Credit: Florida State Archives

Few big cities in America have a community as culturally and architecturally distinct as Tampa’s Ybor City.  Beginning its life as a cigar-manufacturing town made up of Cuban, Spanish, Italian, Jewish and German immigrants, the neighborhood is now a thriving entertainment district with a rich palette of late 19^th century and early 20^th century buildings.

Our idea for this tour was to offer a profusion of sensory stimulations including the sights, smells and sounds of a unique company town with a unified history – the making of cigars.  With quick rail spurs from the busy Port of Tampa a few miles away, it is clear that Ybor City was once close enough to be convenient for importation/exportation but far enough away from historic Tampa to form its own

Credit: Florida State Archives

unique identity.  And form a unique identity, it did!  The wrought-iron porches and Spanish-Mediterranean embellishments lend a truly exotic ambience to the entire neighborhood and speak of another era when this was a working-class district.

The large immigrant waves of a century ago have few stories that include the predominantly Latin groups that Ybor City heavily recruited at the time (Spaniards and Cubans).  So this tour is a great way to see what kind of community these groups contributed to the American fabric.

Saturday, April 21^st, 2012 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm:

The Everglades according to the Miccosukee

Skip across the shallow waters and sawgrass prairie to a distant Miccosukee   island as your guide prepares you for a journey of natural wonders and cultural discovery! Watch in wonder as Great Blue Herons, Egrets, Woodstorks and Ibis take to flight as we travel into the true heart of the Florida Everglades. It is here among the sawgrass prairie that remote cypress islands filled with Seminole and Miccosukee history still exist and it is here that our adventure begins . . .

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 from 8:45 am to 11:45 am:

Tour de Grass – Cycling the Everglades (in the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park)

 Get a close-up view of wild gators, turtles, Roseate Spoonbills and abounding varieties of wading birds and aquatic species. This tour is breathtaking in scope and engaging in detail.  It will reward us midway with a wildlife viewing tower that extends the vistas into a seemingly infinite horizon.  Take note, however, that the distance is moderate to strenuous and this undertaking should be specifically reserved for the adventurous of mind and body.

Sunday, April 22^nd, 2012 from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm:

Great Discoveries – A Kayak Journey on Biscayne Bay

As you paddle past mangroves teeming with life as well as historical and modern mansions, you will see what dramatic changes the shoreline has experienced. You will encounter breathtaking views of the open bay and learn of the close connection of the waters lapping at your kayak’s hull with the struggle for Cuban freedom.  Hear about the preservation of these shallow waters and why they are so important to wildlife as well as humans.

Please note that all tours require your own transportation to and from the starting locations. For pricing and all details please contact info@dragonflyexpeditions.com by April 19^th, 2012.

A walk through the Montgomery Botanical Center led by its Executive Director,  Dr. Patrick Griffith, offered an exclusive exploration of one of the world’s foremost horticultural institutions.

Armed with walking sticks and a new found courage, two waves of participants waded through the Big Cypress on swamp-walks learning about the flora and fauna of this primeval preserve.  Their experience came full circle when they were introduced to the stunning photography of Clyde Butcher in his Big Cypress Gallery.

Cultural discoveries through South Beach on a program designed after Charles J. Kropke’s book, South Beach: Stories of a Renaissance, led to witnessing an impromptu private performance at The Miami City Ballet.

These are the kind of uncommon adventures that only Dragonfly Expeditions can create. In the months to come and through the end of the year lucky participants will immerse themselves in Road Scholar travel learning adventures led by our unique and experienced guides.  Road Scholar, the world’s leader in educational and lifelong travel has entrusted Dragonfly Expeditions with showing their savvy travelers the greatness that is South Florida.

If you are interested in participating in any of Road Scholar programs please call 1-800-454-5768 or visit www.roadscholar.org.

The five tours that were offered throughout the weekend featured Miami’s Cuban Heritage, the historic Miami City Cemetery, Kayaking on Biscayne Bay, and two Miccosukee Indian Heritage airboat tours.

The goal of the partnership between the University of Miami and Dragonfly Expeditions is to showcase Miami as a metropolis with historical, ecological and cultural treasures beyond its usual party reputation. Here are some quotes from participants:

“Very interesting information. Loved it!” – Xavier, Cuban Heritage Tour

“Very informative and a beautiful way to see the bay” – Ann, Great Discoveries on the Bay – A Kayak Tour

“Fabulous trip, tour guide was superb. Airboat was so relaxing. Great way to see nature at it’s best!” – Sheila, Miccosukee Indian Heritage Tour

Dragonfly Expeditions would like to send a special thank you to the University of Miami Family Weekend staff (Brian Orefice, Danielle Howard, and Carrie Whiteside) for their amazing work and dedication in ensuring that our partnership was again a success. We are looking forward to Family Weekend 2012.

Over the years there have been numerous theories concerning the leaping of mullet. The three most accepted theories are: predator avoidance, aerial respiration and… because they want to!

Click the image to see the video

Riding past the most prominent place – the lighthouse in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park  – along the stunning coastline and through the Village of Key Biscayne, the image of a great bike tour started to emerge in my mind.  Below the surface of modern development one can truly understand the island as a microcosm representing all of Florida’s history and ecology.  And like so many places, the best way to explore it is the slow pace of a beach cruiser that lets us travel almost the full length of this barrier island while allowing frequent stops at locales that escape the fleeting look out a car window.

Because of its pace and since we move both through time and space, I thought the most fitting name for our tour would be “Key Biscayne – A Journey by Cycle.”   Over the years since this tour’s inception, the bike vendor and state park have been most welcoming to us and in turn we immerse our guests into tales of piracy, amazing ecological restorations, Stiltsville, Richard Nixon’s Winter White House and many more.  So I think that this ride across the island has become many of our visitors’ and one of my favorite outings!  Wouldn’t you agree?

The tour is organized around an afternoon visit to the seabird station.  There, Wendy and her capable crew would escort us around their compact facility to see the operating tables, X-rays and surgical equipment where miracles are performed every day.  The ‘patients’ are pelicans with broken beaks, cormorants with embedded fish hooks and herons entangled with fishing line.  Some of the birds, too injured to ever be released into the wild, stayed as one of the 75 permanent residents of the facility.

The Pelican Harbor Seabird Station has survived and grown out of passion, ingenuity and sacrifice.  Wendy Fox stood at the vortex of the organization. She tended to injured birds, raised funds, planned expansions, conducted medical research, raised more funds, did identification banding and rescuer training and then raised more funds.  As the ultimate testimony to her influence, Wendy’s son Brian Fox, a wildlife biologist, will take her place as Director of the organization.  He began his orientation as a third-grader in his mother’s shadow.

We will continue to promote our tour and give support to the seabird station.  It will act as our ongoing tribute to Wendy’s work.  She was the kind of person the world sorely needs.  As for all of the lucky, newly-healed, beautiful birds that Wendy has released over the years, the saddest thought is that we now have no choice…..but to release her.

Goodbye Wendy Fox and thank you so very much for your determination and kindness.

Your friends at Dragonfly Expeditions

For the June/July issue he was given the opportunity to introduce Dragonfly Expeditions and one of our tours: the Everglades Backwater Tour:

Before this trip came into our development list I had never been to the island of Duck Key.  Sure, like many South Floridians, I had passed by numerous times on my way to the Lower Keys and wondered about the island with the large “Hawks Cay” sign.  The island itself has several shops, the beautiful Hawks Cay Resort, and quite a few houses all with canal access.  I drove around to gain my orientation before hitting the water, weaving in and around the island and over its unique ornamental bridges.  I later learned that Duck Key was likely named after the double-crested cormorants, a seabird that inhabits the island, that locals once called “ducks”.  The island is rumored to originally have also been home to flamingos.

We certainly haven’t seen any flamingos but our first couple of kayak excursions led us to sea turtles, nurse sharks, sting rays and a variety of tropical fish visible below the waters surface.  Great White Heron (a morph of the Great Blue Heron found only in South Florida and the Caribbean) and a variety of seabirds soared above.  While the wildlife viewing is incredible, we also got an excellent glimpse of the island via the canals that wind through it.  We passed under these prominent bridges and along the backside of vacation rentals and long time homes of keys residents.  The island was originally designed to a “West Indies” vibe.  They began with nurseries to attract native birds, and hired famed architect Morris Lapidus to design the first hotel, the Indies Inn which hosted dignitaries, film stars and presidents.  At one time the island was one connected land mass later transformed into five separate islands connected by four decorative stone bridges.  One of the unique things about this island, especially as it relates to kayaking, is that the canals were dug to be thru waterways so that they flush with the tides.  This gives us an excellent opportunity to see wildlife as larger fish and animals come to feed in the turbulent waters.  Whether you are looking for historical insight, nature watching or just a peaceful excursion on the water, join us on the Hawks Cay Kayak Adventure and discover a bit of the Keys and yourself.

On March 1^st 2011 Dragonfly Expeditions organized a teambuilding event for a group of 180 high profile guests from a multinational company that is operating in 21 different countries.  The goal was to remove invasive exotic plants and to restore the original flora in a critical section of Markham Park , a popular county park on the edge of the Everglades close to Fort Lauderdale.

When the buses with the guests arrived at the work site and the participants got out – several of them dressed up quite classy – some of us had doubts about the group’s productivity. But after a brief motivational speech and the introduction to the scope and importance of this project they began to organize themselves in teams, picked up gloves, shovels and rakes, and started working with great enthusiasm.

The participants were split into groups of six, with two of them as the group leaders for a certain time period. The concept was to train people on leadership, which is why the team leaders were exchanged after forty minutes. An evaluation of the organization and its efficiency was done by the supervisor of the team at the end of each time period.  People were working diligently and even the CEO of this billion dollar company who normally reigns over more than 24,000 employees all over the world was setting a good example by digging, planting, removing vines from trees and spreading mulch in the Butterfly Garden area of the park with an incredible enthusiasm.

In the other areas, the guests were removing Brazilian pepper, Australian pines, Oyster plants, Guinea grass, and many other invasive exotic species.  Seeds of these plants have continued to spill over into and infest the pristine Everglades.  With the completion of this project, over time the area will return to a natural state the way it was before the region was developed.

At the end of the day, we led the entire group to the top of the levee separating Markham Park from the Everglades to watch the sunset as a dramatic climax of a successful afternoon.  The participants were realizing that all their efforts were not just self-serving, but actually an important part of protecting one of the most fragile and irreplaceable ecosystems in the world: the Florida Everglades.