Too old for the backpack and not ready for the tour bus, I became a statistic in the latest vacation trend – traveling with a purpose. 

Eager to improve my skill as a travel writer, I surfed the Internet for a course that would give me a learning experience and a holiday. That was how I found myself in the historic city of Antigua, in magical mysterious Guatemala, living in an utterly charming house with a flower filled garden as a participant in Art Workshops of Guatemala.

Our headquarters were in a huge house, that Liza Fourre, a native of Minneapolis and the laid back CEO of the workshops, rents from a Guatemalan family. The house is hidden behind a heavy wood door, with a big brass knocker just off the main street. It is one of those family houses that visitors to a country seldom have a chance to visit, unless they know an owner. The extra large dining room table seated all 18 of us. The photography group, the beaders, who made intricate patterns with tiny beads on equally miniscule looms, and we, the writers, soon melded together. We were an age mix of baby boomers, pensioners, and Generation X; the sex proportion was mostly women.

Why had we chosen a workshop holiday? To have a structured vacation, with a little learning thrown in. Liza has been running these workshops for 10 years and each winter, she introduces new programs or repeats the favorites. They vary in range and depth from practical skills, such as learning Spanish, photography or writing, to the more esoteric of loom weaving, hand painting on silk, or studying the Mayan cultures. Lisa’s philosophy combines the learning experience with the culture of the country. To bring the various workshop participants together she throws in a big communal breakfast every morning that includes fruit juices, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, jalapeno bread, granola, yogurt and second cups of coffee.

Leaders experienced in their particular crafts head the workshops. Our leader targeted his program to beginning writers, although there were a couple of veterans of the art in the mix. We met every morning in the comfortable living room of the house where I was billeted. Starting with the usual workshop introduction, we established ourselves, who we were, why we had come, past experience, what we hoped to gain from our new skills. Then reality set in as each day we read our submissions from the day before, to be gently or not so gently critiqued.

Photo course was no snap

Whereas our course was passive, the photography workshop provided a challenge for each person in the group. Its members were up at dawn to take pictures of the rising sun over one of Antigua’s three volcanoes, or to head for the market at the other end of the main street to photograph farmers brining in their produce. Then in the evening the computer was on and they were shown what was right and what was wrong with their digital pictures. For those with SLR cameras, the local camera store had a quick developing process.

For a beginning travel writer, Antigua is like falling into a time warp and exiting in the 18^th century. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage city, with a tumultuous history that goes back to the time of the Spanish conquests. It has a population blend of three distinct cultures: indigenous; those of European background; expatriates from North America. Ruins of convents and monasteries, from a massive earthquake in the 16^th century, are part of the streetscape of pastel tinted houses.  Signs of consumerism from familiar chains are hidden discreetly within the ancient buildings.

By day the great wood doors of the secretive houses open up to reveal courtyards with flowers and fountains, the crisp white tablecloths of an elegant restaurant or rows of computers in an Internet café. By night the doors are closed, the dimly lit cobblestone streets shroud the city in mystery.

The problem for a writer is not what can I write about, but where do I start? So for our first assignment, we headed to the central park, where history echoes and re-echoes. Ancient prints on the wall of the University of San Carlos, just adjacent to the park, identify a big square in this location since the 17^th century. It’s a people place with wide paths, park benches and struggling grass. It’s to the park that students studying Spanish come with their notebooks and pencils. Indigenous women, in their brilliant, hand embroidered huipils (blouses) and navy skirts tantalize camera-laden tourists with wicker baskets, spilling out distinctive Guatemalan handicrafts. This was a no-brainer; there was plenty of color, sound and sight to write about.

Liza ensures that local culture intertwines with daily classes.  Planned events included Zoila Garcia demonstrating how she prepares pepian, a Guatemalan specialty. Crouched in front of a charcoal fire in her open kitchen, she first showed us how to slap a tortilla into shape and then flick it onto a hot pottery platter. The roasting of onions, peppers and herbs followed. She added pieces of chicken and mixed everything with a secret sauce and simmered it all for a couple of hours on a two burner gas stove in her windowless indoor kitchen. 

A lakeside dinner by candlelight

For the weekend, we boarded a van to Lake Attilan, famous as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, for a weekend retreat at a small inn overlooking the water. Who were the other guests, why did they come and how did they hear about the inn? The owners were English and

French, what was their story? Why did they buy the inn? With only limited flow electricity, how

did it run? We ate a gourmet dinner by candlelight with guests from five different countries. Interviewing and quotes became part of our learning experience. The photographers captured the life in the villages surrounding the lake, the street scenes in the Town of Panachel, the candle lit dinner, the inn itself hugging the mountainside.

For our last night the three workshops convened in the big house for a “show and tell”. The photographers won in every category.  Their disciplined approach to their work paid off in stunning pictures of this photogenic country.  The writers struggled to read their unpolished work.  The “beaders” bonded into everlasting friendships.

Did the writing workshop fulfill my expectations?  My initial reaction was no, but on second thought the answer was yes. You can’t learn all the tricks of the trade in a group session, but I found plenty of inspiration from working within a group. What I did carry away was knowledge of the most important thing travelers look for in a travel experience: a comfortable bed.

Katherine McIntyre  is a Canadian freelance writer, with an interest in out of the way places.