The ride to Antigua was the most treacherous yet. We took one of the infamous chicken buses which are clown like decorated old American school buses with pictures of Jesus alongside advertisements for electronic parties. Also, blaring stereo music which alternates from western club music to Guatemalan traditional. They squish a ridiculous amount of people on said buses and when four us from the hostel stepped aboard for the hour long trip, our hearts sank as we negotiated how we were going to fit along with our backpacks and not get robbed. Luckily, the only discomfort of the journey was the seating arrangements and we all exited with our valuables. The only incident was a very obvious pickpocket who repeatedly tried to put his hand in our friends pocket for his wallet even when directly confronted with a polite "no, no señor". Once in Antigua we found it's a safe and tourist friendly town. We've seen more westerners here in 5 minutes than in 3 days in Guatemala City. Although unfortunately hit by food poisoning (I am blaming the street market stomach), we have managed to see a fair amount of Antigua. Every weekend of Lent is some sort of festival/party/parade here in Antigua so Saturday night there were fireworks and on Sunday a huge 20 hour long parade around the town. Another sizeable market, a few ruins and a chocolate factory later and we've pretty much seen the whole town. It's quaint and quiet; a gorgeous place to experience for a few days.