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

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

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

We are now in Banos in Ecuador after doing the 3 day incapirca trail. Having lots of fun, Gavin has gone Canyoning today (abseiling down a waterfall). My finger nails are sore and thin because I havent been eating enough cheese )o: Alice, we are back on the 4th so would love to come to the party, looking forward to it! Emily xxxx

hey pud and gav, it was richards bday yesterday, and you bought him jamie oliver's italian cookbook by the way, which he loved and says a massive thank you!!! i bought him a granny shopping trollet so he'll look ridiculous at the good food show.... isnt that lovely of me! his parents are here now and i'm cooking a roast for them on sunday... scary!pickle is a Dr... thats all the news from brum land.... byeeeee. xxxx

Just opened the fridge at work and it STINKS of cheese...made me think of you Em (in a nice way)...then i thought how i haven't looked on this website thingy for AGES...so thought i would leave a message. Just wandering when you're both coming back?? A friend at work has asked me to house-sit (or flat-sit) her place in London for a month 18th Dec to 18 th Jan, so if you're back by then, we can have a welcome home celebration for you there (although apparently its TIIIIIINY - like Leanne on her massive dog in Newquay), but we could all go out in London and everyone can stay there. So, hope you can make it back in time for your welcome-home-party...it would be much better if you were both there. Anyway, see you soon hopefully. Have more fun xxx

Yeah, yeah. Travelling sounds amazing and all that but Thornhill is the place to be right now. It isn't raining constantly, it isnt at all boring and you can do all those things you are doing in the photos here. i.e holding anacondas (who does that?), standing under waterfalls and driving fast across deserts.

Obviously I am lying.

Pleased your having a good time guys. Sorry I have got on the band wagon so late, but your aren't all that good at letting your old school friends know about this website effort Gav!

Oh and Gav, do us all a favour. If you are gonna have your top off in these photos at least get some frickin meat on your bones.

Kisses.

Bennett

Dear Emily and Gavin. It has been brought to my attention that in the top right hand corner of this website it says 'Current Location: Nowhere, yet!' Now, unless you two have been lying to us all, and you are actually hiding somewhere in a cave with a 6-month supply of cheese (and studying stalagmites and/or stalagctites) or something whilst writing us the occasional message via laptop pretending to be South America, the current location should say 'Amazon Rainforest' or something similar. I don't know why the current location says you are nowhere. Maybe it is because you haven't written anything in the postcards section yet?? I have just realised that you can't be hiding in a cheese-laden cave somewhere whilst pretending to be in South America, because the photos you have posted would be almost impossible to fake, and I don't think that you would do that. So just in case anyone else who had noticed this, and was starting to question whether Emily and Gavin are actually in South America or not, I conclude that they probably are really. Glad I cleared that one up.

Hi G and E Starting to think about you coming back and being homeless! Had a quick look on a couple of websites at what's available. What is the maximum you can afford for rent and where do you want/not want to live. I know you mentioned Bishops Stortford as OK but if I could look at Ware and Hertford we may have more choice. There are cheaper places but if you can stretch to £650 (how much) you may actually get something that has doors and windows. If you are happy though with less I will do my best. Please give me a clue.
Love mum and dad XXX

Hello you two! I hope you're having fun. Not sure if you've been able to keep up with the football: Liverpool won 3-0 against Anderlecht, while Chelsea lost!!!! This morning (yesterday evening in the UK), Man Utd also lost, and after losing 4-1 to Middlesbrough, they seem to be at each other's throats. He he!!! Rangers went and drew again Vs the nobody team in their group, but a win against Porto or Inter would probably might get them through.....

I'm heading back home tomorrow, and my PhD viva is next Thursday (10th). Wish me luck!!!

There are lots more photos for you to look at now, yippeee!!!!

Hello,
We have 6 hours to kill in Cusco bus station so what better to do than to give you a "quick" update...
We last wrote from La Paz where we spent 2 nights, finished our organised tour and went back to being on our own, aahhh! We only spent a day in La Paz but managed to pay a visit to the Coca museum which was really interesting (probably the most interesting musuem we´ve been to!!!), get caught up in big protests about gas prices in the main street (quite scary..firecrackers/bombs seemed to get closer and closer as we tried to get to the post office) , and went out for a few drink in a very touristy spot and bumped into Charlotte from Geography, very random!

From La Paz we caught a bus to Copacabana on the edge of lake Titicaca, which was a really pretty little town (much more our thing than the big city!). We got to Copacabana quite early so decided to hire some mountain bikes and went for a ride for a few hours along the edge of the lake through little farming communities. All the locals were really friendly and gave us a wave as we cycled past. We even managed a hashed attempt at a conversation in Spanish with a local woman..I said De Donde Eres? and she pointed over the hill!!! There were some unexpectedly steep uphill parts so we followed what the locals were doing and got off our bikes and pushed (didnt want to look out of place!), we ignored the fact that we had proper mountain bikes and they had old rusty bikes with no gears!

The next morning we got a ferry from Copacabana over to Isla del Sol, the apparent birthplace of the Incas. We decided to stay the night on the island (recommended for the sunset) so took our big backpacks with us. When we got off the ferry there was a small jetty and bay, then a steep slope up to the top of the island. We asked some people where the hostels were "arriba arriba" they said and pointed right to the top of the hill, so off we went up the inca steps..... it took a while (45mins) but we made it, and the views from our hostel were amazing, we had panoramic views of Bolivia and Peru on either side of the lake, not bad for $3 a night! We then went on a 5 hour walk around the island (in flip flops... wasnt the best choice of footwear). We saw the Titicaca rock and various Incan ruins, went through some farms and villages and saw lots of llamas and donkeys!
The next morning we got a random ferry from a bay on the otherside of the hill from where we arrived. The stepped path down decided to stop half way and so we found ourselves at one point wandering through some farmers fields, with visions of "the beach" in óur minds where they get killed in the weed fields! We managed to cheekily get the boat ride back for free though so it was worth the effort!

From Copacabana we caught an afternoon bus ride to Puno in Peru (passed the border hassle free) where we stayed for 2 nights/1day. We visited the Uros (floating) Islands which were interesting but touristy. We managed to get on a boat with a school trip which was slightly bizarre and got a lot of stares from amazed kids and could hear the word "gringo" being wispered around! We got the train from Puno to Cusco, which was very scenic but had a carriage full of middle aged Germans, not quite the atmosphere we were expecting!

We spent 3 nights in Cusco in a fantastic hostel that did a Sunday roast, also managed to find a pub that imported PG tips, not very cultural I know, but i was getting desperate! Cusco was very beautiful and we had views of the whole city from the bar in the hostel! We didnt exactly eat much local food in Cusco, apart from the Menu del dias for lunch that were dirt cheap! On the first night we went to the nearest place to our hostel which turned out nicely to be a curry house! Gavin had an Alpaca Jalfrezi so I suppose you could call that slightly peruvian! Next night we had our sunday roast, then went out for a jacket potatoe and a steak and onion pie! We justified it though as we were off to do the inca trail so we needed a good feed! We will fill you in with the ups and downs of the Inca Trail another time....
Lots of love Emily and Gavin
xxx