V!VA List, Latin America: A New Spin on an Old Tradition

Scheduled for release next month, the new V!va List, Latin America travel guide is where Web 2.0 meets the Latin Travelogue. The guide is the first-ever armchair travel book created by an online community of travelers, writers and photographers. Packed with spirited essays and intense photographs, the 350-page book will carry readers to Latin America. V!VA won a contest for new publishers. That means the book will be distributed through a top notch distribution firm and that means you should be able to find it in your favorite bookstore.

Organized by country, V!VA List Latin America takes the virtual community’s writing and puts it in hard copy form. (Leaving your PC on the coffee table, on nightstand, or in the lav is a bit awkward, don't you think?) Through short essays, writers from around the world share their best adventures in Latin America. Their words pulse with their love of the history, the culture, the food, and the terrain that is Central and South America.

V!VA List sparked the passion of hundreds of travelers and writers across the world who, within minutes of announcing the project, nominated their Latin favorites for inclusion in the book. In a few weeks timethe V!VATravel Guide website registered more than 500 nominations. Then it received submissions of 450 essays and more than a 1,000 photographs. About one hundred writers made the final cut, and 150 photographs are set to be published. Authors and photographers varied widely among internationally established professionals and aspiring artists to V!VA Travel Guide community members who simply felt drawn to write about the places they love.

Some V!VA List contributors are being published for the first time. Others have written for publications as diverse as Mothering Magazine, iparenting.com, Americas Magazine, New Mexico Parent, MainelyKids, Library Sparks, Kipus, Time Out, National Geographic Magazine Online, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Martha Stewart’s Body+Soul, Fitness Magazine, Associated Press, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, California Chronicle, Rough Guide Books, Escape Artist, Transitions Abroad, International Living and Shecky´s.com.

Some contributors wrote about traditional Latin American venues such as the Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu and the Iguazu Falls. Others wrote of the culinary opportunities of Paraguay, paleo tourism in Argentina, myths of the Mountains in Bolivia, and traveling with kids all over the continent.

Community Grass-roots Through and True

Although traditional marketing tactics and a public relations campaign will be used to market the book, V!VA List will remain true to its roots and be promoted by the community of writers and photographers who made the book. Writers will sign books, host readings and hold workshops on travel writing. Photographers will exhibit photographs at local bookstores, libraries and community venues.

VIVA, Latin America will stir the imagination of the armchair traveler. For others, it provides the foundation a trip long or short in the region. It will fuel plans for an extended trip like a gap year, work sabbatical, study abroad or volunteer opportunity. VIVA List readers might even drag their kids from the comforts of home to a life changing Latin American adventure.