A brief Bio for Michael Zargárov: Tour Guide   

and Licensed Limo Driver.

 

   A native Houstonian, I am passionately in love with our wonderful city.  I have long enjoyed showing off Houston to out-of-towners, and now delight in guiding even native Houstonians in discovering things they did not know about our unique hometown (the downtown tunnel-system and unique or historical buildings, in particular).  I am also very interested in Art Deco and Moderne architecture and their influence on contemporary styles, and in the works of the firm Mac Kie-Kamrath (architects of Temple Emmanuel on Sunset).

 

   I have long been occupied in my own personal "crusade", a private "Peace Corps" of sorts: that being to "brighten the corner where I am".  I have lived and worked (as a Teacher of English as a Second Language) in 7 countries, including:  Mexico , Panama , Russia , Czechoslovakia , Turkmenistan , Turkey , and Azerbaijan .  I  also taught and lived in China from 1998 to 2002.  Using teaching as a springboard, I have also traveled a lot in these countries, and have even led organized tours in each one.  The feather in my bonnet, thus far, has been the two years I spent living among the Kuna indigenous minority in Panama 's San Blas Archipelago.  There, I was accepted as a member of the tribe, and accorded the very great honor of carrying the name of Kuna saint: "Guanikunkilele", for my efforts in protecting the Kuna territories from an invasion of Canadian gold miners.  I've was ! ! told by the highest Kuna chiefs that I "saved the Kuna culture". 

 

    I am  a collector of Ancient art, and have made contributions of time and artifacts to both the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, (where I was able to add significantly to a collection of Pre-Columbian and modern Central-American indigenous arts).

 

   Since 2003, I have been the Imperial Legate to Texas from the Empire of Atlantium: a unique independent State based in Sydney , Australia , with a primarily non-territorial immanent global sovereignty.

In addition to my native 'merican English, I also speak Spanish and German, and have a working knowledge of several other tongues, including Persian and Mandarin Chinese.  I am an Liberal-Baptist Christian, a Freemason, and a Pacifist.