This is the second of two posts about our recent visit to the mountainous Caribbean island of Hispaniola. In the first post, I introduced you to the Dominican Republic, and how we came to trek there. In this post, I describe our assault on Pico Duarte (3,101m), La Pelona (3,095m) and La Rusilla (3,040m), the three highest mountains in the Caribbean.

The starting point for the main route up Pico Duarte is the Armando Bermudez National Park headquarters at La Cienaga, a small town set within a woo...