installed in your home," she said. "Not anymore. Now Antigua's open for business."

The flourishing tourism industry has meant new shops, restaurants and luxury hotels — many of which are less than half the price of comparable U.S. hotels. But the city's success has downsides, residents say.

Cecilia Pinera, 29, left Antigua, her hometown, to spend three years in Chicago and returned to a changed city. "There are good things and bad," she said. "The bad: There's nowhere to park anymore. The good: There are jobs."

On the road I spent a couple of pleasant days shopping, sightseeing and exploring the city's boutique hotels, then joined three Guatemalan friends on a road trip northwest to Lake Atitlán and Chichicastenango, two other areas usually included in tours of the country.

We drove throughfarmland and low foothills for a couple of hours. I was surprised by the changes since my last visit. There were few cars then; now traffic was heavy. Many of the cars were American castoffs: road warriors that had gone 200,000 miles or more stateside before getting a new life in Guatemala.

There were many buses too, most recycled from U.S. school districts. Some were still painted bright yellow and wore the black lettering of the school system from which they hailed, such as Willard (Mo.) School District. Along with the cars and buses were countless pickup trucks; these served as mass transit too, with a dozen or more people jammed into some truck beds.

As the road began to climb into the mountains, small farms clung to the steep