Lima is the capital of Peru, established in the 16th century after the Spanish conquest, replacing Cusco, capital of the Incas. It has more than 7 million inhabitants and frankly, it's downright chaotic and charmless, dirty and depressing.
La Catedral in the central plaza of Lima
Actually that is not entirely true. The suburb of Miraflores (below) is surprisingly pleasant and reminded us of the KL suburbs of Damansara Utama or Bangsar, and is well-worth a stroll. It has that added plus of being next to the beaches and the Pacific Ocean.
A new hotel going up in Miraflores
The landscape outside of Lima southwards towards Ica & Nazca, however, is starkly different from the oasis that is Lima. On our 4 hour bus ride to Ica, all we could see around us were the scorching desert and parched lands.
On the way from Ica to Nazca, the landscape changed again, becoming rockier and the arid plains were replaced by what YL described as "moonscape". I was transfixed by the sense of doom that hung in the air accompanying the desolate, dark and devastated land (see above & below). 
The Nazca pampa, seen from the air
So it was a good thing, then, for a change of mood, that we decided to go for a sand buggy adventure at the Huacachina Lagoon near Ica. The sand dunes of Huacachina are huge - some as high as 200m - and spread over a large area - 17km, if I remember correctly. 
And yes, the buggies go EXTREMELY fast. That's me hanging on to all my posessions while trying to avoid eating more sand than I should be. I can still feel the sensation of sand gritting in my teeth now.
We tried sand surfing, kinda like toboganning, but in sand, obviously. It's exhilirating, to say the least!
Those little white bubbles are not fancy effects to make YL look more sporty, but - you guessed it - sand, in my camera lens. 
The sand dunes of Huacachina
The best preserved mummy found in the Chauchilla cemetery, 30km outside of Nazca. You can still see her hair, nails and even left breast and nipple
The dead were mummified and buried with their posessions in these underground graves in the parched, rocky, sandy plains outside of Nazca. Grave robbers dug them up in the 1920's and after carting away the gold and other precious metals, scattered the bones and mummies across the area. A local archaeologist stepped in and secured the area to prevent further desecration.
The depressions you see in the ground are likely to be more underground graves yet to be excavated due to lack of funding. Only the 12 graves that were looted are opened to the public.The highlight of any trip to Nazca is undoubtedly to see the Nazca lines made over 1,000 years ago by displacing the darkened stones on the desert to form patterns that were so large they can only be viewed from the air. So why did they make them? As a form of water worship? As indication of underground water sources? As a giant astronomical agricultural calendar? As landing strips for aliens?
Who was the intended audience? God? Aliens? Were their civilisation so advanced they could build flying machines to see what they were drawing? The theories to answer the above questions ranged from common sense to the incredulous. Each is plausible, given that there are no written records of these people and therefore nothing much is known about them.
That is the fascinating thing about Peru - there is so much unknown about the civilisations that existed there prior to the Spanish conquest that ANYTHING is possible. I do believe that they were rather advanced, as attested by the achievements of its last great civilisation, the Incas (more on this in another post).
Getting ready to board our 6-seater plane to fly over the Nazca plains to see the lines.
View of the whale and astronaut from our airplane. Why whale? Nazca lies miles from the ocean. Similarly, there were pictures of monkeys, which can only be found in the jungles miles and miles away. There is even a pattern of a human with large eyes, known locally as the astronaut. More intriguing are the perfectly straight lines zig-zaging and criss-crossing the entire plains. What are *they* for?
Clinging onto the observation tower hovering high above part of the Nazca lines. You can make out the outline of a pair of hands in the background. 
They also eat them, as demonstrated by this villager.
Almost all structures on the man-made island are made from totora reeds. This is one of more than 20 floating islands of the Uros people.
They use solar panels donated by the government to generate electricity for light domestic use.
A cross section of the totora reed. They are very absorbent, and so the ground of the islands are spongy and soft.
Outside view of Martin's house & garden
Dinner time at Martin's home. At night, the family huddles in the kitchen warmed by the stove and a single kerosene lamp, listening to the radio.
Dressed up in the local costumes, ready for an evening of dance & music. To make up for the lack of entertainment, the villagers organised an evening dance party for guests of the island.
View of Lake Titicaca from Isla Amantani in the late afternoon 
Dissatisfied with the self-inflicted torture of hiking 4 days on the Inca Trail a few days earlier, we decided to climb up the highest point on the Isla Amantani at 4,100m. Up there, YL & I did our own little ceremony to thank Pachamama (Mother Earth). As the sun gradually disappeared and evening set in, the wind turned unbelievably cold, and I remember thinking that my fingers have not felt so frozen for a long time. (Hence this picture is not so much of us trying to look lovey-dovey than trying to keep warm.)
This girl was the daughter of the proprietor of a local restaurant where we ate lunch.
