We left for the small beach town of Progresso, about 20 minutes North of Merida. Ruben took us to nice little "outdoors" like restaurant near the beach. I say outdoors like because the restaurant did not have windows. It had a thatched roof and walls came up about half way....the rest was open to the beautiful view of the ocean. It was there we ate breakfast. We had "hotcakes" ---the universal word for pancakes. They also served bread and jam ---which Sophia pounded down into her little tummy. She loved the strawberry jam and ate the whole thing (she reminded me of Auntie Kristin who would eat all of the salsa condiments at a restaurant --ha!). She loved the stuff!
Ruben ordered a traditional Yucatanian breakfast so we could what it looked like. It has meat in the dish, so that is why we did not order or eat. It had pork, eggs, peas, etc. It looked interesting! We gave Ruben our bacon that came with our hotcakes. He was happy about that! :)
After our breakfast, we drove around Progresso a little bit and Ruben pointed out other restaurant options for us to go to if we wanted for lunch or dinner. We then went to a store in Progresso that is owned by Wal-mart. Yes, they have Wal-marts in Mexico. Actually, they have many American stores and restaurants there in Mexico. I was quite amazed. They had the typical McDonalds, Burger King, etc. But, they also had Costco, Home Depot, Wal-mart, TGIFridays, and many more. They did not have many of these stores in Progresso. The stores I mentioned were mostly in Merida, the larger city. But, in Progresso, they had a store owned by Wal-mart. (I can't remember the name). We shopped there for some traditional breads, strawberry soymilk, watermelon, and some water to take with us to the beach house. They had many breads out right now, because it is tradition to have many breads for the Day of the Dead (Halloween) ---a big holiday they celebrate.
After our adventures at "Wal-mart", we headed about 10 minutes toward Ruben's family beach house. Their family actually has two beach houses there in Progresso. One is owned by Ruben's Father's family and the other is owned by his Mother's family. His Mother's beach house is larger and more newly constructed. That is the one that Ruben took us to. We had the option of staying here for however long we wanted. We arrived to a beautiful, large beach house. It had 5 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms, a large Kitchen area and living room area. The back patio was huge and spatious and was very close to the ocean. It was remarkbly beautiful. Ruben left his truck with us and Ruben returned to Merida with his sister who was currently in Progresso working (she is a dentist).
Our little family was left alone in the beautiful beach house overlooking the radiant waters. Sophia immediately went all around the house and picked her room out to stay. She also found two little rocking chairs that were perfect size for her and Lydia. Oh Joy! Both girls could not resist a little rocking!
We went outside to play in the sand and collect sea-shells. There are a lot of sea-shells on this beach. The girls loved the sand. I found some big cups and brought them out to play with and collect sea-shells with. The girls were so content in just sitting in the sand and playing.
We came back into the beach house ate a little of our breads and strawberry milk. Then it was rest time as the girls were plenty tired from the days adventures thus far. The girls took about a 2 hour or so nap. Ric and I rested a little bit, but then enjoyed some quiet time outside on the patio overlooking the ocean. It was nice to sit in some rocking chairs and just look out and visit.
We had the option of staying the night there in the beach house, but we did want to go back to Merida where a traditional concert was being performed in the city center. It is an orchestra that its members are dressed in traditional Yucatan outfits and they have singers that sing some historical songs, etc. Sometimes they have dancing as well.
We decided to head back to Merida and if we felt like returning after the concert than we would come back and stay at the beach house, otherwise we would just stay in Merida.
Before heading back to Merida, we decided to eat some dinner. We drove back towards Progresso downtown area where Ruben had showed us the restaurants. We actually ended up at the same restaurant that we had eaten at for breakfast. The restaurant had a little play area for kids and Sophia really wanted to go play in the little "park". So, we let the kids play for awhile before dinner. They loved swinging in the airplane swings. This one of Sophia's favorite thing to do at a play park is swim. Now Lydia on the otherhand loves to climb. That is our little monkey.
I ordered a traditional Yucatan meal for dinner. It was fish stuffed with seafood. It had had octupus inside along with shrimp, calamari, etc. It was actually good. I know you may think---octopus?? I had Octopus once in high-school at our Prom dinner. It was pickled Octopus and not very good. Ruben mentioned that octopus was in season at the moment and very popular and good tasting. So, I decided to try it! Why not? And, I was impressed it was much better than the pickled stuff I had in the states.
On our way back to Merida, Ric got a little lost driving the truck into the city. Ruben forgot to give us a little bit of important info----ooops! So, here we are lost in Merida and we have not been able to get our cellphones to work with Ruben's cellphone yet. However, we were able to connect with his parents home phone. Thankfully, Ruben's father was home that speaks a little bit of English....and when we called back a few minutes later, Ruben was home. We pulled over in a Costco parking lot and Ruben came and picked us up. Funny thing, was that the Costco was right around the corner---within walking distance---from Rubens house!
We thought that we had missed the concert, but Ruben informed us that his sister was wrong about the show starting at 7pm---it really started at 9pm. So, we didn't miss it! Yeah! We realized then that after the show we would stay in Merida. We went back to Ruben's house for some "taquito" like snack out on the patio overlooking the pool. We also had a little Vino that we had brought as a gift to them from California. Ruben also pulled out a little drink he had brought back from Chezch area of Europe. It was interesting---almost tasted like brandy.
At 9pm we headed to the city center to enjoy a little concert. The music was pleasent and the girls, especially Lydia, loved to dance to the music. Both the girls met a little mexican girl and danced with her too. It was sweet and also funny, because they would talk to each other in their own languages and somehow they just kept talking and "communicating" somehow.
We also ate some spicy mexican peanuts that they were selling. Ruben told us that they do this concert every Thursday all year long. It is a big hit with the tourists. But, at this time when we arrived, there are not many tourists. We were at a tourist off-season....and it was the perfect time to be here.
It was a long day filled with many different adventures. The girls were very tired at the end of the day.....me too!
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