After a night bus with Don and Soph we arrived early in Cusco and got to our hostal to be reunited with our dear Kelly and her no so endearing cousin. Cristal. We spent the day catching up and wondered around the town. We awoke the next morning to find 2 more familiar faces sleeping in our dorm. It was Sandra and Leon who we`d met in La Paz. Yay! More friends to celebrate Xmas with and there was the added bonus of Leon being a chef. We went shopping for food and drinks, which meant wondering round a market full of whole chickensstill with their heads, necks and feet on.

Xmas morning we did secret santa and opened our pressies then it was all hands on deck (except for Cristal) to prepare the dinner. We had 3 young Ozzie guys who joined us ans were such a great laugh & such lovely guys. Dinner was served at 2 and was a truly scrumptuous feast. Leone did a stirling job and it was the best xmas dinner I`ver had (sorry mummy). I even ate chicken (well it was free range & just smelt and looked soooo good.) The wine was flowing and before dinner Stu & I had served everyone 3 Mojitos each. Let the partying begin.

The hostal had a bar and we were left to run it, which meant we spent the day and night drinking our many bottles of spirits, dancing and singing. There was a lot of love in the room and we were lucky to spend Xmas with such a great bunch of people.

Somehow we managed to while away the days between Xmas and New Year by wondering the pretty streets, going for lunch, coffees, fresh juices (in Jacks Cafe), designing tattoos and then holding Kellys hand whilst she had her 1st tattoo. Kelly wanted to have the word "Janita" tattooted on her neck and after she and the artist had decided on the style of writing, I suggested that we check the spelling for Little Gypsy. It was then that the artist told us that the correct word was "Jitanita". That was a close call, typical Kelly!

Stu, Kelly and I attempted to do a 2 day walk by ourselves, but after walking for about 40mins we decided the scenery wasn`t stunning enough to warrant 7hours of the same scenery so we decided to turn back and head for lunch in Cusco. We`d hoped the walk was going to pass through little villages etc, but were told at the beginning to expect no civilization for the next 7hrs. Well atleast we got out in the countryside for a while.

New Years Eve consisted of people wearing, especially yellow knickers and silly glasses. After drinks at the hostal and in a bar overlooking the sqaure we headed in to the square for midnight. It was full of people letting of fireworks and firecrackers. It was a great vibe. We ended up in a nightclub which wasn`t to my taste, but we wanted to be with our friends so I had to try to supress my snobbishness about the bad music and the fact that it was a meat market and endeavour to enjoy the start of 2010 in the company of great friends.