Progreso...The Joy of Giving

Friday was warm and sunny. Sr. P. showed up a little before 9am and we made arrangements for tiling the kitchen and painting the exterior of the house. Things start on Tuesday. 

Then, we caught the autobus to Progreso. In May, on our last trip to Progreso, we had bought a really nice hamaca from Antonio. We always admired his tenacity. Some might find it annoying, but we admired his selling skills. I mean, you will never, ever make a sale if you don't ask, right? Every trip to the beach he would stop by and say hello and ask us if we wanted to buy a hamaca. Every time our answer was the same: 

"No, not today, but tomorrow."

 Except for that last trip down there. On that day we bought a hamaca from him. We also promised to bring him back a pair of Nike tennis shoes, Size 6 from the Estados Unidos. He isn't a young man, but a size 6 US shoe is actually a youth size.

On Friday, Terry had those Nike size 6 tennis shoes in his backpack just waiting to run into Antonio as we knew we would. We walked down the malecon and slipped out of our flip flops, spread our towels, and turned on our music. We lied down feeling very fortunate. We had warmth, sunshine, and Jerry Jeff Walker. And later, a couple of cold Sols.

Would you believe the first vendor that stopped by was Antonio?! No kidding! He came walking down the beach, and stopped to ask us if we wanted to buy a hamaca. He didn't recognize us at first, but when Terry showed him the tennis shoes it all came back to him. He was so excited and put the tennis shoes on right away. They were a little tight, unfortunately, but he loved them. We don't know if he will be able to wear them, or will trade them for something else. He said he could stretch them. It doesn't matter. We had promised him the shoes and he was quite surprised that we brought them. He quickly took his hamacas off his back and told us to pick out one in exchange....any one we wanted....our choice. I went for the most colorful one that from the feel of it I could tell was the least well-made, and probably the least costly. The happiest deal on the beach that day in Progreso just took place! I don't know who was happiest over the simple joy of giving. We had some hugs and Antonio told us he loved us.

Antonio went on to say the cruise ship that was docked was from Obama. We are pretty sure he meant Alabama. He and the rest of the beach vendors were frustrated because he said all the cruisers got on tour buses at the far end of the dock and headed straight into Merida...never even stopping in Progreso or hanging at the beach. I do find it a little sad, both for the vendors and for the cruisers. We kept our beach day short since the sun was intense.

Pretty sure none of the cruisers felt the same Joy of Giving that we had experienced while on a simple outing at the beach in quaint Progreso.