Carolyn McCarthy - Central America on a shoestring

Author of 10 travel guides, Carolyn McCarthy has been writing about the Americas since 1998. Panama, memorable for its warm tropical downpours, fried snappers, rainforest and sharks, has become one of her favorites. Her other Lonely Planet titles include Chile,Trekking in the Patagonian Andes,Panama and South America on a Shoestring. A former Fulbright fellow, Carolyns writing has appeared in National Geographic, the Boston Globe and other publications. She lives in southern Chile. Follow her Americas blog at www.carolynswildblueyonder.blogspot.com.

Greg first visited the Yucatn Peninsula on a family trip back in the early 80s. Hes been coming back regularly ever since. When hes not writing about sustainable travel or Latin America, Greg loves to explore the wild areas of his native Colorado with his wife and their three-legged Turkish street dog. To see videos from Gregs adventures, check out his website, www.soundtraveler.com.

American-born and USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism fellow Joshua Samuel Brown has lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China since 1994, and has traveled extensively around America, Canada and Belize. His features have appeared in an eclectic variety of publications around the globe, including the South China Morning Post, Business Traveler Asia, Clamor Magazine and Cat Fancy. To date, Joshua has coauthored four travel guides for Lonely Planet. His debut book, Vignettes of Taiwan, is available at bookstores in Asia, through Amazon or at www.josambro.com. Google Snarky Tofu to follow Joshuas strange journey around the world.

A journalist by trade, Alex has been hanging around in Central America for almost a decade, teaching at universities, contributing to magazines and searching for the perfect fried cheese. He currently divides his time between suburban Managua and Bluefields, where he lives in a recording studio and writes about all things Caribbean. Alex is also actively involved in a project promoting sustainable tourism in remote indigenous communities in Nicaragua. While on the road for this guide, Alex twice bought medicine from persuasive pharmaceutical salesmen on intercity buses, but has yet to try either pill.

Matthew is a trained anthropologist and epidemiologist, though he postponed his academic career to spend his youth living out of a backpack. To date he has authored more than 20 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, and covered far-flung destinations from the Darin Gap to the Dead Sea. When hes not in graduate school, out in the field or on assignment, he likes to spend his time exploring the American West with his parents, or catching up with the in-laws in the foothills of Mt Fuji.

Kevin Raub grew up in Atlanta and started his career as a music journalist in New York, working for Mens Journal and Rolling Stone magazines. The rock n roll lifestyle took its toll, so he needed an extended vacation and took up travel writing. He accepted the Honduras gig a few weeks before all hell broke loose, but went anyway. Though he was stopped nine times at police checkpoints, he soldiered on, canvasing the country in his rented Mitsubishi pick-up truck, which he managed to only get stuck once, deep in a dead-end mountain road between Marcala and La Esperanza. This is his eighth Lonely Planet title.

When Tom Spurling last visited Central America, he left his passport at a Nicaraguan hostel and got red-taped at the border. For this guide he explored every craggy, volcanic corner of El Salvador, making hit-and-write missions to guerrilla strongholds and Rasta bars armed with acidophilus and very full briefs. On behalf of Lonely Planet, Tom has now linguistically butchered Spanish, Turkish, Hindi and outback Queenslands rising inflection. His best travel experience was working on a project supported by the Planet Wheeler Foundation in rural South Africa. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and son who indulge his inability to pack light or travel safe.

Lucas has been traveling and working in Latin America for 15 years. He currently lives in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, where he sits on the board of directors of NGO Entre Mundos and publishes the citys leading culture and nightlife magazine, XelaWho. Having contributed to various books for Lonely Planet, Lucas now mostly divides his time between Central and South America. He is a regular contributor to Lonely Planet titles Nicaragua, Argentina, South America on a Shoestring and Central America on a Shoestring. His Spanish is OK, but he misses potato cakes and his mum.

Dr David Goldberg wrote the Health chapter. He completed his training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, where he has also served as voluntary faculty. At present he is an infectious-diseases specialist in Scarsdale, New York, and the editor in chief of the website MDtravelhealth.com.