We didn’t know what to expect when we passed the grass-covered Mayan pyramids to meet our shaman in a secluded clearing. Soon we were sitting in a circle while Tomas, dressed in traditional Mayan red textiles with beaded necklaces, urged us to throw meaningful things into the sacred fire — a piece of cacao representing mother earth, a marshmallow heart for our loved ones.
“We create our reality with our will and our intentions,” he told us. “Today is a beautiful day to start over.”
We were all fully committed and getting emotional as we approached the fire one by one to say who we were, announcing our name and the names of our parents before offering a plug of tobacco to the fire.
“Wow. That was something else,” Mike told me later. “I wasn’t expecting it to hit me as hard as it did. I really loved it.”
Mike was especially bolstered by the shaman telling us we are warriors. “I don’t always believe in myself,” Mike said. “Sometimes I’m hard on myself.”
Participant Adam A. was so impressed he wants to add a quarterly Mayan fire ceremony to his self-care regimen. “I think my higher power is energy and universe,” he said. “So this really ties that together.”
Our group of 10 formed the inaugural Antigua 12 travel retreat in Guatemala. Retreat founder and expat Philippa Myers has long dreamed of opening her villa in the town of Antigua to people deepening their recovery. A British expat, Philippa has lived in Guatemala on and off since the 1990s. Along with retreat leader Al Updike, an addiction specialist at Hazelden Betty Ford in Minnesota, they hosted a phenomenal week based on the 12 steps.
“The retreat has been wonderful,” participant Lindsey Gloeckner told me as we reclined on chaise lounges by the pool. “It has been pretty much everything I expected. A mix of some step work, some relaxation time, bonding time, service work, and sightseeing.”
Our home base in Antigua
Our home base was Philippa’s villa in Antigua, a 16th-century Spanish colonial city that’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Buildings are painted only in tones of earthy reds, oranges, ochre, cream and Mayan blue. Even the McDonald’s and Starbucks look historic. UNESCO standards prohibit streetlights, which makes traffic a bit crazy — especially when you add in the bumpy cobblestone streets.
The city is full of churches. And ruins, thanks to frequent earthquakes. Agua Volcano towers over the gated community encompassing the villa, which is a cluster of four two-story houses packed tightly together around a central pool and hot tub. My room was tucked away on the second floor with a private balcony.
The retreat participants were a mixture of Americans living in the U.S., an expatriate American and a Canadian now living in Guatemala, a Guatemalan living in the U.S., and a Guatemalan from Guatemala City now living in Antigua. People ranged from being sober a few months to a few decades, and from their 20s to 50s.
A travel retreat
Our days combined meditation, group work on recovery topics, eating and sightseeing. My favorite part was going out on adventures together. But the group work was what made it so rich. Our group quickly opened up to each other, which made our outings much livelier and more fun. From toasting marshmallows over a vent in the ground on a volcano hike to attending a Day of the Dead kite festival, we stuck together and had each other’s backs.
How do you get a group of strangers to connect?
“The secret is keeping people in a group together and making sure everyone’s included in everything,” Al told me. “So that’s the biggest key, is to make sure that they have a sense of belonging.”
On our first full day together, we visited Valhalla Macadamia Farm for a tour and breakfast. We learned about farming and processing macadamia nuts, then ate macadamia nut pancakes. The farm is also a dog sanctuary, with at least five canines calling it home.
In the afternoon, we had a lesson in chocolate making at ChocoMuseo. Our dynamic teacher, Dayana Jimenez, gave us each a cup of liquid chocolate to pour into a plastic tray. We could add salt, chili pepper, granola, trail mix, almonds, coconut, cinnamon, peanuts, dried fruit or other mix-ins. While our bars hardened in a freezer, Dayana taught us all about chocolate. We tasted the gunky white stuff inside a fresh cacao pod and made tea from cacao shells. If you like chocolate, you won’t find a better-smelling shop.
Another day, we made the long trek to Lake Atitlán, a lake sacred to the Mayas. Three volcanoes poke out of the water. Five of us decided to jump off a dock into the lake. I did what no self-respecting open-water swimmer should ever do — jump in without knowing how to get out. It was only after we were all treading the choppy water that we noticed the lack of a ladder.
The step we’d jumped from was maybe a foot or so out of the water. Great if you can do a pullup, but not all of us could. I tried to stay calm as waves knocked me against the pilings, trusting my new friends to help pull me out. A microcosm for how we so often need to help each other.
Doing service
I had my reservations about the community service portion of the retreat. Not because I didn’t want to help local people, but I was worried about acting like the Great White Savior come to help poor Guatemalans. Also, one of our projects was putting together bunk beds for a poor family. Why somebody who generally stabs household packaging rather than figuring out how to open it properly would be more qualified to assemble furniture than a local family was a mystery.
But it was a group trip, so I went along dirt roads to a Mayan village called San José Yalú. Rough houses made of concrete and metal and little snack shops lined the roads. All around we could see patches of farmland on steep hills where the town’s agricultural workers toiled.
Five or six of us crowded into the one-room home of Maria Franscisca, a single mom with four kids ranging from nine months to 13 years. Not only did we bring the bunk bed in pieces, we provided entertainment as we tried to assemble the thing. But even more satisfying than the hammering was seeing all the kids jump onto the bed once we’d adorned it with mattresses, new sheets and comforters.
Magalee Canal, a baby in a sling around her chest, is the local intermediary between the Bunk Bed Project and her community. She gave me the lowdown on how the nonprofit El Amor de Patricia projects have improved village life.
Magalee was born in San José Yalú and acts as an intermediary between the villagers, who mostly speak Kaqchikel, and the nonprofit. “It’s a big change because the kids, they normally sleep on the floor,” she told me in Spanish through a translator. The organization also brings beds for some of the old people so they don’t have to sleep directly on a dirt or concrete floor. El Amor de Patricia also distributes food for families and for the many dogs who roam the streets. Magalee’s big dream is for a park with a playground for the kids, so families have a nice place to go outside of their houses.
After assembling a couple of bunk beds, we visited an orphanage that the same nonprofit runs. Our group members kicked a soccer ball around or jumped on trampolines with little children.
For Philippa, her sober retreats are deeply intertwined with lifting up the local population. For every night that somebody pays for the retreat, she donates enough money to support a Mayan child’s education for a week. “So if you’re staying here for seven nights, that’s seven weeks at school that you’re leaving behind,” she said. She’s also putting money into a sober fund to help locals get sober.
Visiting the Maximón shrine
My first day browsing Antigua’s markets, I noticed many statues of a mustachioed man dressed in black smoking a cigarette. When I asked “¿Quién es?” the shopkeeper giggled nervously and said “Abuelo Simón.” The Mayan folk saint/deity/trickster is also known as Saint Simon and Maximón. He’s particularly popular with drug traffickers, addicts and prostitutes, and is definitely not endorsed by the Catholic church.
I was super excited to visit a Maximón shrine not far from Antigua. As we drove there in a small bus, our tour guide Fidencio Cardona tried to explain Maximón. The shrine is important because it’s the site of where the Spaniards killed the last Mayan sorcerer king by hanging.
“People give rum to the statue, good cigars, and the statue actually smokes the cigars,” Fidencio told us. Pilgrims pour rum into a hole in the lower part of the statue, and there it comes into contact with the relic of his left arm bone. Twice a year, this infused rum is removed and people can drink it! Supposedly, drinking Maximón’s left arm bone rum will cure you from ever taking another drink.
To followers of Maximón, there’s no good and evil. Instead, pilgrims can ask through Maximón’s special priests whether something is possible or not possible. That is, does your request fit the natural order of things — say you want your enemy dead, or lots of money, or a particular person to return your affection — or not.
I bought a multi-colored candle from one of the many vendors outside the shrine and lit it for our group. The place felt a little creepy to those of us raised more evangelically, and not everybody wanted to enter. I’ve never seen so many people drinking and smoking inside a shrine!
When I approached Maximón’s statue for my private audience, I was careful not to ask for anything more than general blessings for my family and the Guatemalan people. As Fidencio had warned about dealing with spirits: “We have to think very well what we say, what we request, and especially what we promise. Because a promise is a promise.”
Alcohol in Guatemala
It was my first trip to Guatemala, so I turned to our local retreat participant, Diego, for insight into the place of alcohol in the country. Originally from Guatemala City, Diego moved to Antigua about four months ago. He’s now 10 months sober. While the cities are only 21 miles apart, it often takes two hours or more to travel the distance due to traffic. Huge Guatemala City, with over 3 million residents, feels very different from scenic little Antigua.
Diego comes from the wealthier, educated class of Guatemalans. Drinking was common in his social circles starting from about age 13 or 14, he said. Poor people drink, too, especially a strong, cheap, clear spirit known locally as “octavo,” which they drink straight.
Rather than class, it’s religion that sets the drinkers apart from the nondrinkers. “With Catholicism, they all drink,” said Diego. “Christian evangelicals, they don’t drink. They see it as a sin.”
Alcohol is associated with machismo, Diego told me. And it carries over into sobriety. “In Guatemala City, there are men and women that open up themselves and they talk about their emotions and how they are dealing with all the trauma. It’s very comfortable to see people talking like this, making me feel that, okay, I’m not the only one.”
But Spanish-speaking meetings in Antigua are mostly men who tell drinking stories rather than focusing on sober solutions. “They make jokes about the topic that the person is sharing. And so sometimes people might get intimidated.”
Diego started attending more English-speaking meetings. “The thing that I like the most, it was how they are so respectful, and they don’t do cross talk.” Plus, he loves meeting people from other countries and practicing his English.
Retreat participants got a chance to attend an English-speaking meeting in Antigua, which is open to all.
Book your Antigua 12 retreat!
Sober retreats are a new enterprise for Philippa, who has worked in both travel and addiction counseling for years. In addition to the retreat I participated in, she and Al led an LGBTQ-focused retreat immediately following, and she’s planning a retreat for family members of addicts in early December. Check the website to learn about 2026 retreats.
Al suggests that participants have at least six months sober before considering the retreat. It’s not a detox. Long-time sober people also benefit from “a little booster shot of recovery,” he said.
Tom A. from Maryland visited Guatemala for the first time to take part in the retreat. “It’s a beautiful place. Philippa has opened her property up here to all of us, and the way she’s organized everything is really incredible. I’ve never felt so at home in a place that’s not my home,” he told me as we sat on my private balcony, screened in by vines and flowers.
“I feel like something’s changed on the inside,” he told me. At home he loves working and spending time with his wife and two kids, but he’s been missing fellowship with other sober people. “I think I really need to find time to fellowship,” he said. “I’m hoping that kind of sticks.”
Now that I’m home, a couple of beautifully embroidered Guatemalan pillows remind me of my time in Antigua and my new sober friends. I hope that we stay in touch and hold close the need for connection.
Rediscover Joy in Guatemala SoberTravelRetreats org with Founder Philippa Myers | Sober Curator
SOBER RETREATS: with Senior Travel Sober Curator Contributor Teresa Bergen is your go-to space for alcohol-free travel tips, insider guides, and honest reviews from a sober perspective. Teresa blends her passions—animals, wildlife conservation, sustainability, geography, culture, outdoor adventure, and yoga—into enriching travel stories that inspire mindful exploration. From kayaking and hiking to visiting historic cemeteries and sacred spaces, she uncovers the beauty where history, art, and spirituality meet.
Planning a sober retreat? Fill out our Sober Retreats Form or email Teresa at Teresa.Bergen@gmail.com with your retreat name, dates, cost, URL, and a horizontal, high-res image for our calendar listing. Sober Events more your style? Click HERE.
WHAT A TRIP! 9 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Buying a New Vacation Wardrobe
God, grant us the serenity to #ADDTOCART! Sober retail therapy is our favorite kind of workout—mindful, fun, and community-focused. In this section, you’ll discover unique sobriety gifts, premium recovery swag, and must-have merch we can’t stop raving about. We love featuring small businesses founded by people in recovery, sober creators, and brands that champion mental health and the sober lifestyle. From #QUITLIT reads to stylish glassware and meaningful recovery keepsakes, our curated picks make every purchase a celebration of sober living.
Shop our classic Sober Curator merch on SHOPTHESOBERCURATOR.COM for and explore our TSC Amazon Storefront featuring curated lists packed with gifts, books, and sober essentials.
