I spent the first 6 weeks of the year in Lima, with a few weekends elsewhere. It was entertaining, but it won't be the first city I return to.
Lima was the hub of my trip, and where I stayed by far the longest. Puno and Nazca were both weekend jaunts from here.
The main local interesting architecture was religious, either Catholic or pre-contact. The Lima Cathedral was one of my first visits, and is to the best of my knowledge the remaining cathedral with a wooden ceiling in the world!
There were still some more modern buildings that stood out, like the Lima Department of Education's tower of books.
The Museo Larco was also a highlight, with a large collection of pre-contact ceramics, textiles, and funerary goods. I was surprised that a private museum had such a large and high quality collection, and strongly enjoyed the on-site restaurant.
Sunsets were spectacular, but the beach was... Nonexistent. Don't go to Lima expecting easy ocean access.
The food in Lima was generally very good, with a lot of variety and a significant number of michelin starred locations.
The pre-contact architecture was unfortunately not nearly as impressive as that of Cuzco, Macchu Picchu, or the other pre-contact Incan ruins within the country. The Temple of the Sun, Huaca Pucllana, and Huallamarca were squat and not particularly impressive, partly because their colors were nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding desert.
I did get to do some interesting day trips, including one where we swam with sea lions - more entertaining than I thought it would be!
But eventually I had to leave, and took a last look at the cats and the sunset. The mountains on the flight home were a pretty good indication that I wasn't going to be enjoying quite so warm of weather back in Michigan!
Puno was my first excursion from Lima, and I was able to spend a long weekend on lake Titicaca.
The town itself had some interesting churches, but of course the main draw is the lake itself - the highest navigable lake in the world.
I took a boat tour of the lake, and there were some truly spectacular views. The Uros floating islands were also on the itinerary, but I cannot honestly say I came away impressed. A thousand years ago the living conditions would have been harsh but not dramatically worse than the alternatives. Today, that's not really the case.
Before my flight back to Lima, I was able to tour the Sillustani burial towers. They were rather ruined, but the construction was still impressive and the views of the surrounding countryside were spectacular. Sunscreen was a necessity though, as I think the UV index was 12 for most of this segment - 12,000 ft altitude really doesn't help when you're that close to the equator! That same altitude is probably what made the skies so vibrant, of course.
Pisco was just a stopover on the way to Nazca, but I was able to see the Paracas and Islas Ballestas National Reserves. The landscape of the Paracas reserve was stark and beautiful, with the candelabra geoglyph being a highlight.
Of course, the reason we got in a boat was to see the islands - full of seabirds, penguins, and arches.
Huacachina is the only natural oasis in the Americas, and it was a great place to relax. The dunes were spectacular, and I was able to take a dune buggy tour and sandboard down the dunes.
Does anyone ever mention how large the Nazca lines are? Not the size of the largest figures (which are all triangles and the like, by the way - the famous figures are all small), but the lines that make up the famous figures. I thought it was going to be a few feet. It's more like 6 inches.
On that note, there's really two ways to see the lines. The first is to climb a tower up a few stories and look down. This works pretty well for one or two figures at a time, but you obviously can't move around easily to see more.
The other major way is via plane. If you get airsick - and I don't mean get airsick easily, I mean if you get airsick at all - don't do this. The planes are small (single-engine props!), it's at low altitude over a very hilly desert, and the entire point is to bank hard and do circles over the figures. There were also weight limits that I only barely fit within - 200lb isn't a lot for someone of my height!
But, if you can stomach all that, you can get some good views! Just keep in mind that the photos of the figures themselves are at 10x zoom - they're not that big and you're not that close.
As a final note, if you do want to go to Nazca from Lima, just fly. Don't take a bus trip. You don't hate yourself that much.