Thursday, February 7, 2019

Carnival Cruise/New Orleans 2019: Day 5

Tuesday was our second, and last port of call on our cruise and it was in Progresso, Mexico. We had an excursion planned for this stop and it was so much fun!! Part of our group had an excursion to a local resort where they could lay on the beach and swim in their pool. They had a great time, but we decided to go and visit the Mayan Ruins in Uxmal.

For this excursion, we rode a tour bus with several other people from our cruise ship along with 2 different tour guides. The bus ride to the ruins was about 2 hours from Progresso and while we were on the bus one of the tour guides gave us a lot of information about the Mayan culture, even how to do Mayan math. Once we arrived at the ruins, our second tour guide gave us a walking tour of the ruins for about an hour and then let us walk around and climb the ruins if we wanted to. We had about 2 hours to ourselves before we had to get back on the bus. There was also an authentic Mayan restaurant on the property that we had lunch at which was really good! It was such a great day!


I decided to bring my big camera along for this excursion because I thought it would be pretty cool to see, but it was even better than I thought. It was an entire ancient city!


There were tons of Iguana running all around the ruins! I hadn't really thought about this fact, but they were everywhere!



The architecture was amazing!


There were several areas of the city. The first pyramid was the biggest, but you weren't able to climb it. It was steep and probably very dangerous to climb. We were able to climb everywhere else though, and many of the areas were tall and steep as well. Jackson and Avery did great. I was a little concerned about them getting hurt, but they did great!
















Once we got to the other side of the "city" there was another tall pyramid. This one wasn't quite as tall as the first one so we were able to climb on it. The steps were quite steep so Jake's mom and Jim decided they were going to sit this one out, so they offered to take Avery and go back to the little shop and restaurant area right outside of the ruins and we'd just meet them there when we were done. I was a little nervous with Jackson climbing them but we took it slow and he did great!











Once we got done with the ruins, we met my Mother-In-Law, Jim and Avery at the Mayan Restaurant on the property. Our guide said they'd have regular Mexican food on the menu, but he really wanted us to try authentic Mayan food while we were there, so he came over to our table and told us a few things we could try on the menu. I got chicken and it was really good. While our guide was there, he also offered to let us go back and make our own tortillas. There was a hut just behind the restaurant where they made their own authentic tortillas. There was a local woman making them who spoke no English. She had the dough all ready for us so that we just had to pat it out flat. There was a skill to it though that they showed us. The kids had a lot of fun, especially Avery. She said it was like playing with play-doh! Ha. There was also a wood burning fire and a stone that they cooked the tortillas on. It was quite warm in the hut with all of that heat from the fire. We made several tortillas and then we ate them with our food. It was such a cool experience, not only for me, but something I'm so glad my kids could experience as well.












After we were done eating, it was time to head back to the bus. We mostly slept on the way back to Progresso. Ha. We took a few pictures in Progresso before heading back onto the Cruise ship though.





Once back on the ship, we went back to our room to freshen up and then went to get a drink at the Alchemy Bar before heading to dinner. After dinner, our niece Bella said she'd watch the kids in our cabin if we wanted to stay out for a little while that night, which worked out great!



It was a great day in Progresso, and the Mayan Ruins were probably my favorite part of the cruise! It was so cool to see them and learn some of the history.

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