It is starting to get hot at the Arizona WEX office, with temperatures already in 80s. The Kempton clubhouse has had a good spring-cleaning and the new Apollo-13 pinball game has been installed, with its amazing 13-ball multiball. The Ancient Aliens television show continues to air new shows for Season Four and is hoping to do another season. You can buy the 4-DVD set of Season Three from Adventures Unlimited, whose new catalog is about to be mailed. 

We did plenty of travel during the spring, mainly around southern England and Jennifer and I made a trip to Portugal to seek out some of that country’s megaliths, including the largest dolmen in Europe—an awesome sight! We also drove to some Knights Templar sites including the massive Convento do Cristo, and Santiago de Compostela just over the northern border of Portugal in Spain. This has been a pilgrimage destination since the 900s, and the first “travel guide” was commissioned by the Pope, to write about getting to this site. While in London we had visits from Duncan Roads, the Australian editor of Nexus Magazine and Megalithomania’s Hugh Newman dropped by to tell us he is planning all sorts of adventures for 2012. Check his website at: megalithomania.co.uk

We have some upcoming conferences and expeditions planned over the next 12 months, including a trip to remote Bada Valley in Indonesia in late June, a trip to Palenque, Mexico in November and an expedition to Peru in January of 2013. Check them out on our events pages.

We are planning a booksigning at the Adventures Unlimited bookstore in Arizona on May 19. Keep checking our webpages and drop in at 1020 N. Main Street when you are in the Sedona-Cottonwood-Jerome area. Give them a call at: 928-639-1664. Sorry, they are closed on Sundays. Check out the new website at: www.adventuresunlimitedbooks.com

Jennifer and I met up in Peru in early November with Hugh Newman (of Megalithomania) and the Peru-Bolivia WEX manager, Brien Foerster. We toured around Lake Titicaca, including the ruins at Puma Punku and Tiwanaku. Brien and I co-wrote a book, now available from Adventures Unlimited Press called The Enigma of Cranial Deformation. Brien is also the author of the book A Brief History of the Incas. His website is http://www.hiddenincatours.com and it has information on his special tours and other activities in South America. He has one scheduled with Christopher Dunn this summer.

Right after the tour, Hugh, Brien and I did several episodes for Season Four of the History Channel show Ancient Aliens. We spent a couple of days at pyramid sites around Lima and then flew to La Paz, Bolivia to do an episode on the ancient technology evident at Tiwanaku and Puma Punku 

The producers of the series, Prometheus Entertainment, also flew me down to Villahermosa in Mexico, the main area of the Olmecs. From there we drove to the Mayan city of Palenque where we stayed for several days. We shot several episodes of Ancient Aliens and they plan to air these episodes, along with the Peru and Bolivia episodes, starting in February. So check your local listings and tell your friends to tune in for some amazing new material!

In 2010 we launched the Nepalese-printed edition of my book Yetis, Sasquatch and Hairy Giants. The fall of 2012 is a good time to visit Nepal and experience the mysterious temples of Kathmandu and the majestic heights of the high Himal. Govinda, at the WEX Club offices in the tourist-friendly Thamel section of Kathmandu, can help plan every aspect of your visit. Check out the latest adventure travel news and expeditions offered by Adventure Pilgrims Trekking at www.trekinepal.com or give them a call at: 977-975-107-7190.

Filmmaker and WEX member Steve Zagata has started the WEX Twitter page. Check it out at  www.Twitter.com/Wexclub. Steve shot footage in Peru for our DVD Ancient Technology in Nazca & the Andes. This work joins the other installments in the Ancient Technology series, featuring fascinating material filmed in Egypt, South America, Mexico and Central America. They are all available at: www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

In late September we visited the Frontier Bookshop in Amsterdam, which is doing good business in the fashionable Jordaan district. When in The Netherlands, check out the bookshop that is near Anne Frank’s House, located on a canal just north of the Westerkirk. The address is Leliegracht 42, 1015 DH Amsterdam. Tel: (+34) 020-3309151. Visit the website at:  www.frontierbookshop.nl.

Canadian WEX manager Jim Honey continues to run his Sangrael bookshop-café-curio store in Elora. The address is 137 Metcalf Street, Elora, Ontario. The phone is 519-846-2999. See their new web pages at: www.wexclub.ca.

Real estate is still a good buy, so now is a good time for the World Explorers Club to snatch up clubhouses around the country. Is there a WEX clubhouse to be acquired in your town in the near future? Be sure to contact us with any ideas about starting a retail outlet or clubhouse!

Also, send in your classified ad; remember up to 25 words are free for WEX members. We are always looking for stories or news clippings, so send those in, too!

I recently got my own web domain and you can check it out here: www.DavidHatcherChildress.com. As the warm weather comes to your area check out the flowers and bees on the back porch with and get out the latest issue of World Explorer!

—David Hatcher Childress, Explorer