Thank goodness for breaks in between teaching months. This time it was a 6 day one - mucho gracias Easter! You didn't have to ask us twice to pack our bags and plan an adventure.

The Nazca Lines were calling …..

What are they you ask? Just the most legendary and mysterious ancient UNESCO heritage site in the world!

The 'lines' are a series of drawings (or glyphs), etched into the parched desert plateau of Nazca between 200 BC and 600 AD. They were created by scraping a layer of iron oxide off the dry desert floor. Thanks to the consistently dry climate, these images of animals and geometric shapes, have lasted for well over 1,500 years. The glyphs are huge and stretch across nearly 520 square kilometres.

The 'mystery' part is not so much about how this ancient civilisation made these giant pictures? Although that is remarkable in itself. But the mystery is more about why they did it.

They didn't have access to planes like we do today, and yet the lines can only be seen fully from the sky. So why create them?

The most logical theory is they were designed to be walked along, as part of ancient ceremonies to worship the gods. Which would mean the shapes were only meant to be seen by the gods themselves, not human eyes. Of course, the other option, that's not quite so logical but a hell of a lot more fun to think about …. is that they were communicating with aliens.

Whatever the reason it makes for a fascinating 30-minute flight!

It starts well. Perfect take off in perfect weather. Happy and chatty pilots. Excited passengers. 8 minutes into the 30 minute flight and it's a whole other story. What they don't tell you is that once you get to the actual lines, the tiny little plane tilts from side to side to ensure tourists seated on both sides of the plane get good photo opportunities. This results in a great deal of motion sickness and eventually a point where these historic wonders pale in insignificance to how you are feeling. As the pilot announces, 'and coming up on the right ladies and gentlemen is the hummingbird' all you can think is 'please dear god, let this be the last glyph'.

It isn't.

I was determined not to let how I was feeling take over though, so I just focused on life outside the window, breathing deeply and completely ignoring my friends and fellow passengers who were also struggling. Such a terrible comrade. Desperately glad I hadn't eaten anything yet, I took snap after snap, unable to really focus on what I was photographing but hoping like hell I had captured some part of the lines at least! By the time we coordinated photos from all 4 of us afterwards, we had successfully captured each of the lines. Phew.

My advice to fellow travellers wanting to experience this; get the first flight out in the morning and don't eat anything beforehand. While I was delighted to have seen these amazing creations, as they may not be around forever, it's certainly not a trip I would ljump to do again.

The fragility and vulnerability of these ancient geoglyphs is always under threat. When you think about how shallow and simply they have been built if, thanks to climate change, there is an unseasonal downpour or high winds in the area, these icons will be destroyed within minutes. Not to mention idiots like an exceptionally stupid truck driver, who at the start of this year drove over a section of the lines with his 18-wheeler, leaving deep tracks across 3 of the geoglyphs.

Climate change sux. And some humans are idiots.

Well, after such a high (excuse the pun) how do we fill up the rest of the day with cool stuff?

We head off on a tour of the Chauchilla Cemetery of course. Yes, another cemetery visit - this one is like nothing I have seen before though! Its full of very well-preserved mummy's.

These ancient pre-Incan people, were placed in the foetal position and wrapped in burial cloth. If the exposed coffins at the Arequipa cemetery sent a shudder down my spine, these 1,000-year-old exposed and decayed bodies, some with hair, teeth and soft tissue still intact, was a whole new sensation. (Lushy - you'd have hated it! ) The photos you will see in this blog look fake. They look fake to me and I was there taking them! It looks more like I was on some Hollywood movie set but I swear to you on all the dead people in all the cemeteries I have seen over the years ….. they are real and untouched photographs. (Small disclosure: don't flick through them while you're sitting down to eat breakfast or dinner )

The cemetery was discovered in the 1920's well after valuable possessions from the tombs were plundered by many grave robbers. It has since been restored and is now protected by the Peruvian government, which is pretty cool. The cemetery itself did feature in one of the Indian Jones movies (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) so it is a little famous. Due to the dry desert climate and the resin the bodies were painted with as part of their burial ritual, they are remarkably well preserved.

While I loved wandering around this place with our guide, learning all sorts of interesting stuff, I felt conflicted. It was incredibly melancholy looking into the decayed eyes of these 1,000-year-old humans who were never supposed to be exposed again to this world, following their death. Was I being intrusive? Was this a tourist attraction gone wrong? On the other hand, if I wasn't there, captivated and intrigued by these ancient people, would they be held in such high regard? Would the government have protected the site and paid for restoration? Would my guide have such pride and passion in his voice as he talked about his ancestors if he could not show tourists like me around?

I did again find it frustrating too not knowing anything about the people I was intruding in on; who were they? Were they male or female? Where did they sit in the tribe hierarchy? How old were they? What job did they do in the community? Who loved them? What awful things did they see in their lifetime? Were they happy?

Another cemetery with more questions than answers. I really should stop going to these places!

Following the cemetery, our guide took us to a pottery and textile workshop where we learned about ancient Inca methods of producing housewares and clothing. The items made out of the rocks nearby their home are polished using a simple ancient formula of rubbing sodalite crystals on your skin and then transferring those natural oils to the pottery - miraculously turning it from a matt to glossy finish. Much more organic than all those chemicals we use nowadays! And it lasts forever. One of the photos you will see in this blog is of us holding 2,000-year-old clay bowls. I wonder whose skin oils are on them?? One of the mummies I just spent the afternoon admiring?? That's kind of freaky to think about …..

Our time is up in Nazca and so we head to the desert oasis of Huacachina (pronounced waka-chena) for 2 days of rest and relaxion. This place is located nearby the city of Ica and is famous for its insanely high sand dunes and one of the hottest and driest climates in the world. Just 1 inch of rainfall here a year. Glad I bought SPF!

The city of Ica was founded in 1563 by the Spanish, of course. It made headlines in 2007 as it was very close to the epicentre of an 8.1 earthquake that killed 519 people and destroyed over 58,000 houses.

The oasis, Huacachina, is a few minutes' drive from Ica and whole other world. It's a very mystical place and I could quite easily have stayed there for a week. The legend of the oasis is that a beautiful Inca princess was brushing her hair one day when she saw a huntsman in her mirror, watching her. Startled she dropped her mirror and ran off. The mirror crashed to the ground and shattered, creating the body of water. And the folds of her robes as she ran away created the sand dunes. To this day it is believed the princess became a Siren (or mermaid) and lives in the waters of the oasis, calling to swimmers via a sweet song each full moon. Many of the locals from Ica and the surrounding area, believe the waters and mud have healing properties and come to bathe regularly and heal their ailments.

While we didn't swim in the oasis, we did all find the place to have a strong mystical energy about it. And we all felt very relaxed, centred and at peace here (of course, some of that may have had to do with the cocktail happy hours we partook in …)

I found this break away to be a big few days, not so much physically but mentally. Visiting these incredible sites. Immersed in the rich deep history of this bizarre land and its remarkable people.

It's true what they say … travel is a great teacher.