What Does it Cost?

We get the question "How much does it cost?" a lot. First, remember we're talking about Bev & Terry. We do every thing we want to do, and have lots of fun doing it, but we do it second class rather than first class. Since going to Progreso is a pretty normal day for us, here's our trip to Progreso.

A SUMMARY OF OUR DAILY EXPENSES IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

We got up and decided to get breakfast and pastries at the panaderia. We ate them on the bus.


THE NEW PROGRESSO BUS STATION

The bus station is on Calle 60 so it really is a pretty short hike to the bus station for us. We got to the bus station just in tme to buy 2 round trip tickets and hop on the bus. Life is good! Of course, when the bus left the station it turned and went over to Calle 68...we could've caught the bus one block from the casa. The bus trip to Progreso takes about 45 minutes...depends on traffic in Merida and how many people get off/on along the way. The Merida-Progreso highway is a nice 6 lane highway. The alternative would be to pay for a rental car or take a taxi or tour bus.

The Progreso bus station is only a couple of blocks from the malecon. Terry had to go to the bano which cost 2 pesos. He tipped the sweet little lady that sits at the desk all day a peso. She hands out the 4 alotted squares of toilet tissue. Today was a non-cruiseship day...totally different atmosphere than when it is a cruise ship day.

LAID BACK PLAYA PROGRESO ON NON-CRUISE SHIP DAY

THE MALECON

We head straight for the beach along the malecon. Our cervezas are cheap Sol 473 ml (approx. 16 ouncers) purchased at the Cerve Frio which is a short walk over the style and across the malecon. If we really wanted to save some pesos we could buy 1-liter Sols and some plastic cups...that's what the locals do. They cost $21 pesos each compared to our Sols which are 2 for $27 pesos. The alternative would be to purchase from the waiters that  work for the restaurants along the malecon and also serve cold adult beverages on the beach...for a cost. We don't have to pay for the public banos as long as we are on the beach...leave it at that!

Today, we had to splurge for AA batteries for the camera. Four Duracell batteries at the beach set up back $62 pesos.

As we got intelligent on the beach, we talked about Progreso as a Carnival Cruise Line stop. The beaches certainly aren't the bluest water, the souvinirs aren't the most glamorous, but Progreso remains rather quaint and it is one of the few stops where you can still get a glimpse into day to day life in a fairly sleepy little Mexican port town.

We always visit our same little beach bar directly on the beach and usually have ceviche and cervezas before heading back to Merida. Today, we decided to go to Eladio's - a very nice restaurant close to the pier and right on the beach of course. This is a splurge for us. We ordered cervezas and while we were still purusing the menus, our waiter brought us botanas of fresh tostado chips, refried bean dip, a sort of German potato salad plate, and the infamous cut-up weiners in salsa with onions/peppers....this is gratis when you order beer.

BOTANOS GRATIS AT ELADIO'S



 We ended up drinking 3 beers between the two of us and ate ceviche mixto and empanadas cazon...baby shark meat in a turnover kinda thing. These are the things you dream about when Mexico is in the rearview mirror.

EMPANADAS CAZON

CEVICHE MIXTO

After lunch, we headed back to the bus station---each made a stop at the bano and were on the bus back to Merida. We feel so lucky that we can get off the bus in Merida and walk a few blocks to Calle 70 saving the time it takes for the bus to drive all the way through downtown and still we have to walk about the same distance to get to the house.
 On the way out of town, we saw the Economica Cocina Hong Fat. I'm quite sure we could've had lunch there for considerably less...that would be an alternative to Eladio's.

Tonight....salsa dancing at Santiago Parque -
The band starts at sometime around 8:30...we had a couple of cocktails and by the time we got to the parque it was almost 10:00. We really didn't know where the time went. We were able to get in a couple of salsas before the band stopped playing --- we held our own and got a lot of smiles from our fellow dancers....I'm sure some were secretly laughing at our Gringo style, but the highlight was after the dance when we were invited back for next Martes noche by an elderly dancing couple. They said we needed to be there at ocho y medio cuando la musica jugando. They shook our hands and we parted ways. We came home and did some more salsa dancing in the house.

A Breakdown of What We Spent Today (in pesos) -
Breakfast & Postres............$ 29
Two round-trip bus tickets...$ 56
Bus station bano stop...........$  2
4 AA camera batteries.........$ 62
4 cervezas @ the beach.......$ 54
Botonas at Eladio's............. $   0
Lunch & 3 Cervezas........... $460
2 Bus station bano stops.....$    4
Dancing in the parque.........$    0
TOTAL COST                     $639
...ABOUT $59 USD