Armed with only a vague notion of the hike we were supposed to be embarking upon, we set off into the cactus fields and brambles near Playa Port Mari. Online, it had been described as a "History Trail," and the printout we grabbed at the dive shop called it a "Bird Trail." But we shortly discovered there wasn't much of a "trail" of any sort. Let's just say, a machete would have come in handy.
When the plantation house of Jan Kok was in operation, it was a place of cruelty, where hundreds of enslaved men and women were put to hard labor. But time mellows everything, and that apparently goes for Curaçao's landhuizen, as well. Today, the Jan Kok is home to the colorful work of native Curaçaoan artist Nena Sanchez.
The former Savonet Plantation is found within the bounds of Curaçao's Christoffel National Park. In 2010, the landhuis (manor) was converted into a museum which touches on the history of the island and life on a colonial-era Dutch plantation.
