Congrats Firestone Discoveries Finalists!

Most of you have seen the news, but just for the official record, here is the list of winners from the first round. The finalists are being interviewed this week, so be sure to support your favorites on facebook. The battle has begun! We'll announce the Top 3 for each category very soon, so stay tuned...

DISCOVERIES PATHFINDER FINALISTS

Adam Spiegel

Christine Sterling

Joseph Roldan

Kathleen Nolte

Kim Kulchycki

Kristen Weir

Lisa Kane

Lotchana Sourivong

Thomas Andy Holt

Margie Tosch

DISCOVERIES GUEST CHEF FINALISTS

Scott Beale, Grey Gelding Bistro & Bar, Sarasota Springs, NY

James Gottwald & Rodelio Aglibot, Chicago, IL

Tim Kirker, Bistrot Zinc, Chicago, IL

Jay Norris, Ponte Vedre, FL

Aimee Salas, Valencia, CA

Dean Smith, Spring City, UT

Chef Steve, Yucatan Sunset Catering, Sonoma, CA

Joel Tate, Jackson Hole, WY

Shelley Young, The Chopping Block, Chicago, IL

Patricia Zadony, Chicago, IL

*See their YouTube videos here

A Day In The Life: Trekking The Inca Trail

We caught up with Allan Wright, owner of Zephyr Adventures, and official Inca Trail guide for our Firestone Pathfinder trek in April. Allan is a Seattle native who has traveled to over 50 countries and has lived on 3 continents, so he knows a thing or two about adventure travel. As the Pathfinder announcement nears (just days away!), we wanted to give you a little glimpse of what it will be like on the trail for the lucky winners!

FV: What time does everyone wake up in the morning?

AW: A typical day starts around 7:00 AM when our staff comes by with a wake-up call and hot drinks brought to our bedside. We all then take our time to get up and moving and have a hot breakfast around 8:00 AM. After breakfast, we pack our gear into our bags and leave it in the tents for the porters and hit the trail around 9:00 or 9:30. One of the secrets of our group is we leave a little later in the morning than most people so we have the trail mostly to ourselves but send a porter ahead earlier to grab the best campsite in the next dedicated camp area.

FV: What's a typical schedule like on the trail? And more importantly, what's for dinner?

AW: We walk until about noon, stopping for photos and visiting ruins. We have a guide at the front and one at the end, allowing each person to walk his or her own pace. Our porters will clean up from breakfast, pack up camp, pass us on the trail, and have a hot lunch waiting for us around noon. They are quite amazing. We usually have a leisurely lunch and then have another three hours or so of hiking in the afternoon, arriving to camp around 4:00 PM. We have a couple hours free time to read, take photos, play cards, etc and then have appetizers around 5:30 and dinner at 6:00. The dinners are quite amazing too - the cooks prepare a multi-course meal over camp stoves. Dinner might consist of a tomato and avocado salad, bread with a Peruvian salsa, pasta with a meat sauce (tofu sauce for the vegetarians), and pudding for dessert. It will of course be even better in April with the Firestone wines and our professional American cook.

FV: Do you have a favorite vista on the trek?

AW: The distances are not super long - perhaps 11 kilometers (7 miles) per day on average. The goal is not to rush but to enjoy the scenery. My favorite day of the four is definitely Day 3, when we pass two amazing ruins and hike along a section of trail that is composed entirely of original stones laid down by the Inca. That evening we have an incredible campsite on an open ridge with views of the nearby mountains and the Urubamba River below.

FV: Any recommendations for the most useful tools or gear?

AW: We will send everyone who joins us a Pre-Departure Packet with details about the entire trip, including a packing list. People actually carry very little on their backs: water, snacks, extra clothes, and a camera. One thing to consider is whether to bring hiking poles. I highly recommend them for anyone who has weak knees (they really help on the downhill) or has balance issues. For others, poles are not really needed. If someone does bring them, they need to have rubber tips.

Good luck everyone! Still have a few days to sign up your friends for a greater chance of winning!

Michael Palin Visits Machu Picchu

Check out this cool video of travel reporter/Monty Python alum visiting Machu Picchu. Could be good research for anyone who might, perhaps, be hoping to hike there sometime next year...

Featured Destination: Lake Titicaca

Our Discoveries contest has got people pretty excited about Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail, and with good reason. What could be better than taking in the breathtaking Andean views alongside a Firestone-approved chef preparing fresh local fare as you near one of the coolest historical sites on Earth? Hmm. Yeah, nothing really comes to mind. But lest we forget, Peru has an abundance of amazements, including the world's highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca. Located at 12,500 ft above sea level in a basin of the Andes, this lasting vestige of an ancient inland sea is South America's largest lake, and is even visible from space. It is even thought to be the birthplace of the Incan Empire.

Among the hallmarks of this amazing body of water are the roughly forty floating islands, known as Uros, made from floating reeds which are abundant on the lakes shore. Check out this great video from Firestone Favorites How Stuff Works to learn even more.

Peru's Nazca Lines: Where Crop Circles Meet Easter Island

It's hard to imagine creating a complex and laborious work of art that you would never be be to actually see, right? Well, unless historians have drastically missed the mark on the first human flight, this is exactly what the native inhabitants of Peru's Nazca desert did about 2,000 years ago. Their creations consist of hundreds of images, ranging from fairly simple geometric lines to more complex images including a 360 foot wide curly-tailed monkey comprised of a single labyrinth-like path, etched into the desert floor by scraping away the darkly colored topsoil to reveal the pale clay below. The 500 square-mile area that these geoglyphs cover is among the driest on earth and sees very little temperature fluctuation or wind, which has allowed these incredible images to persist for as long as they have. Whether the lines were drawn as a tribute to the gods, to signal visiting aliens, or simple to fend off the desert blues is unknown. But there is one thing I think we can all agree on: it's gotta be the aliens, right?

Behold a very dramatic old video whose creators apparently did their research before there was wikipedia, but are kind enough to abruptly bid you adieu at the end.


For more info, check out an interesting article at The Skeptic's Dictionary. Though, spoiler alert, they do disagree slightly with our consensus about the aliens. Some people are just no fun at all.

We Challenge You

There's a flipside to our Firestone Discoveries contest, one that has been a little hush-hush since contest launch. One exciting announcement at a time, whew. In addition to searching for a Firestone Discoveries Pathfinder to join our amazing trip to Peru and the Inca Trail, we have a Guest Chef Challenge. We're searching for an exciting, outgoing, creative, and adaptive chef who will join us, work alongside our Peruvian cooks and serve as the official Guest Chef on the four-day Inca Trail trek. The winner will be hired as a Guest Chef Consultant and will receive an all-expense paid trip to Peru -- to experience the incredible Inca Trail -- in return for your time and effort. This will not be just any chef - cooking on the Inca Trail trek will be an amazing challenge, guaranteed to stretch your horizons and your idea of what a kitchen should look like. Know someone who would fit the bill? Or maybe you're ready to take on the Chef Challenge? Let the games begin! Our official Firestone Discoveries YouTube Channel is about to be brimming with Guest Chef applicant videos - who will be the first? Get tips on how to create your Chef Challenge applicant video from our team.

Also, find an amazing promo video recently uploaded to the site (see below) - if it doesn't get you geared for adventure, we don't know what will! The video is also very easy to share - remember, the more friends to get to apply to become our Firestone Discoveries Pathfinder, the better your chances for winning the assignment (i.e. a trip to Peru!). Whether you are submitting Discoveries Pathfinder application or the Guest Chef Challenge video, we look forward to hearing from you.