Investigating Cultures - Article

INVESTIGAGING CULTURES TAKES ON NEW MEANING
FOR A SOUTH COUNTY MICROBIOLOGIST
By Sara Pentz

On a daily basis Magda Richer works intimately with such miniscule microbes as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, and Shigella. She has been a microbiologist for almost 30 years, packed away in a clinical laboratory laboring over a hot microscope, dealing with human specimens, bacteria cultures, and -- worst of all - hospital records.

“All that is about to change,” says the nifty, fifty-something, scuba diving, San Clemente businesswoman, of Indonesian-Dutch heritage. “I am going to spend the rest of my life on Travel Destinations rather than on Bacterial Identifications!”

No stuffy intellectual, this entrepreneur, who investigates bacteriological cultures at the Microbiology Department, Quest Diagnostics, San Juan Capastrono. At heart, she is a party girl. “I have been a passionate traveler all my life,” she confesses. “I believe in rewarding myself. That’s how I spend all my money.”

Magda decided to make her passion her profession in June l999. Her real love is cruising, so she became an authorized agency for the World’s Major Cruise Lines. Voila! Funtastik Cruise Travel, a ‘real’ world and Internet travel business which debuted this fall at http://www.funtastikcruisetravel.com complete with special offers and parties, parties, parties.

Magda Richer planned the best party of her life last Valentine’s Day when she and her ‘significant other’ Jim Richer were married on the dive boat “The Amoray Diver” in the warm waters off Key Largo, Florida. Providing tanks, weight belts and snorkeling gear for all 23 wedding guests, they set off for the dive site. At The Statue of Christ of the Abyss, they were officially married underwater.

Magda met Jim while scuba diving in Cozumel - naturally - and they had a long distance relationship for ten years. “I decided my previous marriages had not worked on land. Maybe getting married underwater would. So, we decided to take the plunge.” Now there’s a lady who knows how to land a husband!

“So much of the fun of traveling is in the planning,” she says, “I want to map out cruises my clients will always remember. I want them to say -- Wow, I had such a wonderful time, no one but Magda will plan my next trips.”

Her Web site is strictly informational. Magda wants people from all over the world to experience her special brand of fantastic travel planning. She already networks with friends and acquaintances in the Netherlands and Indonesia. With the resources of the Internet, she can find a vast number of avid travelers for her pleasure cruises.

On a local level, Funtastik Cruise Travel is featuring monthly cruise and travel informative receptions featuring a different cruise line each month.

Magda has a knack for turning her hobbies into businesses. For example, there was the T-shirt Company, Funky Fashions, which featured Magda’s humor: “TB or not TB, That is the Question!” “Microbiologists have Culture” “Love Bug” “Blood Bankers do it with the Right Type!” “The business was successful for two years and then the fad wore off,” she says.

“I looked into being a travel agent several years ago, but the job opportunities paid much less than what I made as an scientist. I decided to remain a scientist and pay full price for travel,” she explains “Now I’m tired of being someone who deals with bacteria and specimens.”

Funtastik Cruise Travel will supplement Magda’s biological cruising for a few years until it becomes profitable. She figures she will make enough money to pay off the house mortgage and retire from sub-cultural investigation. Then the real cruising to international cultures will begin.

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