Antigua Guatemala : The

Antigua Guatemala : The City and Its Heritage
by Elizabeth Bell

Read this if you're going to Antigua; otherwise skip it. Marvellous story: Pedro Alvarez, a lieutenant of Cortes, butchers Guatemalans, establishes his capital near present-day Antigua, and is killed when a horse tumbled off a ledge and squashes him. His wife literally paints the town black, mandates ten days of mourning, and declares herself empress of America. Rains turn into torrents into floods, and the entire town, empress and all, are washed down the river, cleaned out so well that for hundreds of years people mislocated its site.

Michelin NEOS Guide Guatemala-Belize, 1e (NEOS Guide)
by Michelin Staff (Editor)

A handy pocket-sized guide that was generally right on target. None of the guides, Neos included, had current skinny on hotels in El Peten; things are changing too fast. All-in-all, the best guide on Guatemala travel I could find.