Since the start of 2011, I’ve been thinking about expanding the WildJunket empire – my husband (and best travel mate) Alberto was the first to join me in this venture. We’ve since launched our new digital magazine while working on several projects and traveling full-time together. As our magazine became a reality, we realized how much more help we needed and soon I’d roped in Candace as our contributing editor – who’s a highly talented writer and photographer (and artist!) with a writing style that perfectly fits our magazine. She wrote and edited several articles in our first issue and will be working with us even more closely on future issues. Finally, after hunting high and low for the perfect intern, we found Allison, a journalism graduate and travel junkie. Both Candace and Allison are familiar faces in our travel blogosphere – expect to hear more from them here. In the meantime, here’s some background story about each of our new members, be sure to say hi!
Alberto Molero – Photographer and Creative Designer
Originally from Spain, Alberto first ventured abroad to Miami for a study abroad program (where he met Nellie) almost a decade ago. He’s since traveled around the world with her – from backpacking through South America for four months to hiking volcanoes in Iceland and Guatemala to honeymooning in Madagascar. His favorite places in the world are Australia and Japan, and he constantly dreams of living on the beach and going surfing all day. (His dreams are about to come true!)
Back to the serious stuff: he’s got a background in computer engineering with a Master’s in Digital Media and a passion for travel photography. After spending a few years working as a software developer, Alberto decided that he needed a change – a role that would allow him to explore his creativity and lead a life on the road.
WildJunket Magazine is the first of many projects that pushed him to leave his day job and join Nellie in her nomadic lifestyle. Having been WildJunket’s official photographer and web designer from the start, Alberto is no stranger to travel writing and social media.
His photos have been published in numerous magazines alongside Nellie’s articles, including Wend, Food&Travel, Today Mediacorp andInternational Business Times. Alberto is also WildJunket’s official photographer, web programmer and designer, and WildJunket Magazine’s creative director. You’ll find him blogging about photography here and sharing his photos on every issue of our magazine.
Candace Rose Rardon – Contributing Editor
Candace Rose Rardon is a freelance journalist, creative writer and photographer soon to be based in India, although originally from the state of Virginia. A chance invitation from two friends a month before her university graduation—“Come to London with us!”—got the travel ball rolling four years ago. While she thought those six months in the UK might get the wanderlust out of her system, she soon found the opposite was true: it was in her blood.
While enjoying weekend breaks to cities like Belfast, Prague and Tallinn, it’s the longer journeys that Candace loves most, for the opportunity to dive deep below the surface of a place. She’s helped farm pearls in French Polynesia, sailed down the Nile in a felucca, hiked a glacier in New Zealand, and even given an elephant a bath in Nepal. Her latest adventure involved steering a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw 2,000 miles across India, from the northeast corner of the country to the western Rajasthan desert. Much to her surprise, she survived.
In 2011, she completed her Master’s in Travel Writing with distinction from London’s Kingston University, where she was also awarded the Faber and Faber Creative Writing MA prize. Her work has been published on the Guardian Weekly, Matador Network, BootsnAll, International Lifestyle Magazine, The Adventurists, Women’s Adventure Magazine blog, FlightCentre UK, and many more—including WildJunket, of course. She is also currently seeking representation for her first travel memoir, Girl with a Pearl Ring, based on her time in French Polynesia.
Candace’s biggest passion is simply documenting the world, whether it’s through words, photos, videos or even a sketch. In a way, travel and writing have become inextricably linked for her. The more she travels, the more she wants to write about it—and yet the very fact that she’s recording the world in words has changed the way she travels. It has made her slow down, pull out her notebook more often and ask questions. Lots of questions.
Find out more about her on her blog, the Great Affair.
Allison Carlton – Editorial Intern
As a graduate of Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Allison had planned to be a travel writer since day one. In pursuit of her dreams, she has worked with guidebook company, VIVA Travel Guides; and written for locals papers such as the Peoria Independent, the Arizona Highways and the Arizona Republic, as well as True West Magazine where she currently works as Assistant Editor.
As a travel junkie (under the influence of her travel agent mother), Allison has lived in Ecuador and traveled throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, North America and Europe. She’s currently working hard towards a location independent lifestyle while saving up for her RTW trip and hopefully move to New Zealand next year. Her dream is to ride the Trans-Siberian railway from Russia over into China, and from there overland throughout South East Asia all the way to New Zealand.
Allison started her blog the Traveling Bard (love the story of how its name came out) to document her adventures around Arizona where she currently lives. It has so many great areas to explore from the desert to the northern forests, and it’s hard to believe how many people forget that they’ve got one of the seven natural wonders of the world within their borders.
She also loves taking videos of her adventures, check out her videos here.
What a great post, Nellie! Thanks for the opportunity to be part of such an awesome team
I can't wait to see what this year holds.