Hello everybody!

Well, we are having a fantastic time in the glorious 30 degree heat of Vilcabamba! Glad you´re enjoying the wind/hail/snow back in Manchester!! It is beautiful here, really lush, lots of green and wildlife galore. We´ve been here three days - arrived on Saturady after a really smooth, uncomplicated 6hr bus journey from Cuenca! The travel pills work!!!

We´ve been staying at a gorgeous german resort called Hostel Izhcaluma (or something like that- we just gave the flyer to the taxi driver and he did the rest!) We are in a lovely cabin with private bath and a balcony which has a hammock on it! (Nick we can feel the jealousy brewing! You should DEFINATELY try and get here when you come - it´s glorious!) This is the life! It also has breakfast included and a fab restaurant attached which has amazing views. We wanted to upload our photos, but the computer here is being unco-operative, sorry, you´ll have to wait a few days! (it´s worth the wait!)

Kate, you´d love this place - it has it´s own pool. sauna, and offers massages and facials for less than a fiver!!!!

We went for a hike/mountaineering expedition yesterday - the germans said it was fairly easy but abit dangerous?!! Figure that out?! Anyway, we traversed paths which were LITERALLY a foot wide with a one hundred foot drop on each side!! Sophie neally pooed herself and Andy had the time of his life skipping about like Indiana Jones!!! It was certainly different to a jaunt up Werneth Low!

We are switching hostels today - going on the other side of the valley to a more remote place which is run by supposedly English people - they are actually American hippies! It is really nice out there, right by the river - which you can swim in!

We are subjecting ourselves to another hack of death tomorrow - yup, braving the horses again! It´s a nine hour day trip which involves 6, yes that´s right 6hours of horse riding!!!! 2hours of hiking, visiting waterfalls and examining the flora and fauna of Podacapus national park, and the highlight (we hope) is a canopy tour! We can´t wait! (don´t worry Sophie... that Grade 4 river still awaits....)

We are gonna leave here on Thursday hopefully, although we could really spend the whole time here - you just have to keep thinking that there is so much more to see, perhaps even more beautiful. We are going into Peru from here. Gonna catch a bus from Loja on Friday morning and spend 8hrs or so crossing the border and hopefully ending up in Piura, Peru by the end of the day!

So that´s about it. Prob won´t have access to a comp for a few days, but we´ll update you as soon as we can - hopefully we will still be able to walk by then!!

P.s. The bowl trouble has cleared up thankfully - we´ll keep you posted - we know how much enjoy hearing about it!!!

p.p.s. Colin is fine, he is enjoying himself greatly!