The photo above is the Tiger’s Nest, the Taktsang Monastery in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. It is a country as close to the Shangri-La of James Hilton’s 1933 classic “Lost Horizon” as you’ll find on earth today.

Smaller than West Virginia, hidden between Tibet and the crest of the Himalayas to the steamy jungles of India, Bhutan is known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon.  Independent for centuries and never colonized, Bhutan is a magic place that is spectacularly unique.

Experiencing Bhutan is a true adventure.  Quite frankly, Bhutan is as fabulously exotic as our world gets.  At the same time, no other country is as serenely peaceful as Bhutan, no people more contented and cheerful as the Bhutanese, no land more welcoming and hospitable.

Bhutan’s culture is a unique mix of the ancient Himalayan animism called Bön and Tibetan Lama Buddhism. The Bhutanese are renowned for being among the happiest people on our planet. They love to laugh, sing, dance, and play – and you’ll be invited to join them.  Bhutanese happiness is infectious.  One very good reason you’ll  have a happy time of your lives on our Bhutan adventure.

Ready? Buckle up – and be  prepared, you’ve never experienced anything so extraordinary in your life. Proof is in the pictures.

Belvoir Beach, Herm, Channel Islands. Could there be a more idyllic lunch—grilled lobster, fresh garden salad, chilled Chardonnay – here on Herm, the smallest of the five main Channel Islands. There’s Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney – and tiny Herm. Less than one square mile, but overflowing with charm and hospitality – from the Victorian White House Hotel to the Mermaid Pub to lobsters at Belvoir Beach. Coming here is a true escape from the worries of the world. At Herm they are a long ways away. Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #177 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Groups of animals have collective nouns, like a pride of lions or a school of fish.  A group of zebras is called a dazzle.  The term is excellently appropriate.  You may wonder why zebras have such clearly obvious stripes that any predator can see.  The reason is that predators like lions or hyenas always target a specific individual in the group that’s weak, young or vulnerable.  To be dazzled is to be confused or bewildered, and that’s just what zebra stripes do to attacking predators.  As the zebras merge on the run, it’s far more difficult for the predator keep focused on the selected target – so the zebras escape unscathed far more often than not.  Their stripes are a marvel of evolutionary survival.  This photo was taken on the plains of the Serengeti. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #285, photo ©Jack Wheeler)

St. Finnbarr’s Oratory, Gougane Barra, County Cork. St. Finnbarr (550-623) is the patron saint of the city of Cork, now Ireland’s second largest city, on the south coast of the Emerald Isle. He established this tiny church in the late 500s, and has been built and rebuilt on a small island on Lake Gougane, with the one you see finished some 150 years ago.

Gougane Barra is a remote valley distant from Cork, almost uninhabited, of legendary beauty. The oratory or chapel has been a holy place of summer pilgrimage for Christians for fifteen centuries, revered for its complete serenity and peacefulness. Rarely visited outside of summer due to its remoteness, you may have this holy place all to yourself. Here is where you come to rest and reinvigorate your soul. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #218 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Photo taken at an altitude of 22,000 feet (6,700 meters) in a AS 350 B3 ultra-high altitude Eurocopter on our Himalaya Helicopter Expedition. We are looking into the Western Cwm (valley), West Shoulder of Everest in the left forefront, entire Southwest Face of Everest summit (29,029 ft-8,848m) to base on the left, Lhotse (4^th highest on earth at 27,949ft-8,516m) straight ahead, the flank of Nuptse on the right.

The climbing route is from Base Camp to Camp I past the top of the Khumbu Ice Fall (bottom of photo), up the Cwm to Camp II at the foot of the Lhotse wall, scale via fixed ropes to Camp III perched on the wall, then up to the notch between Everest and Lhotse (on the horizon in the photo) that is the South Col and Camp IV. The summit is reached from there via the Southeast Ridge on the other side of the photo. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #91 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Equivalent to the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific are the Azores in the European Atlantic. You’re looking at Lagoa das Sete Cidades (Lagoon of the Seven Cities), an example of the Azores’ astounding beauty. As Hawaii is a part of the US, the Azores are a part of Portugal – since the 1430s first discovered uninhabited.

Everything grows here, cedar forest to giant tropical tree ferns, fruit from citrus to tropical, plants from corn to taro. Flowers are riotously everywhere. The sea swarms with fish being on the main Atlantic migration route for whales and dolphins. The islands are immaculately cared for by Azoreans, no pollution, air sparkling clear, weather in the 60s in winter, 70s in summer, so peaceful they are virtually crime-free.

Azoreans love drinking parties, cheerful festivals, and bright colors – with their charming homes painted the color of key lime pie, raspberry mousse, or oceanic blue. They love liberty so much they’ve had this motto emblazoned on their coat of arms for centuries: “Antes morrer livres que em paz sujeitos”—" Rather die free than live in peaceful subjugation.”

This is one of our planet’s truly magical places. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #11 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Copernicus Science Center, Warsaw, Poland.  If you’re Northern European, you’re related.  This is the reconstruction of a Neanderthal man who lived in Poland some 40,000 years ago.  Just about everyone from Northern Europe has between 1 to 2% Neanderthal DNA –  I have 1.8%.  So that’s what my cousin 2,000 times removed looked like!

One reason they all went extinct is they never had something we, Cro-Magnon Homo sapiens, invented: the needle. Made of bone splinters and using tendon threads, we sewed coats and pants together from pelts of animals – while Neanderthals could use pelts only as capes draped over them.

This allowed us to hunt big animals out in the Ice Age tundra, with Neanderthals confined to warmer valleys with far less game. By 28,000 years ago, they were no more while we thrived.

Warsaw’s Copernicus Science Center is a fascinating place to learn so much – and for kids to have so much fun learning with special exhibits for them.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #315 photo ©Jack Wheeler)