Cruise Ships and Tourists

When we go out onto the upper deck of our house, we can always see when the cruise ship has arrived.  This happens roughly twice a week and I wondered what they actually see when they visit Progreso.   As I have mentioned before, this is not a resort town in the model of Cancun or Mazatlan, but a fishing town which just happens to have a stretch of beach that caters to the tourists when they arrive on the cruise ships.  So off I went to see first hand what the tourists see.
First of all, the pier where the ships dock is also the port for shipping of goods to and from the Yucatan.  The next major port on the east side of Mexico is in Veracruz.  Due to the wide, limestone shelf, the Progreso pier had to be built five miles into the Gulf to get to a water depth that would accommodate cruise ships and freighters.  Here's a shot from outer space:

I went out to the Progreso cruise terminal located at the end of the pier via Auto Progreso, the same bus company on which I used to commute when working in Merida.

By the way, this is the only way we locals can sneak out onto the pier.  It is pretty heavily guarded..

I wandered through the shopping plaza that is also in the arrival area, and there she was:  The Carnival Line's pride and joy, the "Behemoth of the Seven Seas"...

O.k., I know it says "Fantasy" on it, but it is big.

Now a look at the shopping plaza at the cruise terminal...

By the way, everything here is sold in dollars, not pesos.

I'm not sure what the "Summer Clearance" thing is all about as it is pretty much summer all the time here.

I imagine this is as far as some of these folks go, buying a souvenir and then back on to the safety of the  boat.

So, onto the bus and into town where the shopping is more interesting. 

The main plaza in town converts to a bazaar selling the usual trash and trinkets when the ship is in....like pipes for your smoking pleasure...

And jewelry...

There's even a clown selling balloon animals...or hats...or something....I wonder what this discussion is all about...also, he should watch his placement of the lower balloon...

One thing you're sure to run into is the Cuban cigar salesmen hawking very nice wood and glass boxes of Cuban cigars.  However, these are fakes, made in Honduras.  The Cubans are very selective about who they let sell their cigars.

For us locals, the people watching is great sport.  Here's a good looking group...

I pray she just sat in something wet.  Nice sombrero, though...

One thing I've always wanted to do was ride the touribus that scoots through town while a guide gives valuable information such as who founded the town, when the lighthouse was built and so forth.  So for a mere 20 pesos I decided to take a ride.  The funny part was when the tour guide, Julio, looked at me and said. "But you live here.  Why do you want to go on the bus?"  I explained that I was freelancing for National Geographic, blah, blah.  He just laughed.  I just told him it was for this dog and pony show called my blog, so he wrote down the website so he could see it later.

This is Julio..

The bus...

Julio was right.  There wasn't much new to learn on this trip.  Nevertheless, it was a beautiful day.  Here we are on the malecon or main beach boardwalk..

Passing the "wedding cake" house...

Cool ride.
So, what did I learn?  Not much except that this commerce is necessary to supplement the economy here.  Fishing and tourism each by themselves cannot sustain this town.  Together, they can, but it's still economically touch and go most of the time.

I had a nice conversation with a young man from Atlanta who, when asked what he thought of Progreso replied, "Not much going on here."  "Exactly", I smiled.

More later,

Larry