Curacao Pictures - Pos Kayuda and Roi Sanchie

Details: 22 December 2013

On Thursday December 19 we made our last hike of 2013. And because there is still a lot to explore in the area of Zevenbergen (seven mountains) in the Christoffelpark, we planned an extra long trip from a subtop of the Seru Gracia through an unnamed roi (riverbed) to Pos Kayuda and from there through another roi, Roi Sanchie, to another top, where we had parked on of our cars. And it became indeed a long trip because the vegetation was much denser than we had anticipated. It took us 6 hours to walk a distance of 5 kilometers. But it was worth every minute because we walked through an incredibly beautiful nature that made you wonder if you were still in Curaçao.

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We met at the entrance of the Christoffelpark at 8 AM. From there we drove to a subtop of the Seru Gracia and we parked one of our cars at another top where we would end our hike.

First we looked if we could find the rare orchid species that we had found here last time. And indeed we found again several of these orchids with and without flowers. It is the least known orchid of Curaçao. It is a very small plant growing on the rocks.

Descending along the side of the Seru Gracia, which was not easy because of the steepness and because of a lot of loose rocks, we passed the dry-stone wall that forms the boundary between Zevenbergen and Knip. We continued on the Knip-side. We descended into the roi. Because of the rainfall of the last months everything is green and a lot of plants have flowers. Luckily there was no water in this roi. Most of the time we could walk in the roi but sometimes we were forced onto the sides because the vegetation was too dense to go through.
At one point in this roi we found a small area that was fenced off. Inside the fence there were a lot of palm trees of a kind that I had never seen. So either this is a rare native species that grows in this specific area or it is planted here in the past. There were also nice orange mushrooms in this area. And closeby we found a rare hemiparasite growing on a tree. A hemiparasite is a plant that takes part of its food from the tree it is growing on. This one is family of the Mistletoe and has orange berries.

After a rest we continued in the direction of Pos Kayuda. The pos (well) is supposed to be close to the roi but apparently is was not in the spot that was marked on the Topographical map of 1993. And the map from 1906 (Werbata) didn't have this well marked; just the text that there is a well in this area. When we found it we were surprised how small it was. Probably this pos was used to make it easier to get clear water from the roi. Looking at the form of the pos it is obvious that it was not completely circularly but apparently it had kind of an entrance on one side. Near this pos we took our lunch break. It was already over 12 PM and we were not even halfway.

We continued in the direction of Roi Sanchie. When we reached this roi we found water in it. This made the area look very rainforest-like but it made walking in it not easier. Luckily we found something that looked like a path on the side. We even found a leftover raisin bun that looked as if was left here very recently.
We found the source of the water about halfway the roi. There was a small well with a palm tree growing in it and a dry-stone wall to prevent the side of the roi to cave in into the roi. This well was mentioned on the Werbata map but not on the more recent Kadaster map. Past this point there was no longer water in the roi.

At a certain point we had to leave the roi and climb the side of an unnamed hill to get to the one car that we parked there. With some improvisation all seven fit in the car and we drove back to where the other cars were parked on the Seru Gracia.

A beautiful trip through a part of Curaçao that most people in Curaçao unfortunately don't know.

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