Long-time Cuzan Guesthouse owner Sonja Lillvik was inspired to write The Painted Fish and Other Mayan Feasts after watching the locals prepare a fish using lipstick as decoration.
"It was Lillvik's welcoming party in 1984 to the small Mexican fishing village of Punta Allen. She had chosen the isolated beachside town in hopes of becoming fluent in Spanish. Little did she know, her knowledge would stretch beyond vocabulary, pouring hours into the kitchen." She finished the book while recovering from breast cancer. Story by Bonnie Horgos in the Santa Cruz Journal.
