“When I was 8 years old, my parents paid a smuggler to take me across the Himalayas, a weekslong walk over the mountains from Tibet to India. It was a trek that tens of thousands of other Tibetans have taken since the Dalai Lama fled a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. My parents must have had their reasons to send me here; they must have had the best of intentions. But 18 years later, I still don't know why they did it. They are not political people. They are small farmers who raise barley and a few yak in a rural area not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. I have not seen them since I left...”. – Tsering Topgyal via The Associated Press. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

The ruins of a castle stand above the town of Rocca Calascio, close to Santo Stefano di Sessanio in the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, inside the national park of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga, Italy, September 7, 2016. (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

Professor Xie Yong works on an art installation of a beaver, which is made out of plastic and around 300,000 needles, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, July 23, 2013. The needles, according to Xie, represent the pain felt by animals when their fur is taken off to produce clothing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

UConn students from Storrs, Conn., Gary Tu, Danny Wang and Victor Zheng, fish at Shenipsit Lake in Tolland, Conn. during sunset on Tuesday, August 19, 2014. (Photo by Jim Michaud/AP Photo/Journal Inquirer)

A wounded Afghan policeman is carried away from the site of an explosion in Kabul May 24, 2013. Several large explosions rocked a busy area in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday with Reuters witnesses describing shooting in the area. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

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The eruption of Cordon Caulle began on June 4, 2011, located in the Region of Los Rios in Chile. For about 12 months, people and animals became accustomed to living with the daily fall of ash, which also caused problems in the air traffic in South America. The explosions and lightning during first days of the eruption could be seen from hundreds of miles around. This photograph was taken on the second night of eruption from the town of Lago Ranco. (Photo and caption by Francisco Negroni/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A woman has her hair blown by the wind during a snowstorm in Quebec City, on December 22, 2013. (Photo by Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

Bob Steele, of Jefferson, Texas, positions his bears during The Great Bear Show at the Dubuque (Iowa) County Fair on July 25, 2012. (Photo by Jessica Reilly/Telegraph Herald)