Progresso, Mexico

First port today – Progresso.  Never heard of it?  Me either before we booked this cruise.  From what we saw and heard today, Progresso was a small fishing village (octopus is the main catch) on the Yucatan Peninsula that happened to “luck out” (subjective, I’m sure) when Carnival Cruise Line decided to move in.  The cruise line built a pier that is 4-miles long, because the sea is too shallow for the ships to come closer to shore than that.   Now the town has a steady feeding of two ships full of tourists that stop each week, making tourism the largest economy.

We got off the ship about 8:15 am and, not interested in a 4-mile hike in the 90F/30C heat, we found the free shuttle in to town.   The shuttle dropped us off in a parking lot that held a small vendor market.  Locals were selling the usual trinkets that they think tourists like.  You know what I mean:  knock-off purses and sunglasses, carved wooden boxes, woven blankets and t-shirts with ridiculously lewd sayings on them.  Come to think of it, people must actually like these or they would start selling something else, right?   As I’ve mentioned before, we buy practically nothing when we travel, but we like to look. I keep hoping for something different, but never find it.  One day, I’m going to retire to a cruise ship port and open a shop that sells things that I would want to buy.   For example, instead of a carved wooden trinket box, how about a carved wooden salt box, or wooden spoon?  How about a picture frame?  Instead of the gaudy leather purses the locals hand-tool, how about a dog collar or leash?  Anyway…enough about my retirement plan.

Also in the same parking lot we encountered several tour guides hawking their adventures.  We’d read a little bit about Progresso before we left, so knew that we weren’t going to spend all day here.  Unless you were going to one of the day resorts or the ruins, there isn’t enough to do.   We did, however, decide to do the 30-minute city tour on the double decker bus.

Interesting!

Us on the top of the DD bus.

The Malecon

The tour was perfect – a good way to see the city but not have to walk around in the heat.  As well, there was a guide who told a bit about the history and economy of Progresso.  We’re always interested in the cost of living in the ports we visited.  The guide told us that a relatively nice house that we saw for sale would cost about $50,000 USD.  Rent is about $250/month.  I’m packing now.

After the city tour, we stopped at a little bar across the street from the beach.  They had free wifi, so that was a selling feature for us!  We ordered – a margarita for me, and Corona for Andrew.  They brought me two margaritas saying it was happy hour.  I’ve not known a bar to have happy hour at 10:30 in the morning, but who am I to complain.  They also brought us chips and salsa and a fairly steady stream of free tequila shots.  Uncle!  After about 45 minutes we asked for our check and were told that we owed $8 USD.  No wonder rent is so cheap! 

By noon, we had pretty much exhausted what there was to do in town, so we headed back to the ship.  We did stop and buy a magnet for Andrew (he buys a magnet every place we visit) and a bottle of Mexican vanilla for me.  It’s such a bargain here compared to the States!  We were back on the ship shortly after noon, had a bite to eat, and then had a nap.  My first one of the whole trip – yay!

Tonight was the past-guest party, which they offer as a thank you to guests who have gold, platinum or diamond status.  Basically, they hand out free drinks and appetizers, and introduce all the senior officers.   Carnival has recently changed their “medal” program, meaning that you have to now sail many, many more cruises to reach each tier.  There’s been a lot of controversy over this on the message boards.  Because we had already reached platinum status under the old program (10 cruises), we will maintain that status.  Under the new program, we won’t reach the next level (Diamond) for a long, long time.  Likely not before we die.    

Tomorrow we arrive in Cozumel at 9 am.  We had originally thought we would dive in Cozumel; it’s one of our favorite spots due to the slow currents, which result in “drift diving”.  After some discussion, however, we opted not to haul all of our dive gear (another large suitcase) on this trip for only one dive.  Instead, we’re going to do an “Amazing Race” excursion.  One, or both of us, may die at the hands of the other one.  Keep your fingers crossed that we both make it out alive.