The asphalt lake and the fresh water lake
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On Thursday October 17, 2013, the sleuths went to the Asphalt lake. On invitation of Karel Aster, the director of the Asphalt Lake Recovery company, we got access to the normally closed terrain and we got an explanation of the origin and exploitation of the asphalt lake from Karel personally. Afterwards he brought us to the adjoining freshwater lake in Emmastad where we were free to explore the terrain.
Seru Nobo at the plantation Cas Abou
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On Thursday the archaeology sleuths went for a search of traces of indian habitation on the Seru Nobo at the plantation of Cas Abou. Just under the top of the Seru Nobo we had seen a very interesting niche during a previous visit to the neighboring plantation Porto Marie. From the manager of Porto Marie we had permission to enter the plantation earlier than normal opening times and also from the owner of the plantation Cas Abou we got permission to enter their property.
Raphael
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On Thursday, September 5, 2013 the almost complete group of archaeology sleuths met at the small marina at the bay of Piscadera. There we parked our cars and walked a small distance before we entered the vegetation. We had several targets for this day: we wanted to check the country house, we wanted to search for remnants of slave habitation near the country house and we hoped to find another set of indigo tanks in this area. We succeeded in some of this areas but for some of us this day turned out to be a very intense one.
Choloma
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On Thursday, August 29, 2013 a smaller than usual group went for a nature walk at the plantation of Choloma. Fred had a key to enter the gate, so we could drive till the first weekend house at the South-Western shore of the St Joris bay. There we parked our cars and started our hike. The group consisted of Fred, Carel with his niece Eliane, Eddy and me. The others had other activities this day.
Close to where our cars were parked there is a brackish pond; not directly connected to the bay but probably fed by salt water during high tide or strong winds and by fresh rain water flowing through the now dry river (roi). The old Werbata map shows that this is a area that is regularly flooded. The result is a nice pond with around it mangroves and fresh green trees. In and around the water lots of birds.
San Sebastian - old houses, well and indigo tank
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In the neighborhood of most country houses there was a small village with (slave) huts and other buildings. Most of these were still reasonably intact at the beginning of the 20th century according to the topographical map made by Werbata. The fact that these houses are shown as small orange (stone) or black (wooden) rectangles on the map means that the houses were still there in a recognisable form. Otherwise these would have been marked as ruins. Opposite the country house of San Sebastian such a village can be seen on the Werbata map. A ruin of a small building can be see from the road. Often this is denoted as the house of the vito (supervisor), but most probably this is a former milk house where the milk was placed for pickup for transport in the morning. It is too small for a house.
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