It’s 5:45 a.m. on a chilly October morning. The office is dead calm and my cup of coffee has just kicked in. Thirty emails await my response and two handfuls of map projects need to be reviewed. Half of them, of course, are time sensitive. Where to begin?
The project requiring the most urgent attention is our new double-sided Caribbean DestinationMap. At a glance, some elements stand out:
On the eastern Caribbean side, the dive site symbol is too far away from the town, Bávaro, Dominican Republic. Hey! That’s where my wife and I danced the merengue all night on our 30th wedding anniversary.
The city inset map of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands, seems correct. Oh—those fresh lobster sandwiches!
In Puerto Rico, the town of Luquillo will need to be added. Wow! I remember those brightly colored food shacks lining the road.
On the western Caribbean side, it’s essential that the Mayan ruins of Tulum be shown. Boy, how impressive it was to swim in the warm turquoise waters of the Mayan Riviera with Tulum and the swaying palm trees in the background.
It’s 7:00 a.m. already! Seems like this map has drawn me in. Best to leave reminiscences aside and get on with the business at hand.
From the weather maps on television to the GPS screens that guide us, maps have become an integral part of our daily lives. As I can attest, they can also be a very personal part of our lives—for to relive some of your life’s most pleasurable moments, sometimes, all you need is a map.
National Geographic’s Caribbean DestinationMap will become available later this month. It’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com
Juan José Valdés
The Geographer
Director of Editorial and Research
National Geographic Maps