July 10, 2021: Day Nineteen

Today was quite a remarkable day - which may seem like its not saying a whole lot based on just how unremarkable our time has been spent so far here in Progreso.

Today, we took a private tour of the area with a self-described mestizo tour guide.  Our guide's name is Russell. (999-918-9925).  He lives in Chelem, which is just east of Progreso on the same barrier island.  He works for a tour company and he moonlights when the tour company is slow.  We were introduced to him by Richard, who runs Bolom Balam, which is part leather store, part artesanía store, and part charity.  Our obvious USA-ness caused the clerk (Erik) to ask where we're from, when we said "Florida", he ran across the street to get and introduce us to Richard, who was also from Florida, but he'd been in Progreso for quite some time.

Bolom Balam near the malecón in Progreso.

Anyway, there were a couple three hour tours offered by street vendors, but we listened to Richard and went with the significantly (about five times) more expensive personal tour from Russell.  Wow, was that ever a great choice.  He picked us up at our hotel and we went to the town of Tocoh to see the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and then to see a Mayan ruins at Mayapán, then two different cenotes (first Noh-Mozon and then Nah Yah).  For the part of our journey that went to the two cenotes, we were joined by seven year old Jose, who was our side-guide.  Jose was alright with descending down into the cenotes, but not alright with going into the water.  We did both climb down into both of them and swam in both of them, although we did not swing on the ropes that had been rigged for a more acrobatic jumping, nor did we jump off the roof down into the cenotes.  Being in the cenote was quite spectacular.    

Cenote Noh-Mozon from the ground level.

Cenote Noh-Mozon from the inside.

Russell's expertise made the ruins at Mayapán much more meaningful.  Francine and I both commented that had it not been for him, it would have been just us walking around some very old rocks.  He was very aware of the significance of the placement of the buildings and some of the artifacts.  If you ever get the chance to tour ruins of any kind, I would suggest that you do it with someone who knows them well.  Russell was also a spiritual person with Mayan leanings, so he was able to very quickly paint a picture of Mayan spiritual ideas that were of interest, especially to me.  

A tiny portion of the remains of the Mayan City of Mayapán from the top of its main temple.

Then, we went for lunch at a Mayan household.  This was quite possibly the best Yucatecan food we had so far. We drove mostly on back roads on the way home, through towns.   It was quite interesing to see how they lived - the condition of their living arrangements. 

Kitchen of the Mayan home (Carlos) at which we had lunch.

Like the Mayans themselves, the separation between the physical and the spiritual was very thin for Russell, which made his accompaniment on our journey quite meaningful and made the whole day quite an exceptional experience.

And so ends day nineteen.