Central America has long been in the forefront of eco-tourism, but much of the focus has not been on Guatemala, but some of its neighbors to the south.

Our man on the scene, Al Argueta, says it’s time to add Laguna Lodge on Lake Atitlan to the list of eco-friendly resorts that are also pampering enough to be considered luxe.

“The rooms themselves are made from materials that include volcanic stone, palm wood and adobe bricks made on site. Like the restaurant, they open up completely to the lake and enjoy wonderful views.”

The restaurant is vegetarian, but so good that you won’t care if you’re a carnivore. The bulbs may be a little dim and you may may a few small sacrifices, but the lake will thank you.

“The need for environmentally sustainable accommodations has been made abundantly clear with the recent proliferation of algal blooms on Guatemala’s most beautiful lake. Caused by phosphates from untreated waste water and agricultural fertilizer running into the lake, the first appearance of Lake Atitlan’s cyanobacteria dates to the 1970s but is only now getting the attention it deserves.”

See our full review of Laguna Lodge.

Last week we posted reviews of two luxury hotels that opened recently in Peru and Brazil.

The Peru opening’s name makes it sound like it should be in Colombia—Casa Cartegena—but it’s actually in Cusco, just a shuffle away from the reigning Monasterio and the upscale Inkaterra boutique hotel La Casona.

This hotel dispenses with all the Spanish Colonial antiques and religious oil paintings though and presents something Cusco didn’t really have before: a hotel with a sleek contemporary design aesthetic.

Our new Brazil addition is not a new hotel really, but a makeover. Orient-Express took over a hotel near Iguassu/Iguazu Falls a few years ago and then shut the place down to renovate it up to their standards. Hotel das Cataratas is still a work in progress, with the spa, some other public areas, and a third of the rooms left to finish, but it’s open for business and showing off its fresh new face.

Orient-Express operates lots of fine hotels and the Hiram Bingham train in Peru, plus the Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio. We’re sure this new addition to their roster will get plenty of acclaim from guests and the press in the coming year, plus everyone who has been to both sides of the falls says the view is more dramatic on the Brazilian side.

While on my Spirit Air flight back from Armenia, Colombia the other day I put together a photo tour of the Coffee Triangle tour—with a bit of video. A few sites, a few hotels, ziplining through a coffee plantation, and more. Here’s a quick flavor of the region. A feature story will follow next month.

The long-awaited Capella Pedregal resort is now open in the most hopping part of the lower Baja Peninsula: Cabo San Lucas. You’ve probably read about it in magazines, with articles a desk editor put together from a press release, but we don’t work like that. We wait until the resort is actually open for business and we can give the rooms and service a good once-over.

There are few writers as qualified to do that as our new correspondent Marbeth Mellin. She’s the go-to person for all things Mexico at Concierge.com and has written more articles on the country than she can probably count. So trust her when she says, ”Away from the lineup of luxury hotels in Cabo’s Corridor, this stylish hideaway is the undisputed star in Cabo San Lucas.”

Read the full review to get a detailed account of this brash new resort on the Cabo scene: Capella Pedregal Cabo San Lucas

I had the pleasure of staying at Machaca Hill Rainforest Lodge in Punta Gorda, Belize a few weeks ago and it was a fantastic experience. It is part of a huge private nature reserve in southern Belize. Most tourists don’t make it this far, but if you do you’ll be rewarded. It’s a great area for outdoor adventure activities and the Mayan ruins nearby get only a trickling of visitors. The reserve has lots of hiking trails and you can go kayaking on the river near the lodge, getting down there by a built-in tram.

See our review of Machaca Hill in Belize here and then tune in later in the month for a Belize family adventure story we’ll be posting. Want to take a walk through the main lodge building? See the video tour below. You’ll have to supply your own twittering birds and Garifuna music for the soundtrack though: somehow the sound got lost in the conversion from Quicktime to Windows to YouTube. Sorry!