PHILIPSBURG--Cartographer Michal Kasprowski has published street maps of four Caribbean islands, including St. Maarten, as well as a geographical map of the Caribbean and Central America.
"Map Man" Kasprowski is calling French St. Martin his home since 2002. Almost immediately after his arrival on the island he started working on very detailed, up-to-date, and very reliable maps of St. Maarten, as well as the neighbouring islands Anguilla, St. Barths and Dominica. Maps of Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Lucia are in preparation, and will be available in three months.
The maps of St. Maarten/St. Martin (scale 1:15,000), Anguilla (1:25,000), St. Barths (1:10,000) and Dominica (1:40,000) are useful for residents and visitors alike. They contain up-to-date street maps with indexes, and identify beaches, landmarks, hiking trails and diving sites.
Towns, villages and districts, and even most of the islands' hills are all easy to find.
"Whether you are an experienced traveller or just interested to know more about the Caribbean, we provide some of the best Caribbean maps around," said Kasprowksi, who made his first map in his native Poland.
"The first map I made was of the city of Wroclaw, in the southwest of Poland, where I originate from. I made a map which carried the street names from before 1945, when the city was part of Germany, and those of after 1945, when the city became part of Poland again. Since 2002, I specialise in designing and publishing original high-quality maps of popular Caribbean travel destinations that are under-represented on the cartographic market."
Kasprowski said to be proud of the fact that his maps are more accurate than the photographs of the Caribbean islands that are available on Google Earth, indicating that also in a time of Internet and GPS, printed maps are still playing a role.
"Contrary to Google Earth, which is still using photographs from about seven years ago, we continually revise our maps for accuracy and completeness based on official documents provided by the local governments. Where St. Maarten is concerned I am most grateful to Joseph Dollison of the Department of ROB for his help with the identification of the correct street names. Once the street names of Saba and St. Eustatius are officially approved I will start printing the maps of these islands as well."
The 88.5 by 103 centimetre St. Maarten map is the first complete street map with a street index of both the Dutch and French sides of the island, including insets of the capitals Philipsburg and Marigot.
The map is based on January 2011 data. The expansion of the runway of Princess Juliana International Airport's runway and the diversion of Airport Boulevard, the new Government Administration Building on Pond Island, as well as the development of Weymouth Hills are all included in the new map.
"Making an accurate and highly detailed map is a very time consuming job. I walked almost every street on the island to verify information. I am happy to finally see them in print," Kasprowski said.
The maps of Anguilla, St. Barths and Dominica are all equally rich in topographic details, identifying main and secondary roads, parking areas, airports, natural reserves, marinas, ferry lines, churches and more. Depth curves, longitude and latitude lines are included.
The geographical map of the Caribbean and Central America, including the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands is printed on a 1:4,000,000 scale and is of a different nature. "This map includes all of the region's islands, both the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The area of Central America is covered from the Yucatan and Guatemala through Panama to the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela. All of Florida is also depicted. The map is detailed as no other map of this region on the market, and, in addition, features 37 enlarged insets of the smaller island in the Caribbean," said Kasprowski.
According to the passionate cartographer his products would make perfect tools for island promotion. "They reveal how the islands look like, and they also improve tourist security because they can help them in finding their way around. They are also ideal for real estate agents, who can use them to point out the location of houses to their clients."
The highly-detailed maps are on sale at bookstores, supermarkets, hotels, resorts and airports.
Michal Kasprowski may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for corrections and suggestions. A company website is under construction and is expected to go online in May.
