DAY 71: I was up by seven o'clock in the morning to see Lara off before she left with her transport to her 4-day/3-night trek to Machu Picchu -- a trek I had already done in 2001. It was her goal to ring in 2004 by entering the "lost" city of the Incas on the morning of New Year's Day. She left the hostel by 8 a.m. with her new fleece, the cheesy water bottle holder I got her for Christmas and rations of Twix bars and Oreos.

ALONE AGAIN, I spent my last day in Cusco running errands before leaving on a night bus to Arequipa. I did my laundry and settled my hostel tab and stocked up on the most important thing on the backpacker trail, toilet paper -- known simply by The Ohio Boys and campers worldwide as "T.P."

Since I had checked out of my hostel, I needed a place to crash for the day, so I decided to give South American Explorers one last chance to impress me.

SOUTH AMERICAN EXPLORERS, founded not in South America but Ithaca, NY, USA, was established to help travellers in South America with suggestions, tips and member ratings on routes and tour companies. I had joined SAE in Quito, Ecuador thinking it was a good idea, but ever since then it didn't seem to be worth the $40 membership fee.

In the Galapagos, my membership card didn't give me the discounts and free hotel stays I had anticipated. In Lima -- after switching addresses on me to a completely different town -- they were clueless when I asked for simple directions. In their third and final office in Cusco, they were closed when I initially tried to visit. In fact, the only time SAE really helped me out was when I was lost in Quito with an explosive case of diarrhea and used their nearby toilet before I made a really nasty brown Pollack painting on the sidewalk.

Personally, I found SAE's strategy to have members look up their provided information very similar to -- if not exactly the same as -- just looking up information in a guide book. Without much of their help thus far, I had just discovered things on my own -- the essence of adventure travel in the first place.

SOUTH AMERICAN EXPLORERS' Cusco office was down the block from where I had the Two Women With The Llama flip me the bird two days before. I rang the bell and they buzzed me in through the door, revealing their beautiful multi-level house with a courtyard, lounge area, kitchen, office, map room, library, roof terrace (photo above) -- even a sign that stated the known truth, "Germans Love David Hasselhof."

They didn't have to do much more -- they had me at "Hasselhof."

SAE workers Debbie from the UK and Ross from the USA led me around the house tour and asked if I needed anything specific.

"No, I just need a place to crash for the day and work on my laptop," I said.

"Wow, you're one of the easy members," Ross said. I already knew what to expect out of my membership.

ROSS SET ME UP at a desk overlooking the red rooftops of Cusco and I plugged in my iBook and hooked up my digital video camera and still camera -- I felt like I was in some sort of digital lifestyle ad for Sony and Apple. Although there are high-speed internet cafes with internal memory card readers, microphones and headsets on nearly every block in Cusco, I wanted to use my own equipment to extract that rendition of "Y.M.C.A" I had a traditional Andean band learn and play for me -- my hostel had no electrical outlets. I spent the afternoon in the room as a light rain sprinkled over the city.

Over the course of the afternoon, new and old SAE members came and went, including a girl from Holland looking up recommendations and two college boys from New York City needing a place to hang out in their five-week stay in Cusco. I met another British couple in the lounge room who turned me onto a possible cool place to be for New Year's, as the smell of fresh baked cookies filled the room. Someone was baking fresh chocolate cookies for the members and I couldn't resist but partake in one.

Although not worth the $40 in my mind, SAE redeemed itself with my first bite. That and the fact that I got to use their toilet to take a dump yet again.

TO KILL TIME BEFORE MY BUS, I did my blog duties in an internet cafe as the Incan rain gods brought forth torrential downpours all over the city -- not that the locals in the cafe playing StarCraft with headsets ever noticed. I took the suggestion of Blog Reader Sara and checked out Los Perros, a fancy lounge bar with couches and candles, yet another one of Cusco's establishments to cater to the modern and hip sectors of the Western World. It was pretty early for any sort of "scene" and hardly anyone was around, so I just got a beer and went out for dinner. I got my bags, hopped in a taxi and then my bus, which took me through the mountains under the night sky.

All the friends I had made in Cusco -- Lara the Tomb Raider; Tony and Adam, The Ohio Boys; the fabulous Simon and Rich; the young'uns Dustin and Georgie; Brian the Texan; Sue, Axel and Simion from the jungle -- had all moved on, and it was time for me to move on myself, to discover new things and meet new people.

ATTENTION USERS SINCE DECEMBER 14, 2003: We are experiencing technical difficulties with the links to the other sections of TheGlobalTrip.com. It's not just supposed to go to the home page with my portrait -- there's plenty more, including this "Would You" slideshow that everyone raves about. Stay tuned and sorry for the inconvenience!!!