August

What is the name of this Caribbean jewel?

This Caribbean nation occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles. (The western three-eighths is occupied by Haiti.) It is the second-largest Caribbean nation (after Cuba), with a population of 10.4 million.

Christopher Columbus landed here on Dec. 5, 1492, and it became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas. It is now the most visited destination in the Caribbean, with its temperate climate and year-round golf courses, though baseball is its sport of choice.