I've been quiet the past few weeks as I've been on a roller coaster of a journey. Not a physical geographical journey, but an emotional journey, as I navigated my way through the Moon Course at Las Piramides, San Marcos, Lake Atitlan. This course was the reason Central America was first on my travel itinerary when resigning from my job last year.

After a couple of relatively introspective years in 2012/2013 I had been enjoying the social side of travelling that I'd been experiencing since beginning my travels in Guatemala, and was a little apprehensive about spending a month in one spot being introspective again.

However, the moment I walked into the grounds of Las Piramides and was shown to my pyramid set amongst lush jungle vegetation, met my fellow 'moonies' and experienced our first evening of meditation in a beautiful pyramid shaped temple on the lake, I knew I was exactly where I needed to be.

The moon course is a month long course focussing on esoteric yoga, meditation and metaphysics. We covered many topics, at a high level, such as lucid dreaming, astral travelling, tarot, numerology, the tree of life and much more.

The first week was based around the element earth and the physical body. Yoga focused on detoxification and I developed a stinking cold. I usually have a cold once every few years so this was frustrating, however I observed that by having such a cloudy head, I was able to enjoy deep states of meditation where I could feel the joy bubbling up inside of me.

The following week we focussed on the element water and the emotional body. The first week had been subtle, but this was the week where things started to shift. Emotions started to come from all directions! I also did my Reiki Level 1 training this week which was a very special process shared with some of my fellow moonies.

Each week got progressively more intense! Week three was focussing on the element air and the mental body (the mental body being where we store all our belief patterns) and this was the most intense week for me. I also attended a 5 day breath course where using an ancient pranayama technique we shifted past traumas stored at a cellular level in our nervous system.

Each day we had to regress through a specific time period of our life and journal about that period. I experienced everything from anger and rage to grief for everyone I've lost in this lifetime, followed by deep sadness that lasted for several days.

Although it was intense, after years of avoiding my emotions it was very healing to be in a such a supportive environment where I could experience and sit with the dense emotions.

This breath work was incredibly powerful involving breath retentions, and although it triggered some intense feelings, it also took me to other dimensions which involved a lot of psychedelic imagery! This was the fun part! I also passed out on one occasion. Not so fun!

The final week focussed on the element fire for our spiritual body. It was also the week of our five day retreat which involved five days of silence and fasting (we were given two juices and one soup each day).

To start the retreat we were taken up to El Arka, another retreat centre up in the mountains. Getting there was a trip, we caught a boat across Lake Atitlan to Panajachel then a shuttle up into the hills. After being mainly based at Las Piramides for almost four weeks we were behaving like a bunch of rowdy teenagers! It was a lot of fun and cemented our close friendships even more.

El Arka is a beautiful baron space, in the mountains overlooking Lake Atitlan, and here we shared our last meal together before attending a ceremony in the temple where we all dedicated the consciousness generated by the retreat to those in need. Silence then commenced and we had time to meditate in the grounds before silently making our way back via shuttle and boat to San Marcos.

The retreat was beautiful. I enjoy being in silence and not being distracted by the outside world. I look forward to doing many more silence retreats in the future. We were given daily assignments to contemplate and to journal about which gave us a focus. By having less external distractions, I find time in silence enhances my awareness of the beauty around me. Lake Atitlan has an abundance of butterflies and bird life and I loved lying in the gardens at Las Piramides marvelling at all the wildlife, flowers and vegetation.

Fasting on the other hand I find a little more challenging! I have a hearty appetite and find having restricted calories leaves me very low on energy. Day one and day four were very challenging, I barely had the energy to do my assignments and would have to spend most of the day resting.

Everyone's experience of the moon course is different. Some people come and find their life purpose, for me it just confirmed I am on the right path.

If you are after a strong asana practice, you won't get it here. The yoga is very gentle and some days you barely get off your butt. We only started doing sun salutations in week four. By week three I hardly made it to yoga. This is very unlike me, usually I'm very disciplined with my yoga practice, however, I found that with all the emotions I was working through, sleep and journaling were more important.

The meditation always started off with 30 minutes silent meditation and then the last 30 minutes would either be a guided meditation, selecting oracle cards for contemplation, AUMing continuously (my favourite) or expression meditation where we had to meditate on a question then pair up with the person next to us and express ourselves in relation to the question.

So in summary, this course will not necessarily get your zen on, but it will assist you in working through your sh*t! And the people you meet, become your family. Friends for life. And as always it's the unconditional love and support from family and friends that makes life so special.

I stayed in San Marcos for another couple of weeks after the moon course finished, San Marcos is a spiritual mecca and I needed some time to get reacquainted with the outside world and have time to explore the area as well as all the healing modalities on offer.

I've completed training in breath therapy and now have the skills to teach people to breathe properly and to prevent and treat many illnesses, visited Dr Bill the infamous channeller/psychic, attended Keith the Chocolate Shaman's cacao ceremony, gotten high from a cacao/kundalini workshop (many people come to San Marcos for cacao as it helps with meditation and opening the heart chakra), explored epigenetics, chanted uplifting mantras at Kirtan, attended vegetarian and probiotic cooking workshops, climbed Indians Nose for the most breath taking sunrise, eaten lots and lots of 'grounding' food and prepared myself to move forward with the rest of my travels.

It was an intense time. The energy in San Marcos was dense, everyone was feeling it, but energies have shifted and I now feel lighter and brighter and ready for more adventures.

Until next time amigos!

Love Lili xx

After leaving Semuc Champey I headed towards Tikal. Some ancient Mayan ruins set in the jungle in the northern part of Guatemala. It was an interesting journey! First we were crammed into a tiny shuttle and a few of the other passengers appeared to be suffering from terrible hangovers. I felt for them, because some of them looked pretty green and there was not a lot of room!

Three hours into the bumpy & windy journey we got caught in a protest between a poor village and an electrical company. We were ground to a halt and ended up sitting on the side of the road for a couple of hours. In some instances this would've been a hindrance, but in this case it was really good fun! We sought shade behind a truck and quickly became friends with fellow travellers from another bus.

Given the delay in our journey, we arrived into Flores late and I'd missed the last bus to El Remate where I'd been recommended to stay (thanks Jolene!). Thankfully a fellow traveller Sophie wanted to head to El Remate too so we were able to share a taxi. Upon arriving in El Remate everyone was in the midst of a power cut so I invited Sophie to share my room and we bonded by candlelight communicating in Spanglish (her mother tongue is French).

We shared breakfast the next morning then parted ways.

That night I was invited to a Mayan ceremony where I met some shamans who had been travelling for 3 years giving ceremonies and blessings. We blessed ourselves and Mother Earth and then the following morning I was up at 2.30am to do the dawn mission to Tikal.

Walking through the jungle in the dark is magical!! I love the sound of the jungle in the night. The howler monkeys were going wild and sounded like dinosaurs. Other than the sound if the monkeys there was a sense of peace in the jungle as we explored the ruins.

After visiting Tikal I was unsure as to what my next move would be. However after a morning run around Lake Petèn Itzà I fell in love and knew that I was to stay a little longer.

I moved further around the lake to the sleepier part of El Remate, where I stayed in a very cool dorm at Mon Ami. It was a loft/tree house with big queen size beds and I had it all to myself (it made a great yoga shala too!). There were no windows, just thatched roofing and mosquito screens for windows (I'm still covered in mossie bites though), I was surrounded by lush jungle and was often woken to the sounds of howler monkeys going wild!! I spent my days running, practicing yoga, meditating, swimming, hiking, bird watching, star gazing, watching amazing sunsets and making new friends on the pier. For a few days I was in heaven!! And I felt so free. It really is one of the most magical spots I've discovered so far.

All good things must come to an end though and I'm now back in Antigua suffering from a cold! I did however climb up the Pacaya volcano yesterday where we saw lava and toasted marshmallows.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Lake Atitlan for a month of yoga and meditation.

Until next time amigos...

Love Lili xx

Hola amigos! The past few days as I've indulged in some amazing R&R in El Remate I've had plenty of time to reflect.

What has struck me most about my travels so far is how blown away I am by the kindness and thoughtfulness of everyone I've crossed paths with. These people that start off as strangers quickly become new friends, even if just for a moment, a few minutes, hours or days. Stories are told, wisdom is shared and everyone is so inspiring in one way or another.

When I first decided to travel to Central America solo I was greeted with mixed reactions. Excitement from some, fears for my safety from others. However, I knew I had 100% support from everyone.

The closer it came to my departure, I did start to feel a little anxious. But I was to feel the fear and do it anyway.

Since arriving in Guatemala I've been overwhelmed with the friendliness of the locals and other travellers. Everyone is warm and open and always eager to help. Often we communicate in Spanglish with many smiles, hand gestures and laughs and if we are still unable to communicate then someone else always comes to the rescue and helps translate.

In any situation I've come to trust that it will all work out. Even if on the outset a situation seems an inconvenience, something amazing always comes out of it! And so far everything has been perfectly imperfect.

What I'm loving the most is the broad selection of people I'm meeting. People of all ages and nationalities. All with their own life path and stories to share. I've been inspired by entrepreneurs, doctors on medical missions, a man cycling from Alaska to South America (he left Alaska in July), a translator who speaks many languages and travels the world, a retired lawyer who now builds wooden kayaks, a beautiful soul who lost her mother last year and is travelling solo for introspection, people learning Spanish just because, or to help further their careers, a parachute specialist in the army who loves that he gets paid to jump out of planes. The list is endless and I've only been travelling for a month!

Tomorrow I head to San Marcos in Lake Atitlan to begin a month long meditation retreat. It's because of this retreat that I am in Guatemala. I'm excited about who I shall meet next!

Until next time....adios.

Love Lili x