I am Liana Rajaonary and I am the new intern at Dragonfly Expeditions. I am 21 and I was born in Marseille (France) but I grew up in Reunion Island, where my parents live, which is a French dependency located in the Indian Ocean. I am originally from Madagascar -which is the 4^th largest island in the world before being a movie- but many people here in Miami seem to think that I am from South America. I have an older sister, she is 25 and she also lives in France, but in Toulouse.

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Pamela Jones-Morton has been a guide for Dragonfly Expeditions since 2006 and what drew her towards working with us was the prospect of teaching others to experience the world around us in an eco-friendly, yet challenging way.  After growing up in Maryland, she received her undergraduate from Frostburg State College, her MA from Michigan State University and finally her PhD from the Ohio State University. In addition, she holds a Florida Master Naturalist degree from the University of Florida and a Certification for Birding Biology from the Cornell School of Ornithology.  Her initial career as a teacher led her to several positions around the world: Tokyo/Japan (5 years), Wilmington/Delaware (1 year), Düsseldorf/Germany (4 years), Rio de Janeiro/Brazil (3 years), and London/UK (1 year).  After holding an assistant professor position in West Virginia, Pam moved into the corporate world, working for Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. as a Manager in the Expatriate Administration and the Integrated Human Resources Departments.

Currently residing in Estero, the proximity to the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve allows her to spend her free time kayaking, hiking, photographing, bird watching and playing with her black lab Margee.  As an activist, she shares these passions by volunteering with Lovers Key State Park as an interpretive guide for beach walks, birding tours, dolphin and manatee talks, as well as wading and photography trips.  In addition, she also volunteers with the Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida where she oversees the “Senior Dogs for Senior Citizens” program.

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We arrived in the town of Brasilia (not to be confused with the capital of Brazil), which accounts for one of three villages on the island.  The “roads” in the towns of Ilha do Mel were paths that allowed access to the small stores, village homes, posadas, and restaurants by foot or bicycle.  The combination of the quaint posadas, the humble ambiance of the villages, and the easygoing attitude of the locals is like a scene out of a Hemingway novel.  This was so infectious that not even an hour into our arrival we all started to slow down and talk about foregoing our tight posada inspection time frame.  If it had not been for the persistence of our guide Tatiana, we might all still be in Ilha do Mel living a Jimmy Buffet song.

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The dragonfly took the lead, then trailed, but often was content in hovering within the confines of the speeding boat.   This exhilarating one hour speed boat journey through the Baia Paranagua into the mouth of the Nhundiaquara River was the final thrill of a 5 day adventure into the last remaining stretch of Atlantic Rainforest (Mata Atlântica) left on this planet.  As my gaze shifted from the agile dragonfly to the healthy mangroves that framed this journey, I caught glimpses of the faces of my companions who had shared this journey with me.  Their expressions were triumphant but in reserved contemplation, much like the faces you see on a metro on a Monday morning after a fabulous weekend.   More than likely all, as myself, were still in awe of this magical corner of Brazil.

The invitation from ABETA (Brazilian Eco-tourism and Adventure Travel Trade Association) offered a familiarization trip to one of the most unexplored regions in Brazil, and one of the places on my travel wish list.  Our small group included travel industry influencers from the USA, Germany, New Zealand, UK and the Netherlands.   We all went with great expectations and came away very pleased.

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The path to Dragonfly Expeditions of everybody on the team has been shaped by their life’s journey.  This is probably true the most for Bernardo Carrillo who was born in Ecuador, but by the time he was 18 had already lived in Los Angeles, Quito, Colorado, Louisiana, Abu Dhabi, Cyprus, France, Switzerland and Boston!  Graduating from Northeastern University in 1992 after double-majoring in Economics and Political Science, he was able to secure his first job at the ITT Sheraton in Boston in a very tough job market.  But within a year, his dream of helping protect the environment while creating a profitable enterprise had him launch the eco-tourism company Eco Voyager together with a business partner.  By the mid-1990s Bernardo chose to take a full time position with Saga Holidays in Boston – temporarily shelving his entrepreneurial pursuits, while his business partner decided to continue the company on his own in Miami for another 3 years. In 1998 Bernardo’s old business partner decided to sell the business, at which point Bernardo re-connected with his old dream, so he bought the company back and also relocated the headquarters back to Boston. After six years of continued growth and expansion with more offices in Latin America, Bernardo moved the company and his family life to Miami in 2004 to be closer to his operations in South America.  Due to its rapid growth, he decided to sell parts of Eco Voyager in 2006 and 2007, but the following recession resulted in him becoming the Managing Director for Maupintour in 2009 (but not before a brief encounter with Dragonfly Expeditions).

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As Managing Partner for Dragonfly Expeditions, one of my driving obsessions is our company library.  It is a running joke in the office that everywhere I go, I buy books about the culture, history and ecology of Florida and the Caribbean Basin and bring them back to headquarters like prizes from the battlefield.  I occasionally attack Amazon’s online database with relish.  Whenever we broach a new subject for a tour, I buy every relevant book on the subject.  For this reason, Dragonfly Expeditions has an already extensive and growing library.  We have whole collections of books on Florida Indians, the Everglades, Miami history, piracy, sailing, seaplanes, Spanish treasure, local wildlife, Cuba, the Bahamas, Florida architecture, Florida art, cracker cowboy heritage and books on almost every village, town and city in the state.  Of course, these are just some of the many topics represented in our collection. I am fanatic about this library.

My dreams for the library almost border on megalomania. I ask everyone I know if they have Florida books with which they wish to part.  I particularly savor old and out-of-print issues.  I want to have the largest collection in the state on Florida and Caribbean subjects.

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Before I came to Miami to start my internship with Dragonfly Expeditions I was counting the days.  Time could not go by fast enough.  And now, as I will return to Germany in a couple of days I realize how time actually flew by while I had the time of my life.

My expectations of what I wanted to learn, see and experience were already quite high but all of them were even exceeded.

First of all I had the pleasure to work with an absolutely incredible team.  To come to a foreign country by oneself is always difficult, but everybody in the office tried their best to make me feel as comfortable as possible in this new environment.  And in my opinion they did a great job.  Also the working atmosphere was fantastic.  Everybody works together closely and the team’s passion for what they are doing is absolutely infectious.

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Many months back, Erica French from Educate Tomorrow approached me at a BNI South Beach meeting to see if I could arrange some outlines for a summer camp program that they conduct yearly for constituents who they are serving.  Educate Tomorrow is a noble, non-profit organization that seeks to help young men and women who have aged out of the foster care system attain educational and career goals through mentorship.  Two summer dates were chosen for the camp events, one for the young men and the other for the young women.

 Initially, due to his proximity to Miami, my plan was to have my friend Johnny Tigertail of the Miccosukee Tribe offer the camp participants an airboat tour to his family’s tree islands on tribal lands.  Unfortunately, a very severe dry season made this option impossible because there was no water in the Everglades for the airboats to travel on.

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Charles Kropke recently hosted several journalists on a familiarization tour for the Dutch airline KLM and in the following article is being lauded for his superior knowledge of the area and story-telling abilities – and he doesn’t even speak Dutch!

Er is meer in Miami

door Ron Peereboom Voller

Wie aan Miami denkt, ziet zon, zee en luxe voor zich. Door klassieke televisieseries als ’Miami Vice’ en hedendaagse tegenhangers heb je een beeld voor ogen van snelle jachten, dure auto’s en luxe hotels. Maar Miami heeft meer te bieden dan dat, ontdekte onze verslaggever.

Thousands of wild marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins get stranded on beaches and in shallows every year all over the world.  Although we do not always know the reason for this natural phenomenon, we do most definitely know that we have to try to save those animals that need our help. This is why my fellow intern Pauline and I went down to Key Largo on Wednesday, June 1^st 2011 to support the Marine Mammal Conservancy as volunteers with their efforts in saving stranded whales thus continuing the tradition of environmental activism among Dragonfly Expeditions’ staff members.

The Marine Mammal Conservancy (MMC) is a not-for-profit organization committed to protecting marine mammals and their habitats.  It is highly remarkable that all their accomplishments are based on voluntary work and donations, no matter if it is the active rescuing of marine mammals or the catering of all the staff people.  As of recent, the volunteers of the MMC have a great deal to do since a pod of pilot whales got stranded in the Florida Keys on May 5^th 2011.

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