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Guatemala Central America's best-kept secret Travels through the heart of Guatemala, from Lake Atitlan to the Mayan highlands Last updated Feb. 14, 1999 By J.D. Lasica TIKAL NATIONAL PARK, Guatemala — Edgar is getting on my nerves. I am hiking through the lush rain forest of northern Guatemala with a friend, Colleen, and our guide, Edgar Diaz. Noise and movement follow our every step, for the tall hardwood trees are filled with howler monkeys, macaws and clamoring urracas, whose nickname, the alarm bird of the jungle, fits all too well. We pass by a ceiba, a tree sacred to the ancient Maya; hundreds of inch-long spikes jut from its slender trunk like a giant thorned rose. I ask about the jaguars and pumas, said to prowl deep in the shadows, but Edgar wants to talk roots. He plucks a few delicate leaves from a tree — the leaves of a spice, he tells us — and hands them to us. The woods are heavy with its familiar scent. Seven times now we have chewed the root; still, we can't identify it. This, naturally, delights Edgar. "Arrowroot? Ginger? Anise!" I venture. "No, no, no," Edgar says. After a time — Edgar perilously close to his final game of Name That Spice — he relents. Allspice. (Of course!) Guatemala is filled with such small moments of discovery. What's surprising is that so few Americans have discovered Guatemala, Central America's most populous and diverse nation. Tourism exploded in the past year: The Guatemala Tourist Commission estimates 450,000 tourists visited last year, up 28 percent from two years before. Yet visitors come chiefly from western Europe; only a quarter are from the United States. Travelers come for many reasons: for the Mayan ruins that rise out of ancient rain forests; for the astounding volcanoes that shoot up from rich terraced hills; for the postcard-perfect colonial settlements, the fringy bohemian outposts, the wildly colorful Indian marketplaces. What will most likely stay with the visitor, however, are impressions of the people, for the Guatemantecos have fashioned a multiethnic society that is a remarkable fusion of cultures. Fifty-five percent of the population are native Indians, direct descendants of the Maya, whose ancient civilization stretched from Honduras to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The Indians, or indigenas, speak their own languages, wear exquisite hand-woven costumes and live in the rural highlands. The ladinos, who run the government and control the economy, speak Spanish, wear Western dress and live in the capital and coastal lowlands. (The distinction is cultural, not racial, for many ladinos are full-blooded Amerindians.) Be forewarned, this is no Acapulco, no weekend jaunt for the pool-and-Margarita set. But a trip here last spring by a couple of visitors who speak little Spanish showed that getting around Guatemala is no more formidable than traveling in other foreign lands — New York, for instance. The basic traveler's circuit of Guatemala can be accomplished in a week, but it's better savored in two. Either way, any visitor's itinerary should include four not-to-be-missed destinations: the ancient Mayan ruins at Tikal; the colonial city of Antigua; the resort village of Panajachel at Lake Atitlan; and the Indian marketplace at Chichicastenango. Those pressed for time might want to skip the congested capital of Guatemala City altogether, for there are far richer experiences awaiting elsewhere.   n e x t NEXT: Tikal Tikal Antigua Panajachel/Lake Atitlan Chichicastenango Guatemala resources Guatemala photo gallery Travel articles CONTACT JD