7/5 - iVamos a La Playa!

Hello friends! :) Good to see you! (Well, at least you can see me, or pictures of me, right up top there! I couldn't decide which picture was better) Anyways, now moving on to today's adventures...

Progreso is seriously a better beach than any of the ones I've been to in California when it comes to the water AND the sand! :) Granted, there is one CA beach I like because it has tidepools, but beyond that, Progreso trumps the CA beaches. I love how white the shoreline is at the Mexico beaches, and the water is pleasantly warm yet still a good way to cool off.

Yup, that's where I went today with some people in my group after classes. It was actually quite interesting trying to get there in the first place, by taking a bus to el centro and then walking to a special bus station for "Auto Progreso". From there, for 16 pesos one way or 20-something pesos round trip, you can get to Progreso; much more expensive than the regular buses, but hey, it´s understandable why.

This is a really cool billboard I saw on the way to the bus station to get to Progreso. It says "Practice your optimism", which is just like Dr. Laura Schlessinger's message to "Practice happiness" in her book Ten Stupid Things Couples Do To Mess Up Their Relationships. I love finding connections like that :)

Here I am as we're walking to the station for the direct-to-Progreso bus station

Laura as we wait for the Progreso bus

Ryan and Ethan, the "missionary companions"

Getting onto the bus

Me on the bus! It was a nice first-class type one, too :)

When we got to Progreso, we walked through this really cool yellow building to get to the beachfront. I didn't have much time to take many pictures of it, though. :(

Before hitting the water, though, we searched for a restaurant to eat lunch at, and we picked a place called Los Flamingos. They brought us appetizers of chips with various dips/condiments for them (like beets, a fish mixture that was surprisingly tasty, and refried beans) while we ordered drinks. While the appetizers were good, the food I ordered was SO much better! I tried fried bananas for the first time, and they were a lot sweeter than I anticipated them to be. It was amazing good, as was my fried chicken.

Here, instead of the waiter asking us if we wanted the check, we had to ask him for the check when we were ready to pay. Apparently that´s the norm in Mexican restaurants; you could stay as long as you wanted to and pay when you're ready. Oh, and they never split the check, so we always have to pay as a large group and count the money and such.

Almuerzo (Lunch) at Los Flamingos

Thomas with his water bottle and Brad wearing his BYU-Idaho shirt; neither of them actually ordered any food, but they were more than willing to finish off the appetizers and anyone else's food that couldn't eat it all

Me, Rachel, Laurita, and (it´s kinda hard to see her) Alannah

Caitlin, Gaylee, Allie, Audrey, and Laura; in front of Laura are some chips and some cubed beets (the latter of which I found... interesting. Didn't eat much of it myself)

Laurita and Natalie nom-ing on appetizers; over by Natalie's hand is some of the fish mix that we had with the chips

My food! I ordered fried chicken (which, to my surprise, came with rice, french fries, and a tiny salad) and fried bananas. Fry ALL THE THINGS!!!

Those fried bananas were really good, although eventually I couldn't eat them all. I was also very happy with how small the portion sizes were at the restaurant; I ate almost everything, unlike back home where I often need a take-home box after eating out.

Natalie with her fried bananas and rice

Rachel looking happy with her food

Laura ordered a fish filet; off to the left are Gaylee, Allie and Audrey looking at... something.

Audrey ordered something that looked deliciously cheesy (not in that "gag, what a groaner joke" kind of cheesy)

Ethan here ordered fish, and he got the WHOLE THING - still on the bones! It even had its eyes still in the sockets, and he ATE THEM as well as the meat. Ugh, I couldn´t stand to watch him eat those fish eyes. :P

We were actually in the restaurant quite a while, and it was around 4-ish when we paid and went down to the beach front. I actually spent more time out of the water than in it this time around, probably just because I was feeling tired. I do love the ocean water, though, even if it is super salty (probably is more so than at the California beaches).

At the beach front! (and sorry for the awkward pose, Caitlin... Really, all of us girls were wearing our swimsuits under our clothes, so despite how it might´ve looked, we weren't being scandelous or anything.)

Tomas putting on sunblock, Rachel going through her bag, and Ethan drinking water like a boss

Aaron just jumped right into the water before the rest of us. It was actually amusing.

It was nice to chillax, play in the water a bit, read through my "Rough Guide" to figure out what else I want to do down here, and just talk with people and listen to them talk. Granted, I don't want to come down to the beach TOO often - there's so much I want to do here that I don't want to spend too much of the trip by the ocean, even though  I do like it. Still, it's an amazing beach; I totally recommend going to Progreso if you ever get the chance to go to Merida.

Hasta la vista, ya'll!