Hiking with her kids in jungles and cloud forests and lollygagging with the locals on the powdery beaches of the Cayos Cochinos are among Amy E. Robertson’s favorite memories of nearly five years spent in Honduras. During her research for this guidebook, Amy and her family enjoyed exploring the mountain villages, Mayan ruins, white-sand beaches, and lush forests of Central America.

Amy is a Seattle native who has long been obsessed with travel. She studied in Boston and Madrid for her bachelor’s degree, and upon graduating took a job with an international consulting firm. This position led Amy to a life of globetrottinge—she traveled to more than 50 countries in less than three years. She then returned to school, earning a master’s degree in development studies at the London School of Economics, where she also met her husband, who hails from Italy.

After working in international aid for five years in New York City, Amy and her family began life as expats in Ecuador, brought there by her husband’s job with the United Nations. While in Ecuador, Amy made the career switch from development to travel writing, a livelihood she continued when she and her family made the move to Honduras in 2007. Her writing has since been published in National Geographic Traveler, Christian Science Monitor, and Travel + Leisure, among others.

In 2012, Amy moved with her husband and two young children to Beirut, Lebanon. She spends three months a year divided between her family’s hometowns: Seattle, Rome, and Messina, Sicily.