When we went to Mexico- Wednesday

Wednesday morning we pulled up to the port city of Progreso.  The pier was about 4 miles long so it took forever to get a bus and make it to the actual city, but once we got there were quickly met our tour guide and we were off!

We hadn't heard many good things about Progreso- a lot of reviews and people who had been before said it was not safe, dirty, poor...many people didn't even get off the boat.  The reviews about the ship sponsored excursions weren't that great either, but all the reviews online that were really positive went through a private tour company, so we opted to do that instead and it was wonderful!

Our tour guide Angel picked us up and were were immediately on the road to see the ruins at Uxmal.
On the way we stopped by a small town and he showed us around a beautiful old church.

Chris and Angel

inside the Church

Then he took us to the town's market and we were able to experience "real" Mexico- I loved it. He bought us some candy which tasted really good- but he said were were only allowed to eat a tiny and drink only a sip of water for 30 minutes after amount as more would produce some highly undesirable intestinal issues.  We of course followed his wise counsel.

It took about and hour and a half to get to Uxmal but it was AMAZING! I absolutely loved it there.  It is a lot like Chiche itza but not as touristy which was exactly what I wanted. Angel spoke Mayan so it was amazing to hear the language, the stories, and the meaning behind it all.

Mayan "basketball" courts

I was so excited that we were able to climb up on of the pyramids.  It was so incredibly steep and I will completely admit I was scared but the view from the top was completely worth it.  The place was absolutely spectacular.

we saw these iguanas everywhere- this was probably the first time I really wished my kids were with us cause they would have loved chasing them!

After a couple hours at Uxmal we headed out to go find a cenote (and underground pool of water).
When we arrived at the cenote there was no one there.  There are some really big touristy ones that big groups go to but Angel took us to a "for locals only" type place, a bit smaller but we were all alone so it was even better! I was afraid the water would be super cold but it actually warm.  It was so cool to swim in the cave- I absolutely loved it! I finally left when the bats in the cave terrified me, but I think Chris would have stayed forever.

We then topped by a sisal hacienda and got to see a very poor Mexican town.  It seemed as though the reason why a lot of tourist don't like Progreso to go places around there you have to pass by a lot of poverty- i though it was an great experience to see how so many people lived. Definitely made me grateful for what we have, Angel also talked about how the people in many of these small towns are very happy people even though they don't have much.  I'm really glad he took us there.

We finally had to head back to the ship and Angel stopped and got us some traditional popsicles- one was corn and the other was some kind of local fruit- both were surprisingly really good.

We had such a wonderful experience- it was awesome!