led by:
Patricia Lee Lewis and Charles MacInerney
with Jacqueline Sheehan
Join
us for Creative Writing, Hatha
Yoga and meditation at the
unforgettable Villa Sumaya
Retreat Center, in the Santa
Cruz Pueblo on the shore of
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. We
will write and practice yoga
mornings and late afternoons
on most days, with one full
day and several half-days
free to explore, rest, swim
& kayak.
Includes:
8
days, 7 nights, shared accommodations;
all meals (& they are
wonderful);
two daily writing and yoga
sessions;
all instruction and materials;
workshops on the craft of
writing;
individual manuscript critiques.
(does
not include individual transportation
to and from Villa Sumaya,
special excursions, or gratuities.)
Cost:
$1850 if you register before
November 15th (now
extended to December 15th!);
$1950 after. We require a
$500 non-refundable deposit
required to hold space. Balance
due January 16, 2010. Alums
of previous retreats led jointly
by Patricia & Charles
will receive a $100 discount.
Single rooms are
an additional $300 for the
week.
Travel
to Guatemala:
You may find good ticket prices
by contacting Isaac Hilpman
at Exito Travel; tell him
that you are with the Patricia
Lee Lewis Group and give him
the code, ABQYOGA. Isaac will
give you the website ticket
price and help to coordinate
the arrival times for our
group. The phone number is:
800-655-4053 ext. 8507 and
the website is www.exitotravel.com
Other participants have recently
found good prices through
American Airlines.
Transportation
& lodging within Guatemala:
You will land at Guatemala
City airport and be responsible
for getting yourself to Antigua
about 30 minutes away. Public
transportation is available
for about $8.00; a private
taxi is about $30 and may
be shared. Ask your hotel,
they might provide transportation.
We will recommend some moderately-priced
hotels and the names of a
few other more expensive hotels
at which you may make your
own arrangements. You will
find making arrangements via
email easily done.
We recommend arriving in
Guatemala no later than February
12, the Friday before the
retreat, and staying in Antigua
overnight. Charles will stay
in Antigua Friday evening,
and meet early arrivals for
dinner. Those who arrive on
Saturday should land at the
Guatemala City Airport no
later than 10:00 on Saturday
and go straight to the designated
hotel in Antigua. Charles
will meet you there; at about
11:30 you will board a private
bus for Panajachel on Lake
Atitlan, about 2 hours away.
(Details will follow in the
letter you will receive after
registration). A private boat
will take you across the lake
to Villa Sumaya.
We suggest that you plan
to stay one or more extra
nights in Villa Sumaya or
Antigua after the retreat.
Charles will stay in Antigua
until Monday, and fly out
Monday morning. Most participants
choose to spend their last
night in Antigua so that they
are closer to the airport
for their departing flight
the next day.
If you have to fly out on
Saturday, the day the retreat
ends, we suggest a departure
time after 1 p.m. but later
is better, to give you plenty
of time to get back to the
airport. Private transportation
from Panajachel to Guatemala
City costs about $62; public
transportation is about $20.
The only drawback to public
transportation is that you
are limitied to pre-determined
arrival and departure times.
On Saturday, February 20,
you may return with the group
by bus to the hotel in Antigua.
However, we go in a leisurely
fashion, so f you need to
fly out on Saturday, you may
have to arrange for earlier,
private transportation at
your own expense to get you
to the airport on time for
your flight.
Our retreats include people
with a wide range of yoga
and writing experience, from
beginners to professionals.
We are all enriched by the
diversity. While we will offer
a daily schedule of suggested
activities, writing and yoga
sessions are optional: your
time is your own.
The
yoga is practiced 2-3 hours
a day, in the early morning
and some afternoons, in a
safe, supportive environment
with a deep respect for individual
strengths as well as for areas
of challenge or difficulty.
The writing is done in structured
groups for about 4 hours each
morning and several evenings.
You will have opportunity
to write in an encouraging,
confidential and inspiring
setting, in response to exercises
we suggest. You will be invited
to share what you have just
written, and to respond to
the writing of others with
what is fresh, what you like,
what you remember. Patricia
and Cynthia will meet with
individual writers to discuss
their manuscripts or issues
relating to their writing
life and offer workshops on
the craft of writing.
While Patricia
and Charles will always be
where the schedule calls them,
for you all activities
are optional, and the entire
week should be considered
free time. Pick and choose
from organized activities
to make your own schedule.
Take as much time each day
as you'd like to set off on
your own or with others. A
long veranda offers handmade
lounge chairs and tasseled
hammocks for resting and reading.
Visitors can swim and kayak
in Lake Atitlan. Explore a
nearby traditional Maya village
or hike the magnificent lake
basin. Villa Sumaya offers
a library, outdoor hot tub
and sauna, as well as therapeutic
body work and water massage
treatments upon request.
The retreat
is designed and facilitated
by Patricia Lee Lewis and
Charles MacInerney.
Combining
Yoga & Writing
The practice of yoga,
the joining of body and
mind, can open pathways
into the feelings, memories,
stories and images embedded
in the tissues. Writing
workshops during the retreat
are designed to help you
shift your awareness and
write from those deeper
levels of consciousness.
Through
Hatha Yoga, we will get in
touch with our kinesthetic
sense of self. We will use
special meditation techniques
to slow the mind and create
a sense of the sacred. No
writing or yoga experience
is required - only a sense
of adventure.
Beginning
and experienced writers will
find a supportive, encouraging
context in which to write
from their deepest selves.
We will write in response
to exercises offered by Patricia
Lee Lewis, MFA. In a small
group, writers will be invited
to read their work aloud,
and the group will offer simple
affirmations of what is done
well and what stays in the
memory.
Additional Information
on Staying in Guatemala
before or after the retreat,
Volunteer Opportunities,
Language Schools and other
resources
Lake
Atitlan is a 45
square mile lake in the
highlands of Guatemala,
surrounded by volcanoes.
It is famous for its natural
beauty and colorful Mayan
villages.
Lake Atitlan
has been described by Aldous
Huxley as the most beautiful
lake in the world. Villa Sumaya
is a picturesque hotel, restaurant,
and retreat center located
on the shores of Lake Atitlan.
Staff members speak English
and Spanish.We invite you
to relax and discover Lake
Atitlan's living and legendary
Mayan landscape.
The
Villa Sumaya Retreat Center
offers Blue tiger Temple,
a beautiful lake-front facility
that is perfect for writing
and yoga practices. Its
floor to ceiling windows
provide a full panoramic
view of the lake and its
three magnificent volcanoes.
Accommodations:
Each double bedroom
is carefully appointed and
fully equipped with an en
suite bathroom/shower with
hot and cold running water,
electricity, and a spacious
veranda where the lake is
a stage. The veranda showcases
the best of Lake Atitlan and
Guatemala's timeless nature
and history. In your room
you'll be surrounded by flowing
fabrics (the hallmark of Guatemalan
artistry), hand-crafted ceramic
tiles, and wooden furnishings.
Private
rooms may be available for
an additional fee.
Meals:
Cafe Sumaya, the villa's restaurant,
caters to vegetarians and
non-vegetarians alike. However,
adding fresh fish or chicken
to your meal requires a supplement
of $7 per meal. The cuisine,
created from Guatemala's cornucopia
of fruit, vegetables, and
fresh fish, meat, and poultry,
is available three times a
day. Baked goods are produced
daily.
ABOUT
THE
STAFF
Patricia
Lee Lewis lives and
works at Patchwork Farm Retreat
in western Massachusetts.
She shares the world with
trees and stones, chickadees,
writers and bears, and has
led weekend writing retreats
and weekly workshops in her
mountain cottage at Patchwork
Farm, throughout the United
States, and yoga and writing
retreats at sacred sites around
the world - Guatemala, Mexico,
Scotland, Ireland, Wales and
Costa Rica.
Patricia holds an MFA degree
in Creative Writing from Vermont
College, and completed her
undergraduate degree at Smith
College, Phi Beta Kappa, in
1970. She is affiliated with
Amherst Writers & Artists,
and leads national training
workshops in the AWA method
for workshop leaders on the
east and west coasts. Patricia's
poetry, fiction and feature
articles have appeared in
journals & anthologies,
The Los Angeles Times, Hampshire
Life, and The Boston Sunday
Globe. Her poems have most
recently appeared in The
Berkshire Review, Vol.
11, and Crossing Paths:
An Anthology of Poems by Women,
Mad River Press. She was supported
by a grant from the Chester
Cultural Council under the
auspices of the Massachusetts
Cultural Council to perform
her poems to a full house
to benefit the Miniature Theatre
of Chester. Her poem "Two
Hundred Wings" was nominated
for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry,
and her book of poems, A
Kind of Yellow, won first
prize in Writer's Digest's
International Self-Published
Book Competition in 2005.
Copies of the book are available
at the
shop.
Patricia has
spent much of her life as
an advocate: for women, for
civil rights, for peace, for
a healthy environment, for
small farms and rural communities,
for the arts. Born and raised
in Texas, she moved north
years ago with her children.
She has been a business owner,
tree farmer, director of several
organizations, including women's
centers, community economic
development corporations,
district congressional offices,
and served as an elected county
commissioner for four years.
In 1985, when she joined Pat
Schneider's Amherst Writers
& Artists writing workshop,
she finally found the courage
to write for others to read
Patricia is
responsible for the writing
program at all retreats and
serves as retreat coordinator.
Charles MacInerney
is registered with
the Yoga Alliance at the 500
hour level (the highest registration
currently available), and
is the co-founder and serves
on the faculty of the Living
Yoga Teacher Training Program.
He is also the co-founder
of Texas Yoga, and helps organize
and presents at the Annual
Texas Yoga Retreat.
Charles
is a guest writer for Yoga
Journal's "Ask Our Expert"
column, and has been interviewed
for articles in Yoga
Journal four times,
on yoga retreats, creativity,
heart disease, and Yoga for
overweight students. One of
Charles' essays (written on
retreat with Patricia) appeared
as the lead essay in a National
Chess magazine in India. He
has numerous essays published
in regional publications through
out the US, and on the internet.
Charles MacInerney has studied
Yoga and Meditation since
1971. He teaches classes on
Yoga, Meditation, Posture,
Visualization, Breathing,
Balance, Creativity, Concentration
and biofeedback for a variety
of businesses, corporations
and institutions. He has worked
with over 12,000 students
in Austin, where he lives.
Charles has led over 50 retreats
since 1992, including 15 international
retreats. For more information
please visit his web-sites
at www.yogateacher.com
and www.expandingparadigms.com.
Jacqueline Sheehan,
Ph.D., is a fiction writer
and essayist. She is also
a practicing psychologist.
She is a New Englander through
and through, but spent twenty
years living in the western
states of Oregon, California,
and New Mexico doing a variety
of things, including house
painting, roofing, freelance
photography, journalism,
clerking in a health food
store, and directing a traveling
troupe of high school puppeteers.
Her first novel, Truth,
was published in 2003 by
Free Press of Simon and
Schuster. Her second novel,
Lost & Found, was published
2007 by Avon, Harper Collins.
Lost & Found has been
on the New York Times Bestseller
List and has been optioned
for film by Katherine Heigl,
star of Grey’s Anatomy.
Her third novel, Now &
Then, was published in 2009
by Avon, Harper Collins.
She has published travel
articles (Winter in Soviet
Georgia), short stories
(most recently in the Berkshire
Review), and numerous essays
and radio pieces. In 2005,
she was the editor of the
anthology Women Writing
in Prison. This anthology
is the culmination of eight
years of writing workshops
sponsored by Voices From
Inside, an advocacy group
for incarcerated women.
She is currently working
on her fourth novel.
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