During the past weeks I have explored a possible new route around the lagune of Jan Thiel, I checked if a discontinued hike (Seru Jamanika) is once again accessible and I looked into an extension of the existing hike at Jan Thiel West.

Around the Jan Thiel lagoon

The hike around the lagune of Jan Thiel is a long one; it needs some more exploring to find the best route. Because of its length I will most probably not include this hike in my regular schedule but will announce it as an extra hike probably on Saturdays.

The Seru Jamanika

The hike to the Seru Jamanika was discontinued because the route became inaccessible due to fallen trees. In the meantime a group volunteers of Hbike outdoor Curacao has cleared the trail, so I decided to check it out. Because this hike overlaps the Malpais hike almost completely I will schedule the route to the Seru Jamanika alternately with the hike through Malpais on the Sundays.

Jan Thiel West renewed

And lastly I went exploring for an extension to the Jan Thiel West hike. In the past I had a short alternative for this hike along the coast but discontinued that hike because it was so short. Now I have combined the route along the coast with the normal Jan Thiel West hike and also extended the second part by going along the shore of the lagune. This hike will become the normal version of the Jan Thiel West hike.

More information

Look below for the links to the three new or renewed hikes:

• Around the Jan Thiel Lagoon
• Seru Jamanika
• Jan Thiel West (renewed)

After a hike I normally post pictures of that hike on my facebook page. That is easy and convenient. But when you want to look back at previous hikes you have to scroll down quite a bit to find these. To make it easier to look at pictures of previous hikes I have created a new website with pictures taken during the scheduled hikes, pictures taken during hikes with other hiking organizations in Curaçao, pictures taken during my own hikes or hikes with friends and, last but not least, my pictures of the beautiful underwater world of Curaçao. All this can be found at https://johndohmen.smugmug.com/

In October I started a survey to find out if my current choices for hiking days and times were what my hikers prefer. I aimed at 100 responses and finally got 97 so it is time to report the results.

The survey was posted on facebook and was seen by 5510 people at least once and for most people twice. From these 5510 200 people clicked on the link to go to the survey (3.6%) and 97 actually filled out the survey (1.8%). Although these percentages seem low they are not uncommon for anonymous surveys.
The below mentioned results are based on the responses that I got; so they apply to the people that responded to my questions. Others may have another opinion but they passed on the opportunity to express their opinion (98%) or they never got the survey presented.

At the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century there was a blooming indigo production in Curaçao. A lot of the plantations had planted indigo plants and had built indigo tanks to produce the indigo dye for export to the Netherlands. The dye was in high demand there.
I have simulated the indigo production process at a much smaller scale. The original process has been described in a old Dutch document "Brieven en Papieren van Curaçao en Onderhoorige Eilanden" (Letters and Papers from Curaçao and its subordinate islands). More specific in the "Memorie Om Indigo Zaat te planten, schoon te maken, te snijden, te slaan, en voorts tot Indigo te bearbeijden in manieren als volgt" (Memorandum how to plant indigo seed, clean, cut and beat the plants to produce indigo). This memorandum is part of book 204, part (folio) 39 - 41. Full source reference: Nationaal Archief Den Haag (A.R.A.) 2e WIC toegang 01.05.01.02 inventaris nummer 204, folio 39 - 41 transcribed by S. H. Vautier. The text is published in the Archiefvriend in June 2006. I will not translate the old Dutch text into English but will just quote the transcribed Dutch text. After each part of the original text I will describe the process in English as I repeated it in 2014 on a much smaller scale.