December in Southern Peru
 

Hello all,
I've booked a trip for a week in Peru around Christmas/New Years. I have been to Cusco and Machu Picchu before, so don't intend to do them on this trip. I land at LIM at 6am on Saturday morning, and fly out just after midnight the following Saturday, January 2. Obviously I can't cover everything in a week, and the distances seem difficult.
It seems like doing Paracas area and Titicaca/Puno would be close to impossible. It seems my options are skipping Paracas and doing Arequipa/Colca/Titicaca and Lima; just doing Paracas area and Lima; or fly to Arequipa, overnight bus to Paracas and Lima. Or should I just go North?
Thanks!

Go north!
 

My suggestion would be to go north. There's a lot to see there. If you enjoyed MP you might consider going to Chachapoyas and visiting Kuelap, a pre-Hispanic mountaintop fortress that is equally spectacular and a lot less heavily trodden. Also around Chachapoyas the Gocta Falls are worth visiting.

Cajamarca is also interesting historically, for many of the same reasons that Cuzco is. And if you're really into adventure, rent a 4X4 in Cajamarca and drive to Chachapoyas. It's a spectacular and sometimes hair-raising journey.

Also of interest in the north is Trujillo. Further north are the beaches of Los Órganos, Máncora and Punta Sal. This area has a very different flavor compared to the beaches to the south of Lima.

Enjoy...

Thanks. Seems like those places are all a fair bit spread out and would be logistically difficult to cover in 5 days or so? It seems I can fly to Cajamarca from Lima, but Chachapoyas and Trujillo are both 8 to 10 hours drives in opposite directions, so i would have to pick one?

Yeah, good point. I wasn't factoring in the limited time.

If you're up for it, you could do the Cajamarca to Chachapoyas route in five days and you'd have two or three days around Chachapoyas, one day for Kuelap, one day for Gocta Falls and perhaps another day to see other sights.

That drive between Cajamarca and Chachapoyas is not for the faint of heart. It's a narrow (one lane) winding road through rugged mountainous terrain with no guard rails. Fortunately it's lightly traveled, but given how narrow the road is you still have to be very careful around blind corners (of which there are many). Spectacular but I don't recommend it unless you are experienced with backroad travel in Latin America.

The other way to get to Chachapoyas is via Jaén, which is connected to Lima via regular commercial air service. Jaén would be two or three hours (I'm guessing) by road from Chachapoyas and there are plenty of tourist shuttles that do the route.

That corner of Peru is fascinating, I highly recommend it if you can work out the logistics.