There’s a photo on our bedroom wall that Mark and I
took from the top of a mountain in Guatemala fifty years ago. We’d confidently hiked there using a bogus
map with camping equipment fashioned from shopping bags, planning to walk one
day to Lake Atitlan on the other side. It was the kind of thing we did during the
nine years that we travelled as much as possible and worked on
ly enough to keep
moving. The photograph shows what we
discovered: the lake was two more
mountains away. Over the next 5 days we
followed rising smoke from one Mayan village to another seeking water and food
and talking about our future.
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| Porta Hotel courtyard. |
When I heard about Joyce Maynard’s one-week memoir writing retreat at Lake Atitlan, I knew that was the story I wanted to revisit. The trip began in Antigua where I joined a group of 14 other women for dinner. The luxurious Porta Hotel demonstrated how far the tourist infrastructure has improved since my last visit but the curvy, bumpy roads to the lake the next day showed what hasn’t changed. After a short boat ride we pulled up to Joyce’s dock and were greeted by a marimba band. Our happy group danced.
Joyce and me.
Joyce Maynard has written over 20 books and has
contributed to newspapers and magazines since she was a teen ager. Her career took off after she wrote an essay
for the New York Times, “An Eighteen Year
Old Looks Back on Life” and she gained notoriety for her book “At Home in the World” about her
relationship with JD Salinger. Two of
her books, To Die For and Labor Day have been turned into
movies. Throughout two marriages, she
has supported her family by writing, never having “the luxury of writer’s
block”, she says. “I am endlessly interested
in hearing women’s stories,” she told us. Using a large white board and her arsenal of
tools, Joyce led us to dissect each essay. First
of all what exactly is the story? It should move like a road trip: start
somewhere and get somewhere. “I used
to…and now I…” she kept repeating. She
decries adverbs, and interpretive language.
We were prompted to add more descriptions, edit out needless dialogue
and never to underestimate the intelligence of our reader by explaining
everything. It was a tough lesson. Some were told to start completely over. I’d been confident in my essay but it didn’t
survive her scrutiny. “I’m giving you
such a hard time! But that’s because I know you can do better.” She was right. I worked hard on the rewrite and the story is
much better. (see finished essay “Solo Para Conocer” in another blog post.)
It’s clear that Joyce has a genuine reverence for the
culture. Everyone who works at Casa
Paloma is local and paid well. “I don’t
want to pay the people here as bargain basement workers but I couldn’t have
built this place in the US.” she said. Each day began with a description of its
significance on the Mayan calendar. There
was a cacao ceremony and a shaman’s ritual about choosing happiness. Local women gave us massages. We toured a
nearby town to learn about medicinal herbs, bee keeping, coffee roasting, dying
and weaving. A fisherman paddled by to
talk about his life and the changing ecology of the lake. 
Rosa fed us sumptuously
and taught us about cacao.
I spent each day absorbed in stories: the trajectory of my life upon returning to Lake Atitlan, the intimate insights from the other essays, the mystical Mayan customs, the history and nature that surrounded us. Joyce has built such a remarkable place. It’s clear to see why so many who come call the retreat one of the most meaningful weeks of their writing lives.
If You Go:
https://casapalomaretreat.com/
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| The view from my casita. |
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