Bacon and Egg Ice Cream and the Inca Trail

Still organising but hopefully its going to be downhill from here. Fly out on the 6th of September from Sydney to Santiago. Visas have been sorted out (both Brazil and China). Last vaccine (hep B) shot booked for Monday. Hiking shoes purchased...still need to buy the backpack but hope to get that within the next week

On the entertainment front we have managed to book dinner at the Fat Duck in London (www.fatduck.co.uk)...well known for topping a list of restaurants around the world and for the head chef's (Heston Blumenthal) approach to food...a student of molecular gastronomy, a branch of food science, he uses research to blend some unusual ingredients. Spice bread ice cream and crab syrup, smoked bacon and egg ice cream served with French toast and tomato jam, and oysters and passion-fruit jelly are a few examples. In short...i'm really looking forward to it!

Other entertainment we've managed to confirm bookings for are the Lion King on Broadway NY, Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity in Las Vegas, and a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon departing from Las Vegas.

Without doubt, i'm looking forward to the entertainment we've booked but what i'm looking forward to most on the PJWT is the Inca trek. Unfortunately we weren't able to book the original 4 day/3 night Inca Trail due to new permit requirements and limited availability (need to book at least 2 months in advance for those who are hoping to do the original trek). However we were able to book an alternate 5 day/5 night trek which takes us through a few more less frequented inca ruins and we still end up at Machu Picchu so should still be good. The trek we're doing can be found at http://www.llamapath.com/vilcabamba-machupicchu.htm. The trek is a little bit longer than we had planned so it doesn't allow for much time to acclimatise (one and a half days) so risk of altitude sickness is concerning. Hopefully plenty of coca leaf tea should help (fingers crossed there aren't any random drug tests in my near future!).