You’ve been on the path for a while. You’ve learned how not to trash or abandon yourself when the outside world, struggles or even your emotional landscape have turned dark and difficult. You’ve learned to practice an honoring of your choices. Days built with intention, giving to yourself. Compassion for what you’ve healed from and a drive to create more for yourself in this life.

You feel glimpses of beauty at times, so grand that it’s like you’d stop breathing if you felt it for too long. But you feel ready for those glimpses to grow into a grand vista. The vista of Your Own Camino.

“Your Camino” translates more or less to “Your Spiritual Path”

People have been going on spiritual pilgrimages since ancient times. The source of this drive is a hope for understanding. A return to something that feels lost. A sense of fullness, and maybe even a drive to be cracked open to see what’s darkness is left. People are called to these types of trips to release the past. To understand the why of it all, curiously look to what’s behind what is scary.

The theme of this retreat came to me in 2024. It’s when I found a deeper connection to my own camino. During that time I was creating the plans, dead set on the idea that I was going to walk the Camino of Santiago in Portugal. That summer I started researching for my trip, the route I’d take, what I needed to bring. I had wanted to do this since I really learned about it back in 2015. It was a journey I told myself I’d do someday. And then cancer happened, healing happened. And I felt so ready to do this journey. It felt as though if I didn’t do it now, it would never happen, I’d miss my chance to go on this spiritual pilgrimage of solitude and prayer. Of connection to spirit.

But then, things shifted. By January of 2025 I was called to visit Medellin, Colombia. And though I was still planning my summer trip to Portugal, I knew I was to go to Medellin in March so that I could organize the retreat for fall of 2025. I had no expectations for this trip. I thought I was going there to connect the dots and plan ahead. But, what ended up finding me was my camino.

I booked my stay at Mountains of Hope, a beautiful retreat center that had been recommended by a friend of my dad's in the business world. I talked to my dad’s friend on the phone and he told me what a beautiful place it was, how the staff was welcoming and he said, they’ll “take really good care of you.”

I didn’t realize that it meant so much more than just hospitality. Upon arrival at this place, I was welcomed by dim light, luxurious bedding, and in the morning with the most idilic spread of organic food, teas and some of the best high vibrational water I’ve had in my life. In planning this, I decided this could be the right environment to try a plant medicine ceremony.

I had never done anything like this, and with my experiences in meditation and the abilities that came through, I was never called. I agreed to myself, that I was okay with reaching higher states of consciousness solely through breath, through meditation, through dedication.

But something told me, the environment is right. Try it.

I wasn’t attached, I didn’t have fear about what might happen. I’d been through so much in my life that I didn’t feel that there was anything worse that would come than what I’d lived through. And survived.

The day came to do the ceremony and I did start to get nervous. All old fears came over me that morning, jittery anxiety and I knew to hold it within myself. This was part of the process, to feel every range of emotion, part of the dance of life. Sometimes we miss the rhythm, and I knew that my nervous morning was just a part of it. Doing this was no joke.

I dressed in white and was told to arrive in a big spacious room with huge windows and a fireplace in the wall at 8 or 9 pm. I was met by 8 men, all shamans by trade, lineage and carriers of this ancestral medicine. There presence brought me to a sense of reverence and respect for the path that was laid out for each of them.

They showed me the way. I drank the plant medicine without expectation. My experience was mild in a way. From what I’d heard I was going to be shown visions, and for me, none of that happened. I purged, running to the bathroom more times than I could count. At times I felt sleepy, but no dreams came to me. I was used to having visions all the time. So, I knew that I was meant to learn something with my eyes open. At one point one of the shamans helped me as I walked, guiding me to slow down.

Slow down. Walk slower.

That’s why I was there. It wasn’t visions, it wasn’t about what I thought it might be, it was about walking. It was about realizing that the long walk that I’d been ‘planning’ to go to Portugal, to walk with myself for 14 days straight wasn’t necessary anymore. Though the darkness of that night, until sunrise I practiced walking slower. And that was my experience. That was the wisdom that ‘mama Aya’ (mother ayahuasca) came to teach me.

As the sun rose, I went off to shower and we all gathered for breakfast. I felt so connected to these group of people. Wisdom keepers who learned about me, my abilities and even asked for ‘scans’ around the breakfast table. Their eyes in awe of my abilities, I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be. They said goodbye and said the words, “bien camino.”

That is the greeting that is used at the Camino of Santiago. It is the same phrase that is said to honor the journey of the seeker. It means to walk the path of someone in alignment with spirit.

I didn’t need to go the way I thought, to find the pilgrimage, the camino came to me.

I’m opening this retreat because I know that there is much curiosity into the world of ancient shamans, plant medicine, and what exists beyond.

This is a unique retreat among the many other HYFI Retreats that have and will be offered. Those who will facilitate the plant medicine journey are the special group of Shamans who came to play music for us and offer insights at the 2025 Colombia retreat. These are pure people, with a lot of experience in guiding plant medicine ceremonies. We will be at the Mountains of Hope, staying and taken care of at the highest caliber.

I will be there with you during the ceremony, not taking the plant medicine so that I can be there to support you and hold a sense of safety, translation, and support.