“I really enjoyed my stay at Huerto de Osos Perezosos in Xalapa. It's a lovely space. J.K.'s ducks are hilarious. I miss them already. The setting … is such a unique enclosure that you do feel sealed away from the world. I didn't find it at all hard to sleep there; I slept through the night … The dinners that were served were excellent so that served as a good night-cap, ushering me into sleep. What I'm telling people is that it is a good place for a retreat.

The fact that the street outside the Huerto is paved in black lava rock, that the city itself is built upon the remains of an ancient lava flow, that it sits within a cloud forest, a kind of cold tropical climate all its own, all combines to make it feel like a truly unique place, a kind of portal into a different mind-space. That's helpful for my writing.

My last night at Huerto, I walked out to the courtyard after dinner and stood in the lovely mist, and appreciated the way the lamplight fell over the compound walls and into the courtyard, beautifying the quiet, tropical scene. It really did feel like a caesura in time itself, a space to contemplate.

The fact that Xalapa is located in a cloud forest means that at night quite often a misty soft rain is falling. It is very beautiful and dream-like, especially when you sit on the balcony of the casita. It's a great place to write and let yourself be enveloped by all the beauty.

Have you ever had the experience of completing your commute to work and then being shocked, jolted with fear at the realization that you did not think about your commute for a single second, that your mind was somewhere else the entire time. This is what routine does to us, it blunts our perceptions. I want to write with new eyes, the way you see things when you first arrive in a new city that you know you'll need to navigate, or when you meet someone you really want to get to know. I want to see and to write vividly.

I certainly recommend taking at least an afternoon or two during your stay to explore parts of Xalapa. I found the anthropology museum fascinating. I'm also happy to say that I was able to visit Yanga, Mexico, one of the historic sites of Black resistance to slavery and oppression in the Americas. It's 3-hour drive time from Xalapa (it's only like an hour from Heroica Veracruz) so it was a difficult journey, but I'm glad I made it out there and am considering coming back in August for the Festival of Negritude.”

Website: keenannorris.com