I remember all nine full moons from my adventures in South America, where I was and whom I was with. I’m no astrologer but there’s something special about the moon, especially when it’s full and shining down on you. The night is no longer dark and the moon in your sites again reminds you of its constant presence with each cycle it makes.
They say at full moon is when we experienced heightened emotions (just think of the allegory of the werewolf on the full moon). Which may explain why I still so passionately remember those lunar moments on the road.
Taking time to stop and look at the moon, does just that, it makes you slow down. Travelling can be fast paced and tiring, always taking in new places, smells, flavours and faces. Let the moon become a part of your travels and memories to take a moment and just be. Here are my favourite full moon moments:
Palo Buque, Iquique | Full Moon | 16th September 2016
T he moon rose over the sand dunes of the Atacama desert at what felt like exactly 180 degrees to the setting sun in the West over the Pacific. A perfect balance of the sun and the moon mirroring each other, day and night present at once. It sounds poetic and really it was. With some of my closest family around me and people I would soon realise were as close to family as a friend could become, we observed the beautiful moon rising round and full above us. We stopped for just a small amount of time to watch the clouds drift over the moon before getting back into the action of paragliding.
Deciding to get closer to the moon, we floated up into the sky on our paragliders circling the sand dunes below. Whilst the thought of paragliding often sparks ideas of adrenaline, moments in the air are calm, almost to the point of meditation. Your mind can’t be anywhere but in the present and in that moment I felt myself floating between the moon and the sun, feeling grateful to experience such beauty in this world.
Pichilemu, Chile | Full Super Moon | 14th November 2016
I n Pichilemu, a small surfer town just a few hours South of Santiago, the month of November brought a super moon – where the moon is closer to the earth and rises in the sky looking fuller.
I distinctly remember sitting on a rock at Punta de Lobos with two new friends from the hostel. From one moment to the next the moon had appeared to the north of the bay over the headland and as promised, looked like giant in the sky, as if our moon had been replaced by that of another planets.
We watched the moon and the surfers until the sun slipped behind the horizon and the Antarctic wind from the South felt unbearably cold on our faces. That night later ended with one of the best nights out of my travels at the local club, Waitara, filled with skaters, surfers and nomads alike. Maybe it was the large amounts of alcohol or the pull from the moon making us party like wild animals.
Canaan de Rivas, Costa Rica | Full Moon | 10th February 2017
The jungle has the blackest dark at night. No lights from the street penetrate through the thick leaves, making getting around with out a torch a hazard, except when its full moon.
At around 6.30PM the moon, without fail, will rise over Chirripo, the highest peak in Costa Rica, and illuminate the valley that lies below.
On this moon I emerged out of the celebrations of the night under a beautifully lit sky of constellations to find myself in ore of the beauty of what this planet gives to us. The jungle was dark yet so vibrant in the moonlight, the path home illuminated by nature and in the soft light everything felt so calm. All it takes is some time to stop and look for yourself and you can start to see the beauty.
