Katie from the Tap!!!! Hey Em, hey Gavin!!! Hows things?! Id love to say id read all of ur entries on here, but as my lecturers dont seem to understand that uni is bout havin fun n gettin drunk, ive been writing 4000 word essays instead of reading bout ur travels. But I hav read some n it sounds like ur having fun! Me n Claire were tlkin today bout goin bak to the Tap for xmas and unfortunately Im not workin much in the Tap (but I am workin in Magikas with the chocolate hedgehogs!) n thought of u so just wanted to write u both a message n say hi n hope ur ok! Anyways hope evrythings ok n miss u lots! Merry christmas if i dont email u before!!! Love Katie!!!

Emily Wha about if we thrash Chelsea 10 - 0, with a triple hattrick from Crouch to make up for lost time, you never know what can happen in football. Will they be out then?

Nick Sorry Linny, Chelsea are already through. Even if we thrash them and Betis win, then Chelsea and Betis will have the same points. The results between the two teams are then used to seperate them, and Chlesea won 4-1 on aggregate against Betis so are defo through. We'll still win the group though!!

linny oh also in case your not following the football liverpool are through to the knock out stages of the champions league, but they're waiting til your back to make a mockery of chelsea and win the group. hopefully we'll beat them 5-0 aith a hatrick from crouchy and real betis will also win 5-0 and then chealsea are out of there.. woo hoo!!! Gavin, Rangers are s***!! you may make it through to the knock outs of champs laegue, i hope you do, as there is definatly relegation potential from the spl at the moment!lol...!!byeeeee xxxx

linny hey Pud and Gav, well you seem to be up to many very active adventures.... birmingham is just as exciting i feel though, i went to the good food show on saturday with danielle, and now have 23 bottles of wine stashed at home,and a few cheeky spirits. Mmmmm also bought some food but thats not as exciting! Nearly saw jamie oliver in action but arriived late and missed the show, Doh!ON sunday andy nethercott was in 'the crucible' so me and baby tom went along for a giggle not knowing what the play actually was, turned out andy's not bad on stage and the crucible in no way makes you laugh... but we did have a few drinks after to make up for the lack of the giggling. you'll be home soon, yeah!!! see you on sunday, exciting!!! xxxx

Mum & Dad F Hi Gavin and Emily Great to hear you are still in one piece (two pieces) and coming home soon. Can you please phone ASAP re flat. Could only get something from the 19th but need to speak to you re time until then. I spent three days looking. If you have no friends with warm floors until the 19th the B & B I stayed in will do a good rate for a few days but we need to know now if you want it booked. Love mum & dad XXX

Emily and Gavin (Round Ecuador) ...we arrived in Quito unscathed and bumped into Sally, a girl on our tour round Ecuador, at the airport. We shared a taxi with Sally to our plush, many star hotel in the New City of Quito (travelling is hard going). That evening we met up with the 9 others on our trip who all seemed quite nice. Our first two days of the tour were spent biking. We left early on the first day to get to the national park of Cotopaxi where we biked down the snow-capped volcano of cotopaxi with mud and rain adding to the excitement! We spent the night in the small village of Quilatoa on the edge of a volcanic crater created around hundred years ago when the volcano at the time imploded. The hostal we stayed in was very farmhousey with small wood burning fires in the The following morning we walked down to the large crater lake from the top and i, gavin,(being lazy and also for a laugh) decided to get a mule ride back up for a mere $5. Emily didn´t go cos she was poorly..boohoo. The crater lake was awesome and you could still see areas of activity where the water bubbled. We then got back on our bikes and biked down the mountainous terrain being chased by crazy ecuadorian dogs that didn´t seem to understand what a bike wheel was!! After lunch we caught a local bus to Urbina, at the foot of the Chimborazo volcano (largest in Ecuador) and walked a couple of kms to the Urbina mountain refuge..We were due to stay two nights in Urbina but because of a landslide there was no water so we shortened our stay to just one night and the next day moved to the city of Riobamba. Riobamba was a lovely city and I (gavin) spent the day shopping cos everything was dirt cheap (Emily.BORING..spent the day in bed...still recovering)! The next day we started the Ingapirca trek to Ingapirca, Ecuadors most important Incan site, our second Inca Trail, and thankfully Emily was feeling better. Unlike the Inca Trail in Peru the actual route was far less touristy and at times the path was pretty non existant. i.e climbing up through large boulders was required. It was also more of a challange since when we arrived at our chosen camp we had to pitch all the tents and there were no toilets/showers etc like on the other trek. However, we did have donkeys to carry all our stuff except daybags. The actual highest point was also 4400metres trekked in the pissing rain and cold. Unlike the "Inca Trail" there was no Macchu Picchu at the end, only a rather scaled down version..took us about ten mins to pass through. After the Ingapirca trek our next stop was the spa town of Banos, set in the mountains with many impressive waterfalls. There were lots of cool sports to try in Banos and the following day I (Gavin) went Canyoning while Emily spent the morning eating toffees with Sally. Canyoning was awesome, basically abseiling down waterfalls with the largest being 45metres. Didn´t really know what to expect when i went as didn´t really know what it was till got there!! One of the highlights of Canyoning though had to be when we weren´t attached to the ropes and could just jump down the waterfalls into the pools at the bottom..only me and Andy were stupid enough to try this...oh and the guide that jumped a full 10-15 metres into a pool that was about 5 feet deep..lunatic! In the afternoon we hired some road worthy dunebuggies equipped with roll cages and headed of on the open road out of banos in serach of waterfalls. After about 5kms we came to a LARGE tunnel..desperately seraching for lights we flicked the switch and drove through..frequently asking Emily if she could she if the lights were on as they seemed to be underneath the buggie (useful). We managed to make it through and then realised that a dirt track (probably for buggies) went round the outside.Dóh!! We made it to and from the waterfall in one piece but very wet as we decided to take the dirt tracks back and Gavin didn´t slow for the large puddles (not giant Emily´s). The next day we travelled through the cloud forests into the Jungle town of Tena where we spent the night before heading of to Beaza to go rafting on the "wild" Quijos river..Wild was an understatement and the rafting "experience" deserves its own email message..........

Gavin We haven´t written about our two week tour in Ecuador yet but thought you would find it amusing to know that our ecuadorian guide kept on taking the micky out of Emily for her accent...he just kept saying..."you say fooney (funny) " and laughing..was a highlight! Oh and "boos" (bus) was also one of his favourites.

Dad Carp Hi - good to read your last message. All well here tho a little cold with persistent freezing fogs and frosts etc.Looking forward to seeing you soon - may be a little hung over when we arrive at Heathrow as we have a dinner the night before! Skiing is all booked and payed for - even with superior skis for everyone - so hope Gavin will be able to make it.LADS play (Tartuffe by Moliere) went well, tho lack of Carpenter support this time apart from Nick who came on Wed prior to returning to Oz on Thursday (we've also booked now to go there in Feb) Rangers are in Europe tonight in a last ditch attempt to get something out of the season ( poor 4th and miles behind Hibs in SPL) Liverpool actually won a few games on the trot, but Leek haven't won any since I last wrote so look doomed!!(about 5 points adrift at the bottom now) We're beginning to get Christmassy and planning Christmas Eve party etc . Won't be as many this year but Janet still hasn't moved so they'll be around. Have Ok'd some filing work at the surgery for Pud if she wants when you get back, and also they are keen at the Donna Louise for her to do some fundraising work experience if wanted. will see you soon

Emily and Gavin (Inca trail to Quito) Hello again, Well you will all be pleased to know that we will be home in less than two weeks. We havent written for a while but we are still in one piece (just). Last time we wrote we were in Peru, now we are in Ecuador and have been here for two weeks! After the Inca trail in Peru we stayed an extra day in Cusco and then caught a cramped, heater in the way of our feet, night bus to Arequipa in Southern Peru where we booked a two day tour to the Colca Canyon. We headed out early on the first day and spotted vicuñas,llamas and alpacas on the way to the town of Chivay on the edge of the canyon. In Chivay we took a dip in the hot springs and were served "plates of bottom" (poor translation) in a restaurantin the evening. We got up at 6am the following morning to get to Cruz del Condor for 8am to see condors rising on the thermal air streams. Very big birds, impressive! We got to Arequipa in the evening and stayed another dfay before cathcing another night bus to Nasca. We got in to Nasca at 6am and were instantly harrassed a "Nasca lines guide" who offered us a taxi to the Nasca airport. Since there were no other taxis we hopped in and headed to the airport..thought it was ok since he showed us fake I.D! We were driven to their companys tin shack and offered a seat in the office...we made a sharp exit and went to a more recommended company! At their reception they told us the nearest flight would be at 11 and since it was 7.30 we had a long wait (or so we thought). About half an hour later there was a change of plan and before we had time to go to the toilet (and prepare for the flight) we were running to a small 5 seater plane! 5 mins later we were tearing down the runway, headphones on. Emily said they were for a running commentry but they were actually to block out the noise of the rickety little plane! I (Gavin) managed to see a very respectable 6 out of 12 (50%) lines before the head was in the hands with a sick bag nearby. Justified, I thought, as the pilot seemed to be flying the plane through imaginary chicanes in the sky. Bank one side jump to the other, one hand on the controls while the other waved excitedly at the lines. Apparently this airline was recommended, dread to think what the others would have been like! In the end we had a tame landing and a cockpit free of sick! On landing we picked up our bags (after a much needed toilet break) and caught a taxi back to the bus station, jumped on the 9am bus (got there at 8.55) and headed to Ica a couple of hours north. All in all an eventful morning! From Ica we took a taxi to Huacachina, a plam fringed oasis in the middle of desert/sand dunes. We chilled out for the rest of the day and ate ice cream! The following morning we attemptedsandboarding on the dunes but unfortunately couldn´t walk up the sand due to our feet burning (walking in flip flops on sand at midday isnt recommended!) We managed a lame 5 mins before taking our boards back and saving ourselves the possibility of 3rd degree burns. We left Ica early afternoon and caught a bus to Pisco where we booked a tour to the Ballestas islands in the Parque National for the next day. Parque National is an area with the largest concentration of marine birds in the world. We saw millions of Sea lions on the islands, penguins, cormorants, pelicans and Peruvian Boobies. They were nicknamed the mini Galapagos. In the afternoon we did a tour of the National Park and spotted Flamingos from a watch tower with no binoculars (very useful!). When we got back to Pisco Gavin HAD to check the internet for footie scores (a daily activity) before we got on a bus to Lima. The buses go every 10 minutes and after travelling for about an hour we came to the bus that left before us, that had just crashed! No one was injured that we could see, but talk about a narrow escape. We then had a very entertaining bus ride, we had alot of interest from local people as we were the only "Gringos" on the coach. We attempted to have conversations in spanish using our dictionary and a pad and pen and ended up exchanging two email addresses with people and one woman gave Emily her nail varnish and I exchanged an English pound for two Gems..a good deal i thought! We arrived in Lima quite late and got a taxi that dropped us off at the wrong hotel. They had space though and was cheaper than the one we booked so we just stayed there. The next morning we got up early to catch our flight to Lima. Gavin had Papa Johns pizza at 8am (We thought Papa Johns was only in Bristol but apparently not, they have branched out to Lima airport!). Our flight to Quito was fairly(very) bumpy...

susie Hi Emily and Gavin, em's thank you so much for the postcard - i loved getting it. Sounds like you are having a fantastic time, loving the photos! susie x

Nick Hello you two!! I'm back in Oz now. Football has been interesting this week; Australia beat Uruguay on penalties, and are going to the world cup! Roy Keane had a hissy fit and has quit Man Utd! Liverpool won again! Rangers lost again (to Celtic) and are now 8 points behind Hibs who are 3rd (sorry Gavin). England beat Argentina! Hope you're still having great fun. Have a safe trip home, and I'll speak to you then!

linniani helo pud and gavin... one week til the good food show.. bet your well jealous your not coming!we shall eat lots of cheese for you!!mmmm!i'm having my hair cut today... exciting! can i have a giant hammock too please?! xxxx

kattos Hello Emileek and Gaviano, Cheese deprivation eh? Maybe you should try eating more chocolate, it has milk in it. When Linny said it was Richard's birthday I take it she didn't mean me (see my surname) because I never received any such presents but would definitely like to. Guess I'll have to settle for the giant hammock you said you'd get me. Looking forward to the party on your return, and remember, no present is too heavy to carry for a friend you love as much as me x

Vicky Hello Emily and Gavin, Hope you are both well? Emily the nail issue sounds worrying. Please seek some emergency cheese. I fear you may be a shadow of your former cheese loving self upon your return. God help us......please be brave... On a different note, just wanted to see what your plans are for New Years eve.... I know its miles away yet but me and Linny are thinking about a bit of a 'do' involving lots of nice food, tons of drink and masses of merriment. What do you think? It will probably descend into chaos a la your leaving party/ birthday....we might have to reconsider darts on the lawn but Im sure musical statues could still be arranged! I will make sure that there is lots of cheese for you to nibble on.... Cant wait to see you both soon! Enjoy your last few weeks ...loads of love, Vic xxxx