It was time to leave La Casa del Mundo and the weather decided to make it a bit easier for us, fog had descended down over the volcanoes hiding the spectacular view. It was a bit colder today too so that final swim in the lake before breakfast was canned in favour of coffee and pancakes.

Gordy and Sarah were also leaving today and heading for Antigua too so we all met on the jetty for the lancha to 'Pana'. Instead of taking a shuttle bus to Antigua, we decided to try the 'chicken bus' because it was a daytime journey and only a couple of hours.

The Chicken Bus turned out to be a great experience - we were first on so grabbed the best seats at the front and sat back and watched 'the show' as everyone else got on. The bus never really stopped after we got moving, it only slowed down just enough for people to jump in - even the luggage was being stowed on the roof while the bus crawled down the street. Once the bus reached the outskirts of town and hit the dual carriageway, the real roller coaster ride began. I'm still convinced the driver never used his brakes and we wound our way up and down the hills and left and right through tight bends. To stop sliding off the seats, Sarah and David were hanging on to the open windows, Maria was hanging on to David and Gordy had his feet over the aisle 'standing' on the bus drivers seat. It was only after seeing a Chicken Bus, going in the opposite direction, rounding a bend on two wheels that we realised that we must have been doing the same. No wonder we had been hanging on for dear life to stay in our seats.

We arrived safe and sound in Antigua, albeit an exhilerating ride, with all our bags despite the stories about luggage falling off and being taken off early. We were all starving so decided to drop our bags at the hotel and then find something to eat. The girls wanted pizza and the boys wanted street food - easy enough in this city, everything was right next to each other.

Appetites fulfilled, we had a wander through the cobbled streets and couple of the shops selling local goods. Gordy and Sarah had already been in Antigua and we had a few days ahead to do our exploring so we all decided to check out a couple of Irish Bars instead. Snug was really small and cosy, a few seats at the bar and a couple of high tables, wooden floors and the usual Irish pictures on the walls. Baskets of monkey nuts on the tables and their crushed shells on the floor made David think of Raffles in Singapore but there was definitely no Singapore Slings here though, just bottles of cold, local beer. We moved across the road to another Irish Bar, "Reilly's en la Esquina", for happy hour which actually lasted for 2 hours. It was a much larger bar with a huge courtyard full of tables, only the pint of Guinness painted on the wall and the Irish girl behind the small bar in the corner gave it any semblance to an Irish Bar. That said, the beer was cold and the food was good - we'll definitely be back.

The sun had gone down and we took a walk to Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, the church closest to our hotel. It seemed to be the place to be, there was a mass of market stalls selling food in the Parque in front of the church to feed the constant stream of people attending the Holy Vigil inside. A TV crew were even broadcasting an interview with an important looking priest or bishop. There was a band playing somber music at the door of the church which continued late into the night, we could even hear it from our room. We need to get used to this though, apparently preparations and processions go throughout the night during Semana Santa.