Peru Itinerary

The wife and I sketched out the rest of our Peru travels over lunch the other day.  It was probably the most planning we have done for this trip since we decided on which countries to visit.  We are posting it here so that our parents can quench their thirst for Google Earth, although others may find it interesting as well (anyone want to make last minute plans to meet us?).  The schedule will still be flexible, but as of now it looks like this:

• December 23-27:  Spending Christmas in a lodge in the Cordillera Blanca, the world's highest tropical mountain range.  I've also seen claims that it's the world's second highest mountain range after the Himalayas, although there are a handful of higher peaks in the Patagonia, so I'm not sure where that nugget comes from.  The range contains sixteen peaks higher than 6,000m.  In comparison, Mt. McKinley in Alaska in North America's only peak greater than 6,000m.  The lodge where we are staying sits in the shadow of Huascarán, Peru's tallest mountain at 6,768m.
• December 28-30:  Lima.  We actually don't have that much interest in the capital city, but we need to break up the long bus ride from the north to the south.
• December 31 - January 1:  Pisco.  Bringing in the New Year with pisco sours.
  
• January 2-4:  Huacachina, an oasis surrounded by giant sand dunes.  This is primarily a backpacker town, so we don't plan on spending too much time here.
  
• January 5-11:  Arequipa and Canyon Country.  Peru's second largest city and the world's two deepest canyons (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon): Colca and Cotahuasi.
  
• January 12-23:  Cusco/Sacred Valley/Inca Trail to Machu Picchu/Amazon jungle.  This is the part of the Peru itinerary that still needs the most work.  We know we'll visit Machu Picchu, but are still uncertain about hiking the Inca Trail.  We'd love to make the trek, but the standard routes cost more than I'd like to pay and I've heard that they are not necessarily good values.  There are some alternate routes which may be cheaper, and we're in the process of exploring them.  We've also decided that we will definitely make a trip into the jungle.  I had wanted to do a guided tour that goes overland from the Andes into the Amazon Basin, going through the cloud forest, but we'll be there in the middle of the rainy season, which renders the roads impassable.  Instead, we'll likely fly into Puerto Maldonado and take a boat up one of the rivers to a lodge.
  
• January 25-28:  Lake Titicaca (simmer down, children).  The city of Puno will be the launching point to the islands in the world's highest navigable lake.  How is "navigable" defined?  Probably in such a way that makes Lake Titicaca the world's highest navigable lake.  Regardless, it is supposed to be a fascinating place for both its indigenous culture and scenery.
  
• January 29:  Tacna, where we will take a train into Chile.