Julian's Humble Hubris

See the above region on Google Maps After our landfall and initial exploration of the western tip of Haiti in  part 3 , it's time to cross the southern part of  Hispaniola , the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba; on the west side of the island, where we landed, is the country of  Haiti , while the eastern side is occupied by the Dominican Republic . Hispaniola was the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. Large Caribbean islands provide a fantastic mix of tall mountains and a lot of coastline: excellent flight-simulator locations, as far as I'm concerned!  Hispaniola also offers large, gorgeous lakes! Topographic map of Haiti :   map     Crossing Over to the South Coast For starters, I re-cross the western tip of Haiti, this time south-bound.  An excuse to re-visit the very scenic "Pic Macaya" National Park that I first visited in...

See the above region on Google Maps At the end of  part 2  of our round-the-world tour , we had just landed on a tiny airstrip upon making a first landfall at the western tip of Jamaica, arriving there from Cuba by way of the Cayman Islands. If landing the larger 6-seater airplane, the Beechcraft Baron 58 , on that tiny airstrip wasn't a workout enough for my still-limited landing skills, later landing on an aircraft carrier , while in transit to Haiti, certainly stretched my abilities!  Fortunately, I had fortified myself with a training video on handling sideslips , i.e. fine alignment with the landing strip.  That has been my Achilles' heel so far: ending up a little diagonal and/or offset, just as I'm about to touch down...  Getting better, though :) North-West of Jamaica : Montego Bay In Jamaica, I've been fascinated by two gorgeous bays: the first one is Montego Bay, close to my original landfall on the island. Here are two v...