Page 180 - OVATION Magazine (Issue 1)

I became accustomed to the jungle and at one point even wanted to buy an island in
the Philippines.” Rather than returning to the site of the film, however, Coppola and his son Gian-Carlo went on an adventure to the small, newly independent Central American country, where they discovered the abandoned Blancaneaux Lodge. “I was hoping to find
a caye, but I was taken to the beautiful and very remote pine forest,” Coppola continues. “Blancaneaux was connected to an airstrip—complete with a plane wreckage indicating
a failed takeoff. I peeked in through the window and
saw a big dining table and thought immediately:‘I could
write there.’”
Coppola and his wife,
Eleanor, soon acquired the mountain lodge, which they restored and kept as a private retreat for family and friends. In 1993, they opened it to
the public as a resort, where today the emphasis is as much on adventure as it is on idle time. Guests stay in one of 20 thatch-roofed bungalows and villas on the banks of Privas- sion Creek and spend their days touring jungle-covered Mayan ruins, swimming under waterfalls, ziplining over the forest canopy, and spelunking in the massive cave systems that run throughout the region.
No trip to Belize, however, would be complete without
a visit to the Caribbean.And so, eight years after opening Blancaneaux, the Coppolas added a Belizean beach resort to their belongings, purchasing the rustic Turtle Inn outside of Placencia. Once known mostly to divers and fishermen, the quirky town at the peninsula’s tip has received some buzz
in recent years—even being labeled the “new Tulum.” Still, with its remote location—a three-hour drive or half-hour flight from Belize City— Placencia remains a good place to disappear for a few days
(or years, judging by the large expat community).
Just a few minutes by bike from town, the now-luxurious Turtle Inn is undoubtedly
Placencia’s best place to vanish. The resort’s 25 cottages and villas are scattered across a breezy slice of palm-covered beach between the Caribbean and the Placencia Lagoon, where a private dock is a gateway to fishing, diving,
and snorkeling adventures on the nearby barrier reef—the world’s second largest. It is in many ways the epitome of a barefoot Caribbean hideaway, and yet Coppola’s distinct im- print is evident throughout.
Coppola, who turned
80 this year, has long trav- eled with his children and grandchildren, and Turtle Inn encourages the same. In an almost European manner, kids are welcomed without being
188 | OVATION
FALL 2019
Coppola and his wife, Eleanor, on the deck
of their villa at Blancaneaux Lodge, which they opened as a resort (opposite) in 1993.
INCOGNITO
LEFT: ACEY HARPER/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES