Guest Bio
Ami Jones is a seasoned travel professional, passionate conservationist, and respected leader in sustainable tourism with over 15 years of experience designing and guiding meaningful journeys across the globe. Her path began in 2008 in Placencia, Belize—an early spark that ignited a lifelong commitment to using travel as a force for good.
Since then, Ami has held key roles in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors spanning student travel, wellness, educational tourism, and conservation. She has led innovative sustainability initiatives—including the development of pioneering low-impact travel models—and helped shape strategies that prioritize environmental stewardship and community empowerment. In 2025, she founded TerraFauna Journeys, a company dedicated to reconnecting travelers with the natural world while supporting the ecosystems and communities that define each destination.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Ami Jones, CEO and founder of TerraFauna Journeys, a conservation-focused travel company. They explore Ami’s early influences, including her family’s role in shaping her conservation mindset and her passion for adventure travel.
The discussion covers the ways travel can positively or negatively impact communities and ecosystems, as well as how TerraFauna Journeys is addressing these challenges. Ami offers a candid look at the need for ethical tourism, the role of listening to locals, and how even mass tourism can be a stepping stone to more conscious travel. Throughout the episode, she emphasizes that adventure travel has the power to transform both the traveler and the world.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ TerraFauna Journeys aims to inspire conservation through travel
- ✓ Ami’s childhood experiences with National Geographic sparked her curiosity about the planet
- ✓ Conservation perspectives can vary greatly based on cultural backgrounds
- ✓ Travel experiences shape our understanding of the world and its challenges
- ✓ Mass tourism can serve as a gateway to more meaningful travel experiences
- ✓ Cultural misconceptions often arise from a lack of firsthand experience
- ✓ Ethical tourism requires listening to local communities and understanding their needs
- ✓ Luxury travel is being redefined to mean access to unique experiences
- ✓ Community engagement is crucial for successful conservation efforts
- ✓ Travel can be a powerful tool for personal growth and global understanding
What You’ll Find on TerraFauna Journeys
- ✓ Small-group adventure travel experiences rooted in conservation
- ✓ Collaborations with local communities and Indigenous guides
- ✓ Destinations that highlight biodiversity hotspots and fragile ecosystems
- ✓ Educational components focused on environmental and cultural awareness
- ✓ Opportunities to participate in hands-on conservation projects
- ✓ Custom-designed journeys for individuals, families, and organizations
👉 Visit TerraFauna Journeys to learn more about Ami’s work and plan your next conservation-driven adventure.
Learn more about TerraFauna Journeys and connect with Ami at:
https://www.terrafaunajourneys.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:00.955)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back here today. Also super excited to have Ami here with me, Ami Jones. She’s the CEO and founder of TerraFauna. See, I knew I was going to say Fauna a little bit, but TerraFauna. I’m going to have you say it just to make sure everybody hears it the way you want to, but TerraFauna Journeys. Ami, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Ami Jones (00:26.702)
Thank you so much Jason and yeah just depending on where you are we don’t mind a little accent but yeah here in the states we say TerraFauna Journeys.
Jason Elkins (00:36.467)
And right before I pushed record, said, I’m probably going to pronounce it a little bit Latina, Hispanic, or something like that just because I spend so much time there. anyway, Ami, happy to have you here. Where are you today?
Ami Jones (00:42.16)
I’m
Ami Jones (00:51.054)
I’m in my home office. I’m based here in Denver, Colorado, which is where I call home, born and raised.
Jason Elkins (00:59.719)
very, very cool. And I’m actually in the States as well. So this is about the closest I’ve been in physical proximity to someone that I’ve had a conversation with on the show. So I’m visiting the States as well and was actually just up in Colorado this past week. I mentioned to you, my daughter got married. anyway, so we’re, we’re still doing this remotely. I should have, we should have got together for coffee and then it, well, I was up there, but anyway, happy to have you here.
Ami Jones (01:19.087)
Yeah. That’s okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, very cool. What is the chances? I’m guessing with your travel schedule and with my travel schedule, you know, yeah, I had to Costa Rica on Thursday. So we got lucky.
Jason Elkins (01:32.391)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:37.127)
Very, very cool. We’re super excited to, I want to hear your story. I learned a little bit the last time we spoke and I thought, man, that just, you know, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on there. So we’re going to dig into that. I also recognize and probably some of our listeners are like, they realize that you’re kind of not transitioning. That’s not the right word, but you’re in the middle of a big launch and something very exciting for you. So we’re going to chat about that as well. And actually,
Let’s do this. Let’s give our listeners kind of the 30, 60 second elevator pitch for TerraFauna Journeys. And then we’re going to dig into your background.
Ami Jones (02:13.358)
Sure, yeah. So Terra Fauna Journeys truly is a conservation company. We’re just doing it by way of travel. Our mission is inspiring conservation, one journey at a time. And we are new to the market, serving a demographic of 35 to 55, which is not well targeted from the tour operator scene. You know, I think folks in our age group are seeking more meaningful travel. And so we’re here to do that at a time that
you know, the planet and our global society, we need each other, the planet needs us. And so yeah, here we are.
Jason Elkins (02:49.235)
That’s a very, very cool. Look forward to learning, learning more about that. But before we do that, hang on, we’re going to go back. I don’t know how far we need to go back. We can go all the way to your childhood or however far you need to go.
Ami Jones (03:03.16)
So for me, it really all started when I was little. I come from a long line of explorers, but my dad was an avid collector of National Geographics. And I remember going into his office and sneaking them off the shelf and coming through them and dreaming of wild places and different people and things that were just so far flung from everything in my little day-to-day life.
Jason Elkins (03:14.611)
them.
Ami Jones (03:32.302)
And that’s when I really started getting curious about our planet. And, you know, it’s interesting. I found a collection from the 1970s a couple of years ago, and we are still having the same conversations about the changes in climate and biodiversity restoration that we were back in 1978 in National Geographic. So that’s…
Jason Elkins (03:55.271)
Makes you wonder how much we’ve really advanced or we’re just still having the conversations. But also I want to touch on the National Geographic thing because it’s surprising how many guests, it shouldn’t be surprising. It makes sense. But how many guests I’ve had on the show that when we start this conversation, it starts out with something around National Geographic. I think National Geographic has played a large role in many of our endeavors.
Ami Jones (04:10.188)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (04:25.331)
that we have chosen here in this space. Let me ask you this, do you remember how they used to have like the maps inside of them?
Ami Jones (04:32.584)
I would put them on my walls, Jason.
Jason Elkins (04:33.509)
Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. Me too. I had all kinds of maps from places I’d never heard of. was like, this is so cool. And pin it up on the wall. yeah.
Ami Jones (04:43.897)
yeah, and then did you ever cut out pictures from it? And then my father lost his mind when he knew I was cutting up his National Geographic.
Jason Elkins (04:53.907)
I, know, the pictures were definitely important, but for some weird reason it was the maps. It was like, I, that’s what I wanted the constant reminder of, was just random maps. And I still love maps for some reason. I don’t know why, because it’s the photos that we connect with and the people in the photos, but my parents had, probably pretty clever. They’d bought a full year of.
Ami Jones (05:02.881)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (05:22.611)
You know, each episode, I was born in 1973 and we had one episode, you know, for each month. And so that was something that they’d bought early on and wanted to make sure that I had a full collection. Of course it’s gone now, but so yeah, anyway. So your dad, so your dad was definitely buying National Geographic’s and treasured them. What kind of work was he doing?
Ami Jones (05:34.88)
Okay.
Ami Jones (05:45.358)
Oh, goodness. My family is very different from who I am. I sometimes wonder how I’m a descendant of these folks. Love them, of course. My father is a serial entrepreneur. And so I think at that time, gosh, what were we doing? I remember doing door-to-door sales with him. We sold
Jason Elkins (06:13.637)
Wow.
Ami Jones (06:15.246)
during the Gulf War we sold American flags but really I mean he’s a man of like roofing and construction.
Jason Elkins (06:25.459)
Well, it’s, you know, what you were saying kind of aligns. It’s like somebody like that with the entrepreneurial spirit and the, mean, that’s what most of us are. Most, a lot of our listeners tour operators and people that, that go a slightly different route than, than the norm. yeah. So very cool. But, but he liked to travel. Was that something you guys, did you have an opportunity to do that at all or?
Ami Jones (06:53.557)
My dad never, well he didn’t get his passport I think until he was like almost 40 and then he went on this big trip to New Zealand but I mean we traveled the states we were that like iconic Brady bunch that we piled into the minivan and went to every national park but no never went out of country. We wasn’t much of an avid traveler and
I mean, coming from a pretty conservative family in a small town in Colorado, know, conservation was just looked at from a very different lens too, from my dad and his brother and my grandfather and his dad. so…
Jason Elkins (07:34.521)
Well, let’s talk about that Mark, because it’s going to be an important part of our conversation with your business model and all that. So when you say, you know, they looked at conservation through a different lens. What does that mean growing up in Colorado at that time? What does that mean to you?
Ami Jones (07:54.07)
Yeah, sure.
Jason Elkins (07:57.459)
And we don’t need to make it political. I’m not trying to put you on the spot, but you know, I grew up in Wyoming. I grew up in Wyoming, so it’s probably kind of similar.
Ami Jones (08:02.314)
Yeah. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, understand the kind of folks then. mean, a lot of these people, you know, grew up on the land and live with the land and understand the land a lot better than people in the city. But I think kind of, you know, in the 60s and 70s, you know, I guess in the 50s, we’re coming out of war and we’re like,
It was all about consuming and having the white picket fence and all of these things. so I think we just had, that generation had a different lens on what conservation looked like. However, they still understood the basic principles of having keystone species in the landscape and predators in the landscape and what that meant. so my father was actually even a
involved in the early 90s with wolf reintroduction in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. so definitely proponents of, you know, an abundant landscape, but also not quite understanding at what rate taking things from the landscape was hurting the planet. So there wasn’t a lot of thought around the numbers being taken or how conservation was done back then. We just didn’t have the information we have now.
Jason Elkins (09:20.935)
Right.
Yeah, sure. Absolutely. And I appreciate you sharing that. I’m trying to envision you and your family loading up the Brady Bunch, I think is the term you used. How big of a family? Do you have some siblings who are involved in this? Was that mom or what was going on? What did that look like?
Ami Jones (09:34.35)
Okay.
Ami Jones (09:43.992)
my gosh, so we were truly the Brady Bunch. My dad and my stepmom met when I was four. And so all together there were seven children and two parents. Yeah, three boys, three girls, and then a baby, a little girl.
Jason Elkins (10:00.915)
So was this a camping trip? What did these trips look like? Because that’s expensive to put them in a hotel. I I can imagine like two or three little tents in a camp.
Ami Jones (10:12.446)
yeah, we often didn’t stay in hotels. If we did, it was a motel. And dad was usually driving us through the night to get us to our destination to save on overnight costs. And those were the days when you pulled the seats out of the van and piled everybody in without seat belts. So we had our sleeping bags in the van. But when we got to the destination, yeah, we were usually setting up camp.
Jason Elkins (10:18.415)
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Jason Elkins (10:30.692)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (10:41.895)
Do you think that those experiences had a big influence on your life choices now? Or, I mean, I suspect they did, but what do you think was the biggest part of that?
Ami Jones (10:54.1)
That’s a good question. mean, absolutely, of course. I mean, I think it just fueled my sense of adventure and exploration. You my dad always took us to far-flung places where other people were not. It was always a goal of his to find, you know, the quietest place and the best campsite. And, you know, he taught us how to survive out there, too.
You know, kind of a requirement as a kid of Dennis Jones to know how to survive in case something happened. I mean, he himself got caught in wild winter storms for days when he was a young kid, and so I think he wanted us to be prepared for that too.
Jason Elkins (11:37.629)
Tell me more about that. suspect you have a story or two where you were learning survival skills.
Ami Jones (11:44.718)
Oh, learning survival skills. Sure. Yeah. Um, I mean, everything from knowing how to create your own line to catch a brook trout to how to go to fish, um, to, I mean, how to set up camp, um, to be protected from the elements, what certain things you can harvest.
Jason Elkins (11:56.914)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (12:05.565)
Did he, I’m curious, did he do the fires? Like my dad, you know, that was a big thing for him was you need to know how to make a fire. And I remember several times when the weather was just really, really crummy growing up in Northern Wyoming, we’d load up in the truck and drive up into the mountain where it was, you know, snow and then blizzarding and all this stuff. And he’d like, it started out with, they’d give us a pack of matches. We had a whole pack at the beginning and we.
We had to be able to start a fire with a pack of matches. And then it got down to like, okay, three matches. You get three matches. That’s it. Don’t waste them. And it was miserable, but it was really, really cool. And then when I found myself in the army several years later, I went to a survival, a survival course and, I knew how to make, I to build a fire. I was, so I, yeah. So I was like, can envision, you and the seven kids and my gosh, wow.
Ami Jones (12:45.186)
Yeah.
Ami Jones (13:02.68)
Thank you.
Yeah, that’s brilliant. I honestly, I don’t recollect a fire experience. Maybe he was more keen with the boys on the fire. I don’t know. But I love that. I’m sure.
Jason Elkins (13:13.843)
Well, you were lucky because you were lucky because there was a lot of pressure and a lot of it. OK, you’re down to the last match and if you can’t light it, we’re going to freeze to death out here. All kinds of psychological drama. Of course, the truck sitting right over there, you know, we’re not going to freeze to death. But anyway, so I was just it was curious. What did your mom what did your stepmom think of all this? Was she fully on board or?
Ami Jones (13:26.584)
Okay.
Right. Right.
Ami Jones (13:40.974)
I mean, yeah, my dad, she definitely loved it. Yeah, for sure. But I think she kind of always was like, you don’t need to be as hard on them as maybe you’re being. Yeah, normal motherly thing to do, yeah.
Jason Elkins (13:43.697)
You don’t have to say anything, baby.
Jason Elkins (13:56.886)
that’s a normal dynamic.
Yep. What about your siblings? Did any of the siblings kind of end up going a similar path or are completely different or how do you, you kind of touched on that it influenced you. How did all this stuff influence them in general?
Ami Jones (14:17.728)
Yeah, you know, we all went such different ways. It’s so interesting. But I would say the most similar was my little sister. You know, she’s living down in Southwest Colorado now and her and her husband, gosh, I think they’ve got like 16 horses. They run a full operation down there, over 200 birds, a full ranch. And…
Jason Elkins (14:41.797)
Is there tourism involved in that? curious. mean, is this like, think a bunch of horses and birds, think dude ranch, but I’m not, that’s not what they’re doing.
Ami Jones (14:44.97)
Note. Note.
Ami Jones (14:51.006)
No travel. I have tried to convince them to do that because of course I could help them with that. But my little sister runs a riding school and then they actually like sell the eggs to all the nearby towns and then they have meat birds so they sell the meat birds to different grocery stores around. I think you know when you’re in that kind of area you have to be a jack of all trades so they do a lot of different things down there but no.
Jason Elkins (14:56.829)
Yep.
Ami Jones (15:17.75)
No travel. But they do live with the land and that’s a big ancestral thing. My great grandfather ran cows and we had the Jones Ranch up in the mountains. We had the cattle ranch and all of that. I think, yeah, some of that rubbed off on her the most.
Jason Elkins (15:35.103)
I get it. I really enjoy chatting with someone that grew up in the Rocky Mountains, kind of similar to like, okay, I can resonate with this. And there’s other people that grew up in other parts of the world or other parts of the country that think it sounds pretty cool, but don’t really are unable to resonate with it. it’s very cool. So let’s jump forward to like, when you were in school, what were your interests? Did you already kind of know that you wanted to work in tourism or when did that start to come about?
Ami Jones (15:49.752)
Yeah.
Ami Jones (16:04.162)
Yeah, good question. I thought I wanted to be a scientist. And I still sometimes think I want to be a scientist. You know, I was very much into ecology.
Jason Elkins (16:16.935)
You know, you don’t need a degree to be a scientist. I don’t know where this conversation is going, but I’m just saying you can still be a scientist, Ami.
Ami Jones (16:20.32)
It’s… Yeah. You know, I’ve thought about it. It’s in the cards. I don’t… Yeah, maybe I’ll go back to school in my 50s. We’ll see. But yeah, I loved ecology. I loved biology. Math didn’t make sense unless I was in chemistry. And so I always thought I was going to be a scientist. And then, yeah, I took an interesting path. was… And then I was…
Jason Elkins (16:30.829)
huh.
Ami Jones (16:49.646)
thought about psychology, I was gonna go to CU Boulder to study psych. And all of a sudden I was like, I don’t wanna do that. Cause I really don’t know what I wanna do and I’m 18 and why is anyone expecting this in me right now? And so I actually became a massage therapist around my own practice and I was like, you know, I could travel with this. And then when I was 18, I went on my first trip abroad and then I went on my next trip abroad.
And then when I was in Belize, I tell this story quite often, Southern Belize, Placencia, 2008, I saw a mural on a wall of a cruise ship and it said, we don’t want no cruise ships here. And I, you know, there was a local man that walked by and I still have a photo of it I could show you. And I asked him to explain that to me. Cause I knew they weren’t, knew…
Something great wasn’t coming of that, but I didn’t fully understand. And so he was talking about the impacts to culture and local businesses and how to travel can be a really tool for good, like we’re saying, if it’s thoughtfully done. And that’s when I dropped everything and went back to school and studied sustainable tourism and international development.
Jason Elkins (18:04.603)
It makes sense. Belize, especially Placencia is away from the cruise ship traffic that they get up in Belize city and stuff like that. And I don’t know how much of that even they had at the time. But I think a lot of people, if you’re not close to it, you think, well, why would a community not want a cruise ship? Look at all the money that comes in and all the, you know, all of the opportunities to, to sell t-shirts and all that stuff that, you know, are both like, yeah, well that’s.
Ami Jones (18:25.07)
you
Jason Elkins (18:34.451)
I personally don’t want to go to a place where they sell a lot of t-shirts and wicker baskets. anyway, where I was going with that is, it’s kind of an option. So how old were you roughly when you were in Plasencia?
Ami Jones (18:50.414)
What would that have been? What is it? It’s 2025. think it’s 2023? 22? 2022?
Jason Elkins (18:59.054)
okay, recently then.
Ami Jones (19:01.318)
that’s nice of you, Jason. I’ll take it. People can do the math.
Jason Elkins (19:04.819)
So I learned a long time ago, I learned a long time ago not to ask a woman how old she is and sometimes my questions end up that’s the response I get leads right to that. anyway.
Ami Jones (19:15.768)
Hey!
Ami Jones (19:20.11)
I will say, I will say I am 40 and I’m proud to say it. It has been a beautiful year so far, so I’ll own that.
Jason Elkins (19:27.975)
Well, if I was, if, I was 40, I’d be proud to say it too. Unfortunately, I’m a little older, but anyway, how, how long were you in? Well, actually there’s a few questions. First one is where was your first trip?
Ami Jones (19:40.974)
Yeah.
shamefully, I’ll say it, but I went to Cancun on my senior trip in high school with three of my best girlfriends. And I actually ended up off with some Mexicans in their neighborhood, which was probably the best part of the trip.
Jason Elkins (19:49.459)
okay.
Jason Elkins (20:01.843)
I won’t ask any follow up questions on that one. So you’re 40. Anyway. all right. So that brings up a couple of questions, you, you specifically mentioned first trip, second trip, and then Placencia. So I guess I need to know where was the second trip. I want to see if there’s a progression here.
Ami Jones (20:26.978)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the second trip was Belize. yep. Sorry if that led to that. Yeah. So second trip was Belize and then third and most substantial, would say, I actually studied abroad in Peru for a summer. yeah. So I studied sustainable tourism and I picked a couple of organizations in Peru, as case studies.
Jason Elkins (20:31.347)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (20:44.339)
super cool.
Ami Jones (20:55.086)
And yeah, I was there for a summer in college and it was very close to my heart for so many reasons.
Jason Elkins (21:03.251)
I completely, I have not been to Peru, but I’ve spent an awful lot of time in, in South America, Columbia and Ecuador. And, so I get that, but I’ll tell you what I heard you say the most substantial trip, significant trip. I’m not sure exactly where you, what word you used, but as soon as you said that. It occurred to me, I just wanted to ask you, so out of those three trips, what’s the one that really started at all?
honestly, like if you were just like, what was the most important one? Was it the summer that you spent in Peru or seeing the mural on the wall and Placencia or hanging out with the Mexicans in Cancun?
Ami Jones (21:31.502)
Mmm.
Ami Jones (21:47.47)
it truly started it all.
Jason Elkins (21:51.687)
I shouldn’t say started. kind of, I don’t, I’m not trying to point you in any direction because obviously that’s the Mexico is the one that started it, but I think there’s something interesting here that I want to touch on. So.
Ami Jones (21:53.952)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ami Jones (22:03.166)
Yeah, I mean it would be Belize and there were other experiences that happened during that time, you know Gia was the man that I met and he also worked on a dive boat and I went out with him and his friend and it was lobster season so they were spearfishing for lobster and I learned all about lionfish and how invasive they are in the region and so we were spearfishing lionfish because you’re if you’re down there and you see them you’re supposed to because
of just how they were taking over the reefs. That’s just one experience of many that happened on that lilies trip that really started to open my eyes to this way of travel. So I would say that.
Jason Elkins (22:43.601)
Right. What I, I was curious if you would go to the Cancun thing as being the, I will here, I’ll just share what’s going on in my head is.
Cancun being the first trip, first trip outside the US and obviously you took it further than just hanging out on the beach. You went and met locals and connected with them. Did you go on a cruise ship or you flew down or what? Tell me a little bit more context about the trip to Cancun.
Ami Jones (23:16.012)
Sure, so it was spring break 2001 baby. So yeah, no cruise ship, just fights.
Jason Elkins (23:20.423)
Spring break, okay. Okay, so you’re kind of like, that is kind of mass tourism is what I mean. You went to Cancun, spring break, and isn’t it interesting the direction you’ve ended up going? And where I’m going with this is a lot of people, their first trip out of the U.S. might not be a conservation based trip. You know, the…
Ami Jones (23:28.48)
Thank
Jason Elkins (23:48.135)
the mass tourism sometimes, guess I’m looking, I guess I’m suggesting, is there value in some mass tourism stuff as far as at least getting people a little bit outside their comfort zone? So like, do we just sacrifice Cancun? There’s a lot of great stuff around Cancun. just, I shouldn’t use any particular place, but should we sacrifice Cancun and maybe Cabo and say, you know what, let’s the mass tourism go there and the ones that.
really enjoy getting outside the comfort zone, then we’ll take appropriate steps to go have other types of experience that are maybe more conservation based. Or do we just try and change all tourism and knowing that, some people are just not going to go if it’s not mass tourism. I don’t know where I’m going with this. Any thoughts? Do you know where I’m going with this?
Ami Jones (24:24.984)
Mmm.
Ami Jones (24:34.006)
Yeah, no, yeah, yeah. I think you’re kind of ripping open a big box. It’s a lot to digest. You know, I think there’s a similar topic with zoos, and I can go there with you too if you want. But, you know, I do think at this point in time, all tourism, all travel companies know they need to be doing better.
Jason Elkins (24:48.475)
Ooh, yeah, yeah, very similar, right.
Ami Jones (25:00.398)
Royal Caribbean is doing better than they ever were before. The big companies are doing better because as a society we are demanding it. So even though it may feel like mass tourism, I would challenge folks to get behind the scenes and start asking the questions about their operations. Because a lot of folks are doing a lot of good work. But that being said, this kind of like gateway drug.
to meaningful travel, is mass tourism okay?
Jason Elkins (25:30.451)
Great.
Jason Elkins (25:36.307)
I don’t know because the question is without spring, I mean, how many people that really travel and are really into conservation, their first trip was a spring break or some of them a cruise. And it’s because their parents took them because their parents didn’t have the money to go to an eco resort off the coast of Belize. They maybe were able to finance a trip to Cancun and that gets them turned on. But then there’s also the cultural, like if you live in the U.S. and if you’ve never left the U.S.
You may have, some people may have a slightly different perspective about people from Mexico. But once you’ve maybe gone to Mexico and you can’t go in and you end up in the neighborhood partying with the guys and the gals in Mexico, does that change your life in a good way? So is it, I don’t know. I have no answers. I’m just.
Ami Jones (26:14.51)
Sure.
Ami Jones (26:30.126)
Yeah, I mean, well, here’s kind of my general thought. And obviously this is coming from someone that now has like 20 years under their belt of traveling. It expands your horizons and your perspectives in ways that just nothing else does. That is good for us, right? Like it is good for us to be curious and to continue to learn. One thing I know is the older I get, the dumber I am.
It is so important for us to realize we just know so little and to put yourself in those, those, those places can be in the United States. They don’t need to be out of the country. Um, into situations where you’re, yeah, just, you know, like I’ll go back to my initial statement. We all need each other, man. You know, and whether you’re Mexican or Croatian or, or Russian or
Jason Elkins (27:20.85)
Yeah!
Ami Jones (27:27.874)
From the states, we all need each other and travel builds that bridge.
Jason Elkins (27:34.151)
you have people I suspect you do and don’t mention any names because I want you to promote this episode. you to I don’t want anybody to hear this but I suspect you have people in your life that maybe haven’t traveled and they listen to you talk about, I want to go here, I want to do that and I think they mean well but they just sometimes say some things you’re like wow you know like why would you want to go there that place looks filthy or that place you know.
Ami Jones (27:43.245)
Thank
Jason Elkins (28:04.755)
I’m trying to avoid mentioning any names as well, but she probably won’t listen. My mom, she’s traveled. went, she’s been to Africa with me, Belize with me, quite a few places she likes to travel. But sometimes there’s safety concerns, right? So I might be watching a video about Georgia right now. I want to go to Georgia. So hopefully a few episodes from now people will be listening and I’ll be saying I’m in Georgia, the country.
She just has these interpretations. it looks this way. It looks that way. Why would you ever want to go there? Or it’s close to other countries that are in conflict and, all that. And I find that pretty much every time I go against that type of thinking, amazing experiences open up for me. You know, when I started traveling full time, the first place I wanted to go when I started traveling full time was Columbia. And honestly, my family’s like, no, I don’t think this is a good time. And that was like a few years ago.
Ami Jones (28:51.544)
absolutely.
Ami Jones (29:01.07)
you
Jason Elkins (29:02.579)
Back in the 80s, maybe it would have been not such a good time, but it’s a pretty good time. And you go and you just realize, wow, so many people miss out on this stuff. And I just think it’s the people that travel more that just realize how great things are. Or there’s conversations about, you know, different religious faiths and, ooh, yeah, probably don’t want to get in a relationship with someone from this religious faith because they’re all different. I don’t know.
But then as you travel, start to realize, we’re a lot more similar than we are different. My first time in Malaysia, first real time, first opportunity to really spend time in an Islamic country. And you know what? They love their kids just as much as we do. And they’ve got different customs, different cultures, but they love their partners. They love their kids. They love their families. And you might not really know that if you don’t go see it.
Ami Jones (29:35.64)
Absolutely. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (30:00.871)
because you’re not going to see it on the news.
Ami Jones (30:03.342)
Well, yeah, I have some really good examples of that too. And I’m not sure if there’s a question there, but just for conversation’s sake. Yeah, yeah, I was moving, you know, I was en route to moving to Peru last summer and I was actually in Georgia, in rural Georgia, the state of Georgia, not the country, because we were staying with some family before my partner’s sister was getting married.
Jason Elkins (30:13.489)
That’s all we’re doing. It’s just a conversation.
Jason Elkins (30:23.389)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ami Jones (30:32.91)
before we headed down to Peru and we ended up at a football game. He used to be a football coach down in the South and it was a high school football game and met some of his old friends there. you know, we were telling them what we were doing and one of the older women that had joined the conversations, she said, oh my word, are you, why are you going there? You’re gonna be off the plane and be met with AK-47s. And just that same day,
Jason Elkins (30:59.315)
Yeah.
Ami Jones (31:01.814)
we went to the Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone and there were two men with Carrie on their hip, pistols and children running around the Dairy Queen. And so I think it’s just, it’s like, it’s our responsibility as world travelers to educate, but it’s also our responsibility to listen. I think listening more than talking often gets us much farther. But.
another reverse example of that. So I worked with Brazilian high school students in Brazil and they would just idolize the states and they were like, my gosh, I just really want to come visit there and it just must be, you know. And I said, you know, there are some really great places in the United States, just like Brazil. Brazil’s as big as the continental US, if you didn’t know that. But let me tell you about some areas of the country that are kind of like here.
You know, we talked about different different areas around the country that have a lot of violence a lot of gun violence a lot of you know struggling and so Yeah, I think
Jason Elkins (32:11.027)
I suspect, yeah, I suspect you heard stories there and other places as I have, and you speak to someone. To me, it’s really interesting. But of course, this is through my own lens and my own filters. But when I speak, you know, when I’m in Columbia and I may have a conversation with someone about the US and they say, oh, I would love to go, but it’s really dangerous there. you know, I…
Why do you guys allow these things to happen? It sounds like a really dangerous place. And I don’t want to go into that. it not? I don’t know, but it’s super interesting to hear that from somebody that grew up in Columbia. A 40, 50 year old person that spent their entire life in Columbia dealing with some of the things there. So we’ve got Americans, Columbia is a really dangerous place.
people in Colombia are like, oh, United States is a really dangerous place. But what I’ve noticed, the commonality there is those are people that haven’t been to either place. So that’s where it comes down to it.
Ami Jones (33:15.192)
Right, right.
Right, yeah, going back to that point about travel being a bridge and driving your horizons. You know, I honestly think.
I would go to Israel right now. It’s probably one of the better times to go to Israel right now. I had partners in Israel that I was working with at my previous job and they were saying, you should come here. And there are personally Israel that still need tourism. Jordan, it’s probably the best time to be going to Jordan and Egypt because…
Folks don’t want to travel to the region because what’s happening, but to go to Wadi Ram and be one of the few people in Wadi Ram, mean, what, what an opportunity. You know, I have a friend that went to North Korea on a fan trip and said it was amazing. I mean, you just, this, yeah, yeah. But how do we, how do we open those folks eyes to what this can be? Is that mass tourism? What is that tool? I don’t think it needs to be, but.
Jason Elkins (34:22.835)
Well, let me ask you this though. Like you mentioned the thing in Georgia at the football game. Like how do you convince the world, not the world, but how do you convince travelers when it’s so hard to just convince people in your own social circles? You know, if I can’t convince my mom that I should go to Georgia right now, cause it’s too close to Russia, know, man, that’s a, that’s a pretty…
Yeah, I don’t know how you do that on a bigger scale.
Ami Jones (34:53.099)
Yeah, well…
don’t think it’s convincing. I don’t think there’s any convincing involved actually. I think it’s just walk in the talk. It won’t you just walk the talk. You know, my older brother still thinks I’m insane for living in Brazil. I was there during the confederations cup and the media was full of cars on fire and all of this. And it was just, he said he was gonna get on a paddle boat and paddle down without his passport and come get me. And I’m just saying, you’re
Jason Elkins (35:03.431)
Find the right person. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (35:17.394)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (35:26.461)
Save you from your poor choices.
Ami Jones (35:26.638)
And also, this is like the same car that’s been on fire for the last three days in the same spot that the media just keeps putting on repeat, so… Yeah, yeah, but I don’t think it’s convincing.
Jason Elkins (35:39.587)
different angles, different camera angles. And the thing is you don’t realize that that’s how things happen if you don’t travel. The more you travel, the more you start to realize how manipulative the press can be, maybe political organizations. We don’t need to get too political, but what do you think?
Ami Jones (36:00.248)
Well, and I think it’s deeper than that, Jason. I think it’s bigger than politics. think it’s ancestry and history. mean, think about just Eurocentric behaviors. And that exists in other countries. mean, people just as a species, we kind of tend to do that, right? And so I think we got to like…
Jason Elkins (36:12.465)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (36:24.029)
Do think we could solve that problem right here right now? That would be amazing, wouldn’t it? Generations and thousands of years. But I think.
Ami Jones (36:28.962)
my gosh.
Well, I will say I do think a lot of people of this generation are doing some big generational healing. So there’s some hope.
Jason Elkins (36:40.057)
I think so as well, which leads us into derifana, right? Cause that’s a big thing. And I don’t know your business model. We’ve discussed it a little bit briefly, but I suspect that part of what you’re doing is to try and address some of these issues, both around conservation, you can’t really do conservation without paying attention to cultures and societies, right?
Ami Jones (37:08.142)
Yeah, absolutely. So I have a good friend and I consider him a mentor. He worked on a presidential campaign. I won’t drop any names, what president or whomever. But I was feeling rather desperate after one of the elections and I called him and I said, I need some advice because I feel like I’m trying to do it all and I’m going to these things and I’m calling my
you know, government officials and I’m doing all and he said, Ami, stop. You know what? best thing you can do is pick one thing and put all your energy towards that one thing, because that’s how you’re going to make a change. And I will never forget that. And so I do feel like that’s what I’m doing with serifana. Obviously, you know a little bit about me now. I am very much close to the land and very passionate about wildlife and very passionate about
culture and you know I think that this business is a way that I can fulfill that purpose of you know continuing to unite us as a global society, giving back to the planet, working on preservation and conservation and I could go into how travel does all of that and how Terra Fana is doing that but that’s kind of higher level.
Jason Elkins (38:29.757)
Well.
Why I think, I think you covered, well, let’s first of all, the name Tarifano. What does that mean for people that don’t know Latin or haven’t figured it out?
Ami Jones (38:42.37)
Sure, so Terra means land, so our reverence for the land, then fauna means wildlife for species, so also our devotion to the protection of wildlife.
Jason Elkins (38:54.909)
KC mentioned do one thing. That’s a big thing. The Terra is the earth, right, and land. And Fata is all the animals and creatures that live upon it. So you narrowed it down to one thing that’s huge. So how do you break that down even more to manageable chunks? As far as your strategy, are you focused on certain parts of the earth, certain types of animals, or how do you…
Ami Jones (39:02.498)
Yeah.
Ami Jones (39:10.286)
quack
Jason Elkins (39:23.788)
drill down even further.
Ami Jones (39:25.9)
Yeah, so this is kind getting into our product development strategy, is fairly complex. I, yeah, when you’re an international organization, yeah. Well, and I mean, a lot of things are at high stakes right now too, you know? So there’s a lot to choose from.
Jason Elkins (39:32.923)
I know you started with the world and everything that lives on it. That could be complicated.
Jason Elkins (39:44.979)
You didn’t just decide your one thing is the lionfish on the reef in Belize. You went a little bit bigger than that, which is cool.
Ami Jones (39:52.142)
Right, maybe I should be a scientist and just go be a coral re farmer, pick my specialty.
Jason Elkins (40:02.099)
No, I think what you’re doing is great. And I’m just curious, how do you do that in the early stages of a new project like this? What would you like to share with our listeners? You don’t need to break down your entire product development strategy. What would you like our listeners to hear?
Ami Jones (40:12.951)
Er…
Ami Jones (40:17.906)
Yeah, yeah, no. I mean, I think it’s just getting back to the basics. A lot of it comes down to relationships. You know, our relationships and the destination are really important because they’re going to be our experts. They’re the ones that have the pulse on what’s actually going on. So 15 years in the industry, I’ve built a lot of relationships globally with conservation organizations, for-profit, non-for-profit, different researchers, different projects.
So it really is seeking out those well vetted partners that are already doing work and that could use the support of tourism. If I don’t have someone like that in a destination, then it’s a project or it’s a species or a culture that I’m aware of that’s in need of support. For example, I don’t know if you know this, but Vietnam is I think in the top four most biodiverse countries on the planet.
People don’t think of conservation when they think of Vietnam for lots of reasons. And so we’re exploring Vietnam. I had a gentleman from Vietnam approach me and say, we need Terra Fauna here. Our population needs to learn about the importance of conservation. So sometimes it comes to us. Sometimes I already know about something going on, but a lot of it really comes down to the people.
Jason Elkins (41:41.107)
So you said something really interesting because I’m looking at it through the lens of what does the traveler likely to experience? And we’ll get into that in just a second. But when you said that people in Vietnam are saying our people, presumably the people that live in Vietnam, need to become more aware of this stuff. So now I just heard two different, I don’t want to say business models, but I kind of heard two different business models. One is educating locals and one is bringing in tourists to either educate or
or stuff like that. So help me get my head on head around all this.
Ami Jones (42:15.202)
Yeah, you’re very astute, Jason. Sneaky, sneaky. Well, I mean, going back to the benefits of being an international traveler, cross-cultural influence just happens. Cross-cultural collaboration, cross-cultural, everything, it just collides, right? Unless you’re isolating yourself on a cruise ship and you’re not getting off a dock, then there’s no way that you cannot
Jason Elkins (42:17.691)
You
Jason Elkins (42:35.677)
Mm-hmm.
Ami Jones (42:45.164)
become immersed in the culture. And so there’s always going to be that exchange that happens between the traveler and the locals.
Jason Elkins (42:52.679)
picture I just had in my head. Maybe you’re already going to do this. Maybe already doing it, but I like, you know how they bring like school groups, like they might grab it, take a school group and take them out to a conservation site and show them the animals and help get them immersed in the nature there. And I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to take a bunch of, I’m going to just say what comes out of my mouth. I don’t know how it’s going to sound, but if you take a bunch of middle-aged Americans.
Ami Jones (43:09.998)
Thank
Jason Elkins (43:21.506)
and you take them to Vietnam and they go out and spend the day with a bunch of kids in a nature preserve. It’s the first time the kids have been there, first time the adults have been there and maybe they’re planting mangroves together or something. I don’t know, that sounds like a great product. Doesn’t that sound cool? What do you think?
Ami Jones (43:32.835)
Hmm.
Ami Jones (43:45.354)
I will, I can guarantee you a majority of the people involved in that day will walk away remembering it for a while. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (43:46.109)
You
Jason Elkins (43:53.565)
I know, right? OK, so is that kind of, maybe not exactly that product, but is that kind of what you mean when you say educating both sides and creating connections?
Ami Jones (44:05.07)
Sure, yeah. mean, there’s some more intricacies to it because we don’t want to call ourselves a volunteerism company. We’re not. There can be a lot of issues when it comes to, there are great volunteerism projects and there are also some not so great ones. They can actually be more detrimental than positive in a lot of ways. And so making sure that we’re local.
Jason Elkins (44:11.901)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (44:27.325)
I would be a really, really bad podcast host if I didn’t ask you, tell me more. I’m not trying to create a controversy, but seriously, I’m curious. what not, we don’t need to name any names, but I think this is important. What should people know?
Ami Jones (44:35.945)
Sure, yes.
Ami Jones (44:42.786)
Yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, I’ll use an example, one that has stuck with me for quite some time. An organization went into a small community in Africa, observed they didn’t have immediate access to water. The women were walking multiple miles every day carrying water on their heads just so folks could have water to cook and clean and wash and do everything that they do with. So.
Yeah, an organization came in and volunteered to dig a well. So they dug them a well right in the middle of where they live. And, know, there was a language barrier there. So not much was exchanged. You know, the head of the community was speaking at the head of the organization. And then a year later they came back and the well was not being used. And, you know, they were asking, why are you using this? It’s right here. You have water right here.
Jason Elkins (45:31.635)
Hmm.
Ami Jones (45:41.312)
And the women came forward and started speaking about it. And they said, well, you never asked us, you know, it is our most precious time of the day when we get to walk to and from and connect with our fellow women in the community. And we’re still going to do that. And so that well went completely unused. have a hundred examples like that, I mean, that’s just, hopefully that paints a picture of how volunteerism can not be good.
Jason Elkins (45:59.507)
beautiful.
Jason Elkins (46:09.209)
It does. And a great example, because it’s one that probably anybody listening to this podcast has heard of an organization that built well. it doesn’t mean that, cause I’m sure there’s people listening to this that have been involved in projects like that. So we’re not knocking any one particular project, but it’s a good example of coming in and deciding what we’re going to do for community instead of coming in and deciding how can we support you? What, you know, if we want to make life better, how can we do that?
Ami Jones (46:25.493)
No, no.
Jason Elkins (46:38.065)
Maybe they’re like, you know what, move the river a couple more miles so we can have more time to chat. I don’t know. You never know what somebody’s going to say unless you know, or, know, that’s like, I mean, this is going to sound weird. think a lot of people can relate to this. how many, I’m just going to, again, I just say what comes to my mind. How many guys that often volunteer to go to the grocery store in the evening or on the weekend just to get out of the house.
Ami Jones (46:42.446)
Probably. Probably.
Jason Elkins (47:08.439)
And like they probably wish the grocery store was a little further because they really just want to go take a drive. You know, they just want to get out and explore, take a drive or whatever. So, you know, putting a putting a grocery store right next door is not going to help them. Kind of the same thing, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Ami Jones (47:16.653)
D’oh!
Ami Jones (47:20.814)
Sure, same with us women in our book clubs. mean, it’s a thing, right?
Jason Elkins (47:30.099)
Why do you think guys get their hair cut once a week? Just go hang out with the guys, whatever. yeah, it’s so anyway, that was a really, really good example. I appreciate you sharing that.
Ami Jones (47:40.138)
Yeah, sure. And I just want to make a quick point too. You know, not only are we working with communities, but I think one of Terra Fana’s biggest differentiators in the market is we’re working with our travelers. A lot of tour operators speak to their travelers and we’re listening. are all of our language. When you check out our website and everything that we offer, we’re talking with our travelers rather than to them.
Jason Elkins (48:05.371)
Is that, is that, cause there’s a couple different ways I would think, okay, listen to our guests, our travelers, definitely during the product development stage, you might want to get feedback, but then also actually in the itinerary planning, like when you’re actually have a potential traveler with you you’re discussing what their experience might look like. So do you mean that on both those fronts or is there something else I’m missing there when you say listen to our travelers?
Ami Jones (48:34.76)
Yeah, sure. I mean, of course, when the product development and what people are seeking, I don’t know if you saw the booking.com report, but 93 % of people that were reviewed, which booking.com is the largest engine in our industry, want this kind of travel. Which is sure. We’re listening to all of that, but I would just, I would challenge folks to go to a couple of different websites and see the voice behind the brand. It’s really the entire voice behind the brand is.
We want you to be a part of our community. We want you to be a part of this movement because it’s collaboration over competition and we’re only going to move the needle on conservation if we do this together.
Jason Elkins (49:17.715)
perfectly said. And I also realized that one of the most valuable tools that operators, let’s just talk about operators have, is to help paint the picture for what the experience might look like. So if I go on a random adventure travel tour operator website, I say adventure travel, but you know what I mean? Just kind of this type of niche. Like they need to have some sort of sample itineraries on their website. They need to have something that helps me get my head around what does that look like.
Ami Jones (49:35.854)
Mm-hmm.
Ami Jones (49:46.104)
Sure.
Jason Elkins (49:46.823)
This is a podcast. We don’t have images to share with people. don’t have, you know, we’re not going to go day by day by day, but I think it would be beneficial if you can help us paint the picture for our listeners as to, okay. So I hear you talking about this and that, but what do you want to give kind of an example type of trips? So somebody can make, you know, get a little bit clear. this is the type of thing we’re talking about, or is it more complicated than that?
Ami Jones (50:15.202)
No, I mean, I can give just a couple key points that will hopefully resonate with folks. We at Seraphana are excited to be redefining the luxury travel market as access over excess. And so the luxury market has often been known for all of the amenities, the high-thread count sheets, the fancy sundowners. Those are lovely. We’re still doing all of those.
Those have been going on for a long time, but now luxury to us means access. And so that might mean Ami’s friend that knows people at the Rhino Birthing Center or at the Cheetah Rewilding Facility that the public just don’t get to access otherwise. And getting that first hand, all those first hand experiences to being able to impact conservation one.
but also to the people truly doing the work on the ground. That I would say is like our kind of our biggest thing. imagine if you will, you’re in Chile, Southern Chile, we’re not going to Patagonia because you can go to Patagonia. We’re going to go to, there are nine national parks within Southern Chile, just not Patagonia. There are actually some exciting news on the horizon with
some other stuff coming into play later this year. But we’re partnered with Rewilding Chile, who is the Tompkins Foundation daughter organization, Doug and Christine, that founded Patagonia back in the day. And their team comes out, they get to meet with us, tell us what’s going on with Rewilding Chile. We get to go out in the field with them, learn about the Rhea introduction, which is this beautiful species that they’re working on bringing back into the landscape.
That might be your morning and then your afternoon. We go on an afternoon hike and then you go back to your world point of lodge. You still get your soak and your nice dinner. So yeah, I would say maybe that’s a day in the life of Terra fauna.
Jason Elkins (52:25.495)
Very, very cool. And you mentioned, just, want to touch on one thing just maybe as a clarification point, or you can correct me if I’m wrong, but so is Douglas, Doug Douglas Tompkins. cause we’re talking about Patagonia. don’t do Patagonia. And then you mentioned his name and you said founded Patagonia. Just want to be clear. That’s the Patagonia company, right? He wasn’t like the guy that founded the whole entire mountain area of Southern Chile.
Ami Jones (52:42.242)
Ami Jones (52:48.91)
No, no. So Douglas Tompkins created Patagonia National Park. His friend, Yvonne Chouinard, which they’re buddies, yeah, was the founder of Patagonia Apparel Brand.
Jason Elkins (52:56.266)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (53:00.189)
right, right, right, right, right, okay.
Jason Elkins (53:05.555)
Okay, so yeah, I’ve actually, there’s, I know that there’s Pumalin Park that he was very involved with. I wasn’t sure about Patagonia. I guess I didn’t even realize there was a Patagonia National Park, but I would been in Pumalin a few times and remember Doug Tompkins and then yeah, Patagonia Company, Yvonne Chouinard. So thank you. So I just clarified that for myself too and all the listeners that care. So, all right.
Ami Jones (53:28.568)
And thanks for promoting Pumalin, because Pumalin is beautiful.
Jason Elkins (53:32.275)
Yeah, yeah, it’s, um, I just, love GLA. I love, I haven’t really met, I haven’t been to too many places and met people I don’t love. So I don’t know. I’m probably not the best, uh, best person to ask for advice. Oh, it’s amazing. Everything’s amazing everywhere. Um, but it really is a special, special place. So, you know, I think most of our listeners, um, have probably been on the tour. That’s like, Oh,
you know, we’re really into community outreach and we’re into conservation and not knocking any of it. But then it’s like, okay, well, we’ve got the half day. We’re going to go visit the women’s center where they make, I don’t know, knit scarves or whatever. Right. And you kind of go there and you kind of like, after the fact, you’re like, okay, I think we just went on a tour to a gift shop.
Ami Jones (54:17.464)
Yeah, yeah, very common.
Jason Elkins (54:27.091)
And I’m not really sure. mean, yeah, is it good for the community? They get to sell their stuff, but it’s not quite kind of like now go hang out at their house with them and watch TV with them while they’re knitting these things and learn how to do it at the same time. And then I might feel like I’ve got some sort of connection. So I just wanted to touch on that because what I heard you describing doesn’t sound like that. It sounds quite a bit different.
Ami Jones (54:54.946)
Yeah, I mean, you are, you’re walking on a very tight rope with these experiences. I think the thing that you need to be most mindful of when thinking about these experiences is how much is it impacting their traditional way of life? Is it pulling them away from all of the things that they normally do on their day to day and essentially impacting their culture and moving, you know, their
I guess revenue, that’s not the right word, but like their livelihoods to a different way of making money. And also have you asked them, have you asked them what they want to be doing with their lives? A lot of these women in these shops don’t want to be doing this with their lives.
Jason Elkins (55:44.541)
kind of maybe feels like a sweatshop to them, right?
Ami Jones (55:48.14)
Well, I mean exactly right. There’s so many good examples of that out there of putting people on display essentially, you know, it happened in Brazil during the World Cup. They built a gondola over the favelas. If you want to visit folks in the favelas, go walk through the favelas. And so, yeah, you know, it’s hard to, this is very different. All that to say to answer your question.
Jason Elkins (55:54.995)
display.
Ami Jones (56:18.04)
This is very different. We’re given permission. These people are wanting us there. There are often places where I say a lot, our travelers, because of the demographic that we’re serving, have done Machu Picchu, they’ve done the Serengeti, they’ve done the Great Barrier, they’re coming to us saying, okay, what’s the next level thing? And so they’re going into destinations. For example, I’m working on a product now. I won’t say the destination.
but we will be the only travelers visiting with this community for the entire year. And we’ve been granted their permission. So, yeah.
Jason Elkins (56:56.896)
It’s super cool and what you mentioned the gondola over the flabellas and it reminded me.
Jason Elkins (57:06.779)
So it was someone in the government. I’m just, I don’t know. I’m guessing someone in the government and Brazil thought, okay, people want to see the Flavales, but we can’t, it’s not responsible to us to let them walk through the Flavales. And so we’re going to build this gondolas so they can see it without disrupting, you know, the people in the Flavales. And we don’t have to worry about safety concerns, all this stuff. That’s kind of what I put together in my head. I don’t know, but I can tell you when I was in
in Columbia when I first got there, I had a friend who kind of grew up in the upper social stratuses. I don’t know if it’s stratuses or is it stratae? Anyway, I remember they’ve got the telepharicos or the cable cars that they actually use for transportation. It’s not so you can cruise over the top of it. And I remember looking out like, oh my gosh, I want to look at that.
Ami Jones (57:49.166)
Strati- Strati.
Ami Jones (58:01.036)
Right.
Jason Elkins (58:05.683)
cool little tienda, look at that cool little place they’re barbecuing. Like, let’s get off and go walk through the neighborhood. And she looked like, oh, you can’t do that. I’m like, what do you mean? She’s like, oh no, it’s not safe. You can’t do that. And I had a lot of resistance. said, well, is it because you don’t want to go with me? She’s like, I’m not going down there. And I was like, well, I’m going to go. So I went back a couple of months later, I had an opportunity. I took the cable car up to the top and walked down through the community. It was amazing. It was so cool.
You know, and I connected with people and they looked at me like, wow, we never see tourists here, but they were so friendly, so sweet and smiling at me. And, and I guess where I’m going with that was she’s Colombian and she still kind of thought the best way to see these neighborhoods was flying over the top. so I think where I’m going with this is, so if you’re working with people on the ground to create these experiences, you probably not working with the
Ami Jones (58:34.486)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (59:02.739)
the people at the higher levels necessarily that have maybe some of those attitudes about it. You really need to get in like at a ground level kind of grassroots type thing. Is that right? Or am I just rambling?
Ami Jones (59:14.776)
Yeah, mean, yeah, I mean, it’s, and first of all, good on you for doing that. It’s often I hear experiences like that and people are like, they’re the nicest people I’ve ever met. Of course they are, we’re all human, we need to connect. Going back to my point, but I would say.
Jason Elkins (59:32.155)
I went and lived, I went back and lived in one of those neighborhoods after that for four months. I spent four months in Camuna Trese, which is that neighborhood in Columbia, know? But anyway, yeah, it’s wonderful. So.
Ami Jones (59:35.838)
Yeah, good.
Ami Jones (59:44.714)
Yeah, and I bet you they taught you the best dance moves and you know, it’s so great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know women in a Brazilian fafella that healed a bug bite I had and the pharmacy couldn’t figure it out. You know, like, yeah. but, what, where were we going with this? right. Right. I wouldn’t say that we don’t work with large organizations or the people at the top.
Jason Elkins (59:47.559)
They were so nice. my gosh.
Jason Elkins (59:57.618)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:00:02.767)
I’m sorry. Well, we’re talking about just like is. Yeah, go ahead.
Ami Jones (01:00:14.286)
I mean, that’s our goal. If we can get in their ear, that’s our goal, you know? But, you know, a lot of it is grassroots. It is a lot of just the people that are on the ground doing the work because they’re the ones that are most intimate with the work. But I will say, I have a meeting with the gentleman at the Australian Geographic Society tomorrow. They have a pretty big name.
and looking at how we can collaborate and partner with them. Our partner in Australia is Australian Geographic Travel. So we work with organizations small to large scale. Government, that’s another, I think that’s another conversation.
Jason Elkins (01:01:00.753)
conversation for another, another episode. can, I, I completely get that. And I respect that. sounds, super exciting. What you’re doing. We’ve discussed a bunch of different things. really interesting conversation. And I’m curious Ami though, I want to make sure that our listeners have a chance to hear whatever, you know, I, here’s my question. What did I forget to ask you? What question should I have asked you? And what do want to make sure that our listeners know about?
Ami Jones (01:01:02.996)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:01:30.863)
Either you, Terra Fana, or just the world in general before we wrap up.
Ami Jones (01:01:37.036)
Yeah, you know, I would say Terra Fauna is here. We are excited to be here. We officially launched to the world on July 16th. The traction has been wonderful. So if this finds you and it excites you too, I’m available. I obviously love having conversations with good people. But I think too, if you’re feeling a little hopeless with the state of things.
this is a tangible tool for you to do something that helps not only the planet and the communities, but also yourself. It’s important for you to do things like this for yourself and you have to broaden your horizons. But I would also say, I don’t know, just the state of the world. I have a wise older friend in her eighties and she often tells me that
This will change, this will pass, things always do. And so if you seek out the positive and, you know, pick your one thing, find your purpose, you know, it’s all gonna come back and the hard times will ebb and flow. But I think overall there’s a lot of people doing a lot of good work in the world and we should be celebrating those people. And that’s what we’re here to do.
And yeah, I think that’s it. Jason, it’s… Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:03:03.559)
Nicely said, you know, and you touched on something there. You said your wise older friend that, kind of focus. Yeah. Cause we can either focus on the positive, you know, the, direction we can take things, the exciting things that are going out there, or we can just hold our head down and say, well, the world’s gone to hell in a hand basket and there’s nothing I can do about it. And, when you’re living that, you know, when you’ve got that perspective, you tend to not do anything about it.
So it’s so much better to kind of keep that positive mindset and look forward. And I love that you’re doing that. We’re going to have the link right to Terafana right in the show notes. So anybody listening to this that, know, if you’re still listening to this, it’s because you’re enjoying Ami and you’re feeling a connection with her. So what the hell, click the link, go to her website, see what she’s doing and yeah, go change the world. Thanks, Ami.
Ami Jones (01:03:33.23)
You know.
Ami Jones (01:04:01.312)
Yeah, thank you, Jason. It’s been a real pleasure.
Jason Elkins (01:04:03.837)
We’ll connect again soon and discuss government politics even more. we’re going to have to have a couple of drinks before we do that. all right. Sounds good, Ami. I’ll chat with you soon. Thank you.
Ami Jones (01:04:09.196)
Perhaps.
Sounds good. like red wine. All righty. Thank you. good. Bye bye.
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