Uxmal Ruins out of Progreso
The Fantasy arrived in Progreso a little before 7:00 AM. The Ecstasy arrived 10 minutes later. Both ships unloaded and we made our way to a “brand new gift shoppy commercially area” This was all a little bit too touristy for us. Reps from each tour held up signs with there excursion. Lines formed slowly behind each representative. I had been concerned that we would not know what to do, but it was quite organized.
The excursion description had said we would leave at 7:15, but it was more like 7:45. There were both Fantasy and Ectasy cruisers on our excursion.
As we boarded a Mercedes tour bus we handed Umberto our tickets. Our steward had placed our Uxmal ruins tickets in an envelope in our stateroom the night before.
LUNCH: As we entered the bus we were handed our lunch , a plastic bag with a (crudely wrapped saran wrapped roll (about 2 inches in diameter, an awful looking banana, some type of corn rings, and a bottle of room temperature water) I tried to eat the banana and the corn rings. I didn’t see anyone on the bus eat the lunch. The water was good to wash your hands
BUS : The Mercedes tour bus was only a few years old. It was fairly clean. The restroom was locked. During the 2 hour drive several folks tried to open the door. Umberto later told us the restroom was for emergencies only. We didn’t understand that one bit. The drive was crazy. Lots of 2 lane road at 95 plus KM per hours. Our driver thought nothing of passing slower vehicles at crazy speeds, running off the road. If you are prone to motion sickness…beware!!! Umberto talked for about 45 minutes. It was hard to understand him, but we could pick out bits and pieces.
RESTROOMS: since the restrooms were locked on the bus. Everyone made a B-Line to the Ruins restrooms. The restroom were modern and clean.
UXMAL RUINS. Umberto walked us around the ruins for about an hour, giving us a few highlights, at several stops. I overheard several other tour leaders whose English was a little better. While hard to understand, Umberto was very passionate about his talk. We were given the 2nd hour to explore the ruins on our own. It was very hot and ruins were very steep. Uxmal does have the highest and most original structures (pyrmids) of the Mayan ruins. We were all very hot and sweaty.
GIFT SHOPS & REFRESHMENTS There were several gifts shops and a restaurant. The shops were very expensive. A 20 oz cold Coke was $2.00.
We were supposed to meet back at the bus at 12:00 so that we could leave at 12:10. But almost everyone was back at the bus around 11:40 (all hoping we could board the Air Conditioned bus early) The bus driver was asleep on the locked bus, so we sat under a nearby tree.. The bus was opened around 11:55. We could have left by noon, but we did not leave until 12:30 because one of the ladies was very late. Her friend said that she was in the restroom/
Since we were over 20 minutes late leaving, the bus driver must have driven faster and crazier to make up for it. Some folks tried to sleep, but it was hard on the wild ride. The Air Conditioning could not keep up on the return trip. So we were all a sweaty mess,
When we arrived back at the ship, Umberto and Carlos asked for tips and held a basket out as we exited the bus. We were the last off and it did not look as though he had collected many tips.
I would recommend this trip for the historical value. We are not drinkers or partiers and this was our best option,