The Best of Wanderlust (A GeoEx eBook)

The Best of Wanderlust

GeoEx at 40: Adventures in the Word & the World

I also want to thank all the great writers and photographers who have contributed to Wanderlust in the past 15 years; you have expanded and enriched my life, and the lives of our readers, immeasurably. And finally, I want to thank all the great travelers who have entrusted GeoEx to take them on life-changing adventures around the world through our first 40 years. As we celebrate those decades and those adventures with these world-wandering tales, we exult also in all the trailblazing, life-changing, planet-enhancing journeys that we know are still to come. We’ve only just begun! Thank you for taking this anthology into your heart and home. We hope you’ll savor this world-and-word commemoration, and join us for 40 more years of wanderlust celebration!

What all these stories share is a fundamental sense of wonder, and wonder is at the heart of everything that GeoEx does and stands for: wonder at the riches we find, the bonds we bind, and the unexpected treasures and teachings the world bestows. We offer this anthology to you, our cherished travelers, in the hope that these stories will imbue you with that sense of wonder too, that they’ll lead you to remember heart-plucking journeys you’ve already had, and seed ideas for invigorating immersions soon to be planned. I first got to know GeoEx in 1990, when, as the Travel Editor at the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle , I joined their journey along the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan to the fabled Hunza Valley. On that truly life-changing trip, which widened my mind and my heart immensely, I experienced firsthand the potential and power of the journeys GeoEx creates. Almost two decades later, in 2007, I began working with GeoEx and launched the Wanderlust blog (which was called Recce at that time). Now, as I look back over the past fifteen years, I feel grateful beyond expression for all the kindness, creative freedom, enthusiastic engagement, and heart-and-soul support I have received from all my GeoEx colleagues. In particular, I want to thank former Chairman George Doubleday and former President Jim Sano, who championed this literary blog from its inception, and current CEO Brady Binstadt, whose passion and vision inspire me and all of us every day. I wish I had the space here to list all my wonderful colleagues at GeoEx, but I especially want to acknowledge the marvelous marketing teams, past and present, with whom I have been privileged to enjoy deeply dream-fulfilling and life-enhancing camaraderies and collaborations. ~~

Yours in abiding wanderlust,

Don George Editor in Chief, Wanderlust San Francisco, September 2022

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