Gungu" Maal. François, Fred and I went to this area in 2010; there should be a vehicle from the second world war parked there. And indeed we found the remnants of a Cletrac (Cleveland tractor) there, parked in a shed next to a house.
There was a chance that there would be more vehicles from WWII but the problem is that this area is densely overgrown. François contacted Jacco Steffens of Skyworks, a company that owns a drone for surveys. Jacco and his partner Sabine Berger were willing to fly the drone over the area that we wanted to investigate. On the HD-film that was made during that survey several interesting structures were found. That made it possible for us to choose a route through this area that would lead us to the interesting places.
For this visit we were the guest of Chris Winkel as one of the current owners of this area for a renewed visit.
Cas Abou - border with San Juan
- Details
On Thursday May 28 the archaeology sleuths went to Cas Abou. We parked our cars next to the plantation house. Of course also this time we asked permission to enter the plantation and we got the permission from APC (Algemeen Pensioenfonds Curaça).
I made a quick tour around the plantation house to take pictures. The house is uninhabited but in rather good condition. Next to the plantation house is the magazina. This looks as a rather modern part; completely different from other magazinas near plantation houses. It is currently divided in multiple storage units each with its own door.
When everybody was present, a small group and one guest, Chris Winkel, we went in the direction of the salt pans. We tried to follow an old dirt road that is present on the Werbata map, but we couldn't find it in the vegetation, so we just went via a roi in a more or less straight line to the salt pans. The vegetation was rather open although we encountered a lot of Prickly pear cacti. Never fun to walk through.
Third visit to Santa Barbara
- Details
On Thursday May 21 we went for a third visit to Santa Barbara. This time we had more problems to get permission from the guards to enter the area because there had been complaints caused by another group that went for a hike very close to the plantation house of Santa Barbara without permission from the owners of the plantation house. Even when you have the right to enter the area of Santa Barbara that doesn't automatiscally mean that you have access to everything on the plantation. The plantation house and a large area around it is private property. Entering that area without the explicit permission from the owners is considered trespassing.
We got permission from the owners of the plantation house so we were allowed to pass. We were greeted by Maya van der Werve, who lives next to the plantation house, and one of the owners, Eva.
Second visit to Santa Barbara
- Details
On Thursday April 16, 2015 we visited Santa Barbara for a second time. Last time we found the indigo tanks and some waterworks but we didn't have time to go farther to the South where we expected to find more Indian sites. So we asked once again permission from the management to enter the property. The permission was given and on this Thursday a group consisting of François, Fred, Hetty, Karel Aster, Carel de Haseth, Eliane Haseth, André Rancuret and I met on the parking lot in front of the sales office.After announcing our presence to the guards at the gate we started our hike. We took a route a bit more northerly than last time where we hoped to find more mahogany trees. We did find a few but not the forest that we hoped to see.
Triangulation points at Rif St Marie
- Details
On Thursday April 9, 2015 a small group of the archaeology sleuths consisting of Fred, Hetty, Carel and Eliane Haseth as his guest and I, went to the former plantation Rif St. Marie. We parked our cars with permission from the management on the parking lot of Coral Estate and went from there looking for two triangulation points in this area. According to the Kadaster map from 1993 the triangulation point with the number DP 9 is located to the Southeast of the entrance of Coral Estate and according to the Werbata map from 1909 the triangulation point WB32 is located to the North of the entrance. The first one is placed by Kadaster and the second one is placed by Werbata in the beginning of 1900 for the first topographical map of Curaçao.
Page 7 of 23