The Bird Hotel

Leila tells the story of a man from the Midwestern US, Fred, who came to the area and developed a drink using cacao, based on a Mayan recipe, which he then marketed as having mind-expanding properties, and which the tourists love. He calls himself Federico and built the Cacao Temple. Instead of being annoyed that he had appropriated their Indigenous culture, the locals, Leila said, mostly seemed amused. Leila muses that this place attracts a lot of seekers, and every so often, the seeker finds what they need, if not what they originally sought. She shares that she named the hotel after the myth of a woman who, to punish her unfaithful husband, killed her children and immediately regretted it. Called the wailing woman (La Llorona), she now roams the earth weeping and searching for her children. Irene notes the birds, and Leila says she should have named the place the Bird Hotel. Leila thinks that Irene, too, is on a quest, but Irene thinks, “The idea of ever getting to someplace else—someplace where things might be better, or simply different—would not have occurred to me” (95).

Leila tells Irene, “For anyone who ever wanted to escape their life, there’s no better hotel to check into than this one” (96). Irene recalls the man who questioned her art teacher, looking for Joan, and is glad no one can track her down here.

Irene feels the temptation to tell Leila her life story. She hires Walter to show her around the area and enjoys their conversation, though he speaks to her in Spanish, and she answers him in English. He asks her questions about the US, including whether she has met Spider-Man. Irene tells Walter that she had a son, Arlo, but he died. She tells herself she won’t let herself love Walter.

When Leila first came to the area and built the hotel, the town was a small village inhabited only by locals who followed a way of life their ancestors had followed for centuries. Over time, more foreigners arrived, with their businesses and their development projects. Each came to La Esperanza wanting to start anew. Traveling hippies made the place a destination, then seekers of new age wisdom, and the Indigenous community adapted. Irene divides them into the old guard gringos, the first wave of foreign settlers including Leila, and the Gringo Invasion (104). Some of the old guard include Andromeda, who founded a meditation center; Katerina, who exports woven bags and uses the proceeds to provide free meals; and Wade, formerly an attorney in Chicago, who started a restaurant called El Buffo. Rosella left a bad marriage in Italy and started a restaurant, Il Piacere (the pleasure).

Irene wonders about Leila’s finances. At one point the hotel was a thriving destination, but Leila trusted a man from the village, a foreigner who robbed her and left her in debt. Leila “understood the contradictions, and the fine line she walked that separated benevolence from exploitation” (109). The presence of gringos in the town has upset the cultural balance. Irene wonders why Leila continues to employ staff when the hotel has only one guest.

Irene feels at home at La Llorona because it is beautiful but also broken. Death is a part of life in La Esperanza. Leila also seems to be wearing down. People from the bank are trying to reach her, and Luis and Maria keep saying Leila is not at home.

Each day, Irene walks with Leila to town to buy ingredients for that night’s dinner. One day she buys a bag called a morale, woven from the fibers of the maguey plant. Making them is a dying art, and only the elders of the town still know the skill. The process of making them is slow and demanding, but the bag will last for decades, Leila says.

Though La Llorona and the region of Lago La Paz seem like a paradise, Leila warns that underneath the beauty there is a serpent, just as in the Garden of Eden. Irene recognizes that she is in the early days of a love affair with this place.

Leila tells Irene the story of how she scared off a developer from Dallas, a man named Carl Edgar, who wanted to buy La Llorona and turn it into a retirement condominium for the wealthy. He meant to tear down the existing hotel and garden. Leila chased him away with scorpions, telling him their bite makes a man sterile. Irene realizes La Llorona is like Leila’s child and, “[a]s I knew well, no woman wants to outlive her child” (124).

Irene has been staying for free and wishes to pay for her lodging, but Leila won’t accept payment. Irene is grateful to have a safe haven. She begins Spanish lessons and buys a pencil. She is coming back to life.

Leila gives Irene a box of watercolors that she bought for her daughter and tells Irene about Charlotte. Her father was a Spanish ornithologist who came to the lake to study birds. After she got pregnant, Leila didn’t think she could care for a child. Javier took Charlotte back to Spain with him. When he fell in love and remarried, he discouraged Leila from writing to Charlotte. They visited once when Charlotte was eight, but then Javier severed contact. Leila says that giving up her daughter is the great regret of her life.

Irene finds a book of photographs documenting the 672 kinds of birds that live in the region. Every day, she takes time to paint. One night on the terrace after dinner, the fireflies appear. They emerge only for one night, and Leila sees them as a reminder to take joy in the moment.

One day, when she has been at La Llorona for a month, Leila reminds Irene that she isn’t finished with love. She watches Irene painting and declares, “These birds will heal your heart” (132). Leila suggests that while Irene can’t replace what she lost, she might find something else. Leila is crossing the garden when she falls. Everyone runs to her, but Irene thinks, “You would know to look at her that all life in her body had taken flight” (133).

Irene weeps for Leila the way she was never able to weep for her mother. Leila has given her a place where she might again have a life.

Irene wishes she knew more of Leila’s story. She takes comfort in sitting beneath the jocote tree and painting. Unable to sleep that night, she goes to Leila’s room and looks at her things.

Leila’s lawyer, Juan de la Vega, pays a visit. He reveals that Leila has left La Llorona and the property to Irene, along with a life insurance policy that will help pay the salaries for the staff. In shock, Irene signs the papers.

Irene doesn’t see how she can stay at La Llorona, though she also doesn’t intend to go back to San Francisco. She decides she will fix up the place and then find a buyer who will appreciate it. “Then,” she thinks, “I’d get back on the boat and disappear” (145).

Irene is surprised, but Luis and Maria don’t appear upset that Leila left the hotel to Irene; they trust Leila’s judgment. Pablito, the fisherman, brings Irene a tilapia he caught. A man named Gus appears, someone who used to work for Leila.

Gus is English. He is married with a child and a second on the way. Gus has a list of repairs he suggests making to the place. Many of them are significant, including replacing the roof, fixing the foundation and dock, and replacing the septic system. Irene imagines it will take every bit of Leila’s life insurance money to finish these repairs.

Irene realizes that a couple has made reservations and prepares for their arrival. They are young newlyweds. Sam wants nothing but to hike the volcano, and Harriet wants nothing but to make Sam happy.

Harriet and Sam set off to explore the village. Gus presents his estimated bill for repairs and invites Irene to dinner with him and his wife, Dora. Irene, grateful for the help, writes him a large check.

Harriet talks of their time in the village and says she thought about getting a reading from the Mayan astrologer, Andres. The next day they leave to hike the volcano. Irene goes to Gus and Dora’s. They have a boy, Luca. Dora was born in Chile and is a yoga teacher in the village. She is pregnant, and Irene has the impression Dora is sizing her up. She seems serious and intense, and Gus tells the story about how he found her at an ashram in India and pursued her. Irene suspects Gus has a talent for talking people into things.

Irene senses that Gus and Dora share a powerful connection—”the common goal of making a family together, a home” (163). Irene thinks Dora is wary and protective of her more garrulous husband, and she respects that loyalty. Gus, too, has chosen to remake his life. As she returns to the hotel, Irene finds Harriet crying. Harriet turned her ankle on the hike up the volcano, and Sam left her behind to continue. Sam seems baffled that his new wife doesn’t share his interests, and Harriet wants to go home. Sam stays in the village, living at the meditation center. Gus commences with his many repairs, his bill growing to double the original estimate.