Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Island off the coast from David Panama
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Isla grande off Portobello Panama
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Jonathan Danos, MBE
Born in Nicosia Cyprus (British Military Hospital) 12th of October 1955. Mother English (Ann Knight) and father Hungarian born Stephen Danos.
Have a Sister Caroline (teacher social worker) two brother Toby and Dominica and nephews Danny and Joe.
Brought up in Jamaica till the age of 8. Idylicc childhood in an old wooden colonial house, mangoes and donkey in the garden. Swimming every day. As a boy as it was so safe I used to cycle downtown and if it was raining somebody would pick me up and take me home.
At the tender age of 9 years of age went to Prep school in Sussex (Forest Grange). A bit of a shock after Jamaica with open windows, the cane and rugby football but I survived! Then onto Public school (Felsted in Essex) where amongst other achievements kept a ferret.
Studied Spanish in Madrid one of the great cities of the World.
With my Spanish started working in the Travel business. First as a courier in Ibiza and then in Majorca dealing with the great English Public. Greatly enjoyed both the Public and the excursions which included donkey trecks, BBQ’s, overbookings, the odd death and broken hearted girls who had fallen in love with the waiters, and doing ones best to make it a happy holiday experience. Then worked for Freddie Laker back in England promoting both his famous Skytrain (the first budget flight) and his holiday packages. Finally worked with an Italian Villa operator promoting their Italian sales. This was not always easy as they would describe the Miki apartments as 100m from the beach which was strictly true if you were prepared to dive over the cliff but not quite accurate if you took the 2 mile road instead.
At 25 decided it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do some real travelling in an area I had never explored but spoke the language South America. For the next 1 and half years travelled overland through Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, lived with Indians on lake Titikaka, hiked in huaraz as well as Maccu Pichu. Travelled through Chile and in the South of Chile bought a horse and rode up the Andes (see associated story and membership of the long riders guild). Worked on farms in Argentina (including a 250 thousand acre farm) most riding with the Guachos and setting wild boar and Ostrich. To replenish funds tought English for a while in Sao Paulo and then travelled throughout the whole of Brazil and boated up the Amazon to Manaus.
On my return to the UK (1980) I decided that I wanted to transfer my sales skills from Travel to Export to Latin America. On my travels I had met a number of British sales people. Whilst they were technically very competent they did not speak the language or appreciate that Chile and Peru for example were as different as England and India. I obtained a job with a British company selling the World famous Bailey bridge. This is a bridge that was designed to be built in the dark under gunfire by hand and was ideal for developing countries who need bridges that could be built quickly in remote area. I sold the Bailey bridge as well as permanent bridges to not only most countries in Central and South America but also to Portuguese Africa i.e. Angola and Mozambique.
In recognition of this in 2000 I was awarded the MBE by her majesty the queen for services to British Exports to Central and South America.
In 2003 set up my own company 3S specializing in infrastructure development and obtained US$70m project in Barbados.
Continuing to seek export opportunities in the region and other related opportunities.