Venezuela Footprint Focus Guide

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. On many of these titles he has collaborated with his wife and Footprint Caribbean expert, Sarah Cameron. 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.

1) Caracas; (2) West from Caracas – Maracay and around, Valencia and around, Coro and around, From Maracaibo to Colombia, Barquisimeto and around, Valera to Mérida; (3) Mérida – Sierra Nevada de Mérida; Los Llanos and Amazonas; (4) East coast – Caracas to Puerto La Cruz, Parque Nacional Mochima, Cumaná, Araya to Paria, Isla de Margarita, Los Roques; (5) Canaima and the Orinoco Delta – Ciudad Bolívar, Canaima and Angel Falls, Ciudad Guyana and the Orinoco Delta, Ciudad Guayana to Santa Elena de Uairén, Mount Roraima.