Guatemala's re-emergence

"This has always been popular with tourists, but after Sept. 11 things got quiet," said Feliciano Salvador, 19, whose family runs a one-room textile shop. "Now things are full again. On television, everywhere you look, people are talking about Antigua."

That's not good news for everyone. Rebecca Corry and Dennis Hedges, retired school teachers from Taos, N.M., first came to Antigua in 1995 - and liked it better back then.

"Now it's more industrialized, more cosmopolitan, more prepared for tourists," Corry said. "But I kind of enjoyed it more before. We like sleepy."

Dark facets of the past also linger. The U.S. State Department has issued near-constant warnings about the dangers of coming to Guatemala in recent years. A May travel advisory singles out street gang violence and banditry in Guatemalan cities and frequent armed robberies on highways.

Nicole Delisi, visiting Antigua from Corozal, Belize, where she is a Peace Corps volunteer, said two of her colleagues were robbed in separate incidents during one weekend in Guatemala City.

"Guatemala still has its issues," said the 28-year-old from San Francisco, who was thumbing through a guidebook on a bench in Antigua's breezy central square.

But crime concerns seem far away at La Lancha, the jungle resort owned by Coppola, who calls Guatemala "peaceful and friendly."

The 10-room resort opened last year near Lake Peten Itza - not far from the sprawling, 2,700-year-old Tikal ruins.

"I thought it made sense to look for property there, since Tikal was such a magnet," he said via e-mail, adding, "I love the abundant wildlife - we have a troop of howler monkeys that you see almost daily and huge parrots that roost in trees."

Tikal's temples, palaces, ball courts, steam baths, stone carvings and more than 3,000 other structures are awe-inspiring by themselves. But the surrounding jungle canopy, teeming with chattering toucans and parrots, ornery monkeys and unseen serpents and jaguars makes a visit all the more spectacular.

For most visitors, getting there means a 50-minute flight from Guatemala City to the lakefront city of Flores - whose airport officials renamed "Mayan World" to entice tourists. From there, it is a brief bus ride.

Tours headed to little-restored ruins deep in the jungle - like El Mirador and Survivor's Yaxha - also often use Flores as a jumping-off point.

There's plenty to see without boarding a plane, however.

Three hours along harrowing, two-lane highways northwest of Antigua is Panajachel.

The scruffy beachfront town accommodates visitors to Lake Atitlan, whose picturesque shores are ringed by volcanos and Mayan artisan villages. Hundreds of U.S. and European expatriates have stayed for good.

Visiting from neighboring El Salvador, the top supplier of tourists to Guatemala, Pablo Gomez counted the bustling Mayan market town of Chichicastenango, north of Panajachel, as another must-see.

"I love my country, but we don't have this culture," said Gomez, who was traveling with his wife and three children. "Mayan influence is everywhere in Guatemala."

Tourism officials are just as quick to mention lesser-known destinations such as Lake Izabal, a sprawling freshwater reserve that feeds into the Caribbean, or the Black Christ icon, which drew Pope John Paul II to the religious center of Esquipulas, near the Honduran and El Salvadoran borders, in 1996.

"There's something for everyone," said Mooney, the tourism director. "And they may have to come back a few times to see it all."

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