Box, Ben

One of the first assignments Ben Box took as a freelance writer in 1980 was subediting work on the South American Handbook. The plan then was to write about contemporary Iberian and Latin American affairs, but in no time at all the lands south of the Rio Grande took over, inspiring journeys to all corners of the subcontinent. Ben has contributed to newspapers, magazines and learned tomes, usually on the subject of travel, and became editor of the South American Handbook in 1989. He has also been involved in Footprint's Handbooks on Central America & Mexico, Caribbean Islands, Brazil, Peru, Cuzco & the Inca Heartland, and Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Having a doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese studies from London University, Ben maintains a strong interest in Latin American literature. In the British summer he plays cricket for his local village side and year round he attempts to achieve some level of self-sufficiency in fruit and veg in a rather unruly country garden in Suffolk. Chris Wallace has been travelling through, and writing about, Central and South America since 2004. He has lived in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru. He has spent long weekends at family fincas in Antioquia, travelled along both ends of the Amazon river, failed at tango classes in Buenos Aires, and made frequent escapes to Valparaiso to receive the palliative benefits of coastal air and electric pink sunsets. He has tailored travel and tourism content for entrepreneurs and publishers alike, having covered events as grand and life affirming as Barranquilla's Carnival festival on some days while dealing with tragic history by writing about Argentina's Dirty War on others. More than 10 years in, he feels he's barely scratched the surface of what this continent has to offer.