(Part 3 of 3)

The final portion of my June 2014 journey to Central America began with a 6-hour transfer by bus from Copán, Honduras, to Guatemala City, Guatemala, followed by a connecting minibus transfer to the beautiful and highly popular colonial city of Antigua. 

Antigua charms

 Built at 1,500 meters’ elevation in an earthquake-prone zone during the 16th century, Antigua was the seat of the Spanish-colonial government for the Kingdom of Guatemala,...

Macau (originally spelled “Ma­cao”) was the last of the Portuguese colonies. On Dec. 20, 1999, after being administered by Portugal for 442 years, Macau was returned to Chinese governance. Today it is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. 

The Chinese government has a policy of “one country, two systems,” so Macau is administered by the Macanese people and retains its capitalistic system — similar to Hong Kong...

It’s a charming scene to visualize: Parisians boarding the Vincennes railway to spend the day, picnic baskets in hand, in the leafy Bois de Vincennes, newly ordered into existence by Napoleon III as a place of recreation for the working-class inhabitants of the 12th arrondissement. The Bois remains today as Paris’ largest public park.

The Vincennes railway ran its Bastille-Varenne-St-Maur route for over 100 years. In 1969, with the RER integrated into the line, the line...