Writing on Tico Time: Memories of a Costa Rica Retreat

by Allyson Latta

I’m sitting at Juanita’s, a rustic beach-front restaurant, sipping a foamy piña colada as the departing sun drifts shades of pink over the Pacific. We arrived early to watch the sunset and for just one drink, and it was quiet then, but with the Latin-rhythmed Costa Rican music pumping from the speakers and the aroma of garlic-sizzled sea bass wafting out to the street, other patrons have been enticed and the place is filling up. Several tables draped in bold orange clothes are pushed together for our group, and looking down the line at the smiling faces of exuberantly chatting writers, I think, not for the first time, how remarkable it is that we’ve found our way to this place.

Many of us met only a week ago. And when these women and men first stepped down from the airport shuttle in front of Namaste Gardens — a small yoga retreat in Playa Herradura on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast — they were all slightly rumpled and sheened, visibly tired from travel, unsure of what to expect, and a tad shy with me and one another. One whispered to me as I showed her to her room, “I don’t want to be here,” which startled me, until I realized what she meant. She was worried about fitting in, about whether she belonged here with “real” writers.

But as a writing instructor of mine once said, and I took this to heart, “If you are writing, you’re a writer.” And everyone who’d come to Namaste Gardens Writing & Yoga Retreat was here to write. They were also here to experience a bit of Costa Rica: the rich sunsets, lively music, beaches and cuisine.

Oh yes, and “Tico time,” an extremely relaxed view of clocks and schedules subscribed to by Ticos (informal for Costa Ricans) that, depending on the circumstances, can delight travellers or drive them crazy. Trust me: delighting in it is the best way to go.

The Characters

Together we conceived the idea of a program combining writing and yoga in the belief that yoga-inspired mindfulness and restoration would feed and complement literary creativity. (It’s not a new concept. See, for example, a great blog post on the subject by JC Peters of Vancouver, “Creative Flow: How Yoga Can Spark Your Creativity.”)

The challenge: to invite a group of people, most of whom had never met, to a foreign country I’d never visited (though I speak a little Spanish), and to ensure that they were comfortable and safe and fed; that they not only wrote but felt by the end that they’d progressed in their writing; that they were entertained with a variety of activities but didn’t feel too busy; that they got along (or better, began to feel connected); and that they came away with a taste of Costa Rican culture.

“You know, Allyson, there are easier ways to host a party,” a friend of mine said after hearing my plans.

But in 2011, with the help of Tucson-based host Gail Rudyk, I had organized a writers’ retreat in Tucson, Arizona, and the year before I’d spent several weeks in Santiago, Chile, leading workshops at Susan Siddeley’s well-structured and memorable Los Parronales Writers’ Retreat. Now Costa Rica, a country I’d always dreamed of visiting, beckoned.

Four were former students from my University of Toronto SCS online course “Memories into Story.” One guest had taken workshops from me in Chile in 2010 (Los Parronales Writers’ Retreat). Another had participated in my Tucson, Arizona retreat. Some knew me through other spheres of my life, and others had found me through my website, or through Jamie. Together they represented a range of writing experience and, regardless of what writing they’d done, a range of  confidence in their abilities.

About half had never tried yoga, but they were in good company: I’d timidly begun yoga classes myself only six months earlier.

We were quite the mix, and that was the beauty of it.

The Setting

Some guests stayed at Namaste Gardens, while others had a room in one of two traditional houses, two cabinas (one-person cabins), or one modern condo, La Reserve, all clustered near the end of a quiet residential cul de sac about 20 minutes’ walk from Herradura beach and six kilometres north of the town of Jaco.

Jamie dubbed the two houses and two cabinas on wrought-iron-gated, joined properties the “retreat compound.” And that’s where we gathered on a shaded poolside patio for morning writing workshops, lunches and dinners, and most of our evening reading salons.

The Rhythm of Our Days

Mornings began leisurely with breakfast at our individual houses, usually on patios: fresh tropical fruit (papaya, bananas, watermelon, pineapple), yogurt, bread, cereal and of course earthy, rich Costa Rican coffee. Jamie’s gentle and restorative yoga practices followed at Namaste Gardens with its cool ceramic tiles, ornate plaster ceilings, and a breeze sneaking through from the back garden.

Mid-morning we met by the compound pool for writing. The joined yards offered tucked-away spots where in twos and threes writers could move off to tackle small-group exercises. The workshops combined instruction, discussion and group work, and participants were assigned ten-minute freewriting exercises to explore in solitude between workshops — a few per day.

Five evenings during the retreat we gathered after dinner for reading salons, usually outside because temperatures were much the same as those during daytime, and writers took turns volunteering to read. Whatever the theme or tone, ranging from humorous to heartwarming to heart-breaking, the results of freewriting were unexpected and often powerful.

Two guest speakers came from other parts of Costa Rica to share their insights on writing. Canadian William Deverell, who winters in Manuel Antonio, is author of seventeen books and creator of the widely syndicated television series Street Legal. He spoke to our group about his writing path, which involved breaking away from his father’s literary expectations for him (see some tips from his presentation here). Sandra Shaw Homer, who hails from the U.S. and is now a Costa Rica citizen, has penned two memoirs currently being considered by publishers. Finding her “truth” and combining it with keen observation and a clear point of view, she told us, allowed her to write more honestly and from the heart. You can read an excerpt from her talk here.

Food, Fun, Flora and Fauna

Zenejda, our talented cook, was Jamie’s lucky find. She’d recently closed down her own soda — a small street-side restaurant — and was used to catering to a crowd. She arrived each mid-afternoon, graciously declined writer Rick’s daily proposal of marriage, and then set to work over massive cooking pots to produce traditional meals (casado): rice and beans along with meat or fish, fresh salads and, often, pan-crisped tortilla chips or plantain. One night she barbecued whole fish, another she treated us to ceviche (fresh fish marinated in fresh lime juice and spices). We soon became fans not only of Zenejda but of Salsa Lizano, a traditional (popular since the 1920s), slightly sweet and spicy Costa Rican sauce. At our farewell dinner, we gave a beaming Zenejda a standing ovation.

Costa Rican jungle and wildlife was all around us, in the backyards and during excursions to Manuel Antonio National Park (or Isla Tortuga, for those of us who’d already been to Manuel Antonio) and Carara National Park: monkeys, sloths, iguanas, tree frogs and more. Those who took a day trip by catamaran to Isla Tortuga were excited to see dolphins skimming alongside. About twenty minutes’ drive from Namaste Gardens was the Rio Tarcoles, with its toothy crocodiles, safely viewable — thank goodness — from a high bridge.

Christine was the only one to spy her “Literary Iguana,” who showed up by the compound pool in the early morning, but she was smart enough to snap a photo to prove it.

Alchemy and the Element of Surprise

What I enjoy most about workshops and retreats is encouraging writers to come out of themselves. But the alchemy is as much about the group, sharing experiences and thoughts in a warm and supportive environment, as anything I do or say or teach. I don’t expect I’ll ever tire of watching it happen.

Participants are often amazed that they’re actually writing (a lot) and reading their work to others (at least a little), and amazed, too, at listeners’ responses to their stories, at the power of their language even in unpolished freewriting. There’s no question that the universal themes that emerge quickly bring people together.

“I made people laugh and cry with things I wrote! People that I didn’t know, and they reacted to my writing,” one participant wrote me later.

Many found the exercises, a perhaps demanding thirty in all, led them in unexpected directions — and that’s as should be. Robert Frost’s oft-quoted line “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader” is completed by “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”

Through the exercises, a number of writers — including me — found that what we poured onto the page was quite different from what we’d planned to write about. For some, this changed, or expanded, our writing focus. One writer realized that a childhood activity she hadn’t thought of in some time had touched her more profoundly than she’d known. Others, based on one Character exercise, wrote moving profiles. Several, each using a different exercise, wrote revealingly about a loved one and decided to share their work with that person when they got home. One writer used cluster technique and developed a concept for a book based on tales of an ancestor. One humorous piece led to unexpected revelations about the childhood “inner thief” in all of us. (But what happens in Costa Rica stays in Costa Rica.)

Some writers furthered, in one way or another, manuscripts in progress ranging from memoir to family history to fiction. Not everyone arrived with a major WIP or left with one, but everyone wrote, and thought about writing, and discussed writing, and most important, came away with a notebook full of ideas — new writing (and reading) trails to explore. And that’s what it was about.

More than one writer later described the retreat as therapeutic, which was not one of its promoted goals, though it often happens. “In a way it felt like a healing journey,” said one, “to hear other people’s pain and insight, to share my own….”

On our last night together, a woman who had shared only once before with the group volunteered to read last. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and read a poignant prose poem she’d written that morning, an unexpected and heartfelt twist on one of the assigned exercises. In it she offered life advice, some of it funny, some wise, to her sister’s newborn. By the time she was done, there were no dry eyes.

I never know where the writing in these retreats will lead those who take part, or me as a writer or instructor for that matter. The surprises along the way, and the tears and laughter, are part of the adventure.

Acknowledgements

And a special thanks to driver Jonathan and his cousin Gloriana (whose mom owns the fabulous Wahoos Restaurant in Jaco) for making the vacation part of my stay in Costa Rica so carefree — especially for sharing their favourite snorkelling spot, and introducing us to Lorita, their cheeky green parrot.