Our ten hour trip into Peru was again not the most enjoyable experience we've had on a bus. Overbooking busses seems to be the norm and our border crossing was a race between all the bus passengers to get the stamp and get back on the bus to assure you had a seat for the next few hours. Luckily for us we were among the first to complete the process, yet that didn't stop the conductor from trying to tell us we had to get out of our seats so another couple could sit down. We stuck to our guns though and kindly said that it was his problem for working for a company who overbooks busses and that we had bought our ticket the day before unlike the majority of other passengers who bought theirs on the day... Welcome to Peru! One interesting sight from the trip though was seeing the landscape change from lush green scenery to dry desert.

We arrived into a city in northern Peru called Piura where we stayed for two nights in expectation for a flight to Cuzco. Piura is a very uninteresting town where we just caught up on a little sleep and watched a few movies enjoying a few home luxuries that we had missed in recent times.

At the airport we met an Aussie guy, Stu, who is mates with all my high school mates in Sydney which brought out the old cliche, "it's a small world". With a delayed first flight into Lima we had to frantically rush to our connecting flight to Cuzco arguing with the baggage check people in the process but making it with at least 30 seconds to spare luckily. A little frazzled we settled into the flight only to be frazzled again landing in between a mountainous landscape seeming to come a little close to scraping a banked wing tip into the side of one of these mountains.

Safely landed we found our hostel and chilled out until we were able to get in contact with Sammy and waited for her arrival at the hostel. We waited a little more than expected and when Sammy finally arrived she informed us that we were about a 45 minute walk from the main plaza! This turned out to be the first of four hostels we were to stay at in Cuzco!We spent the night catching up over a couple of wines and b*****ed, we called it a night.

We changed to the Wild Rover Hostel the next morning. This hostel was huge and a constant party every night of the week. We figured this was a good spot to spend New Years Eve. Chilling out in the foyer I looked up to see a familiar face. The one and only Swedish man, Per (the fruit) sitting opposite us. Per worked at the Bavarian Bier Cafe with me two years ago and it was an awesome suprise to see him here on the other side of the world.

On our first night here we were fast asleep only to be woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud THUD! We all awoke, startled, to find that there was an extremely white skinned guy on the ground in the middle of the dorm room wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. He had hit his head, we gathered, after trying to climb into his top bunk only to lose his balance with a head blurred from excessive alcohol. Kate jumped out of bed to help him only to be grunted at and told that he was OK. Left to his own devices he laid there for the next 15 minutes almost unmoving. We might have been worried that he was no longer with us except for the fact that his ass was definately living and speaking to us in glorious sing song. He farted for 15 minutes filling our room with no windows. Muffled laughter was heard throughout our 10-bed dorm. He got himself up into bed finally only to continue speaking to us in a language from Uranus. It was funny at first but a little disgusting to say the least and the poor b***** didn't remember the half of it when questioned the next morning!

On New Years Eve we relaxed with a bit of checking out the markets and wandering Cuzco followed by a massage to relax our bodies before the nights activities. Everywhere in the streets local vendors were selling hats, shirts, underwear, glasses and a thousand other things yellow. Yellow is the a lucky colour here and everyone enters the new year wearing it. Kate and Sammy bought some beautiful yellow flowers and made themselves a couple of headbands whilst I took the lazy option and bought a big hat.

We met up with Per (the fruit) and a few of his mates at the hostel's bar and we had our crew for the night. It began with a massive jagertrain along the bar setting the scene for the night. A few drinks later and the fireworks made themselves present. (Ten year old locals sell fireworks on the street to anyone willing!!) With these cracking and firing off only metres away from us we thought it a good idea to get out of the hostel and head up to the main plaza where all the action would be.

We got up there to find thousands upon thousands of people gathered looking like a sea of yellow, yelling, screaming and letting off yet more fireworks amongst the crowd. Ten minutes before midnight the fireworks increased and the crowd became rowdier and this continued past midnight and so there was a little confusion as to, was it midnight yet? There was no countdown but as the crowd realised we had entered the New Year the hugs began followed by a traditional good luck act of running around the plaza for a full lap. We all joined in but got separated with the thousands of people trying to do the same thing. Kate and Sammy were carried off ahead enjoying the fun and Kate lost a thong in the commotion and so had to run around for the rest of the night with one thong.

Meanwhile I was held back with Per and his mates. Per and one of his mates got down to just their yellow undies and completed the run around the plaza all but naked with heaps of people stopping them for photos. Then came the rain and the crowd scattered into bars, clubs, house parties or back to hostels. We found each other finally and after attempting one bar where they tried to charge us US$30 decided to head back to our hostel to continue the night. It was a little messy back there so after one drink we called it a night. It was a really fun night and we were so happy to have spent it with Sammy, Per and his mates. We think everyone should experience a Cuzco New Year once if their life if they have the opportunity!

The next day was a write off chilling out at the hostel and nursing hangovers. Others at the hostel though, thought the best cure for a hangover was to continue drinking keeping with the theme of the hostel.

Coupled with this and some inconsiderate dorm room mates we again changed hostels for some peace and quiet. Unfortunately this turned out to be a mistake. We had a friendly Argentinian girl who brought back a new friend to get busy under us as we were on the top bunks in the dorm room. Despite Kates polite insistence that they cease their activities or to just hurry up and get it over with, they continued. I rarely lash out but on this instance I felt it neccesary and I "politely" asked them leave our dorm room. It seemed to have worked as they soon collected their clothes and headed off. It was at this moment that we decided to stay in private rooms in the future. We had one more hostel change and found a nice quiet one, with privates and happily stayed here for the remainder of our time in Cuzco.

We spent the remainder of our time with Sammy shopping in all the hundreds of markets hidden around the city and just soaking in the atmosphere of Cuzco and enjoying our time with Sammy. We sadly said our goodbyes to Sammy who was heading off to New York before heading home to suprise her sister on her birthday. But it wasn't all bad as Steve and Charm (Kate's parents) would be arriving in two days for a couple of weeks of travelling together after not seeing them for four months!