The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard
After a tragic accident killing the hero's husband and small son, she goes on a bus who-knows-where and ends up in a tiny town (in Guatemala) where a hotel needs so mush repair and renovation. The owner conveniently dies, leaving the gardens and hotel to our hero. How she copes with bureaucracy, little money, good and bad local people makes this quite a good read. It helps very much to have been to Lake Atitlan, in Guatemala. Volcanos and all.