Today would be a new place that we have never visited before. Can you believe it??? I was super excited about this port. I had read a lot of people don't like progreso and don't think it's a nice place to go and you are better off staying on the ship. However, I did my research and there seems to plenty of places to visit and things to do. I would even consider coming here for a land vacation because of everything I found online.

I had set the alarm for 6am ship time...which we would later discover that this meant it ws only 4am in Progreso. Yikes! It was still dark out. The family thought I was nuts at this point. Hey, we gotta stay on ship time. Captains orders.

The rest of the fam didn't get up until 6:30am and we headed off to the buffet for omelets and I helped myself to another plate of bacon. Yum!

After breakfast we went back to the room to get our bags for the day and went off to our meeting spot for the excursion (located at Far Side).

Now as I mentioned before, since we had not been here before (and especially what we were wanting to do here) we had booked with the cruise line. Our tickets said to meet there by 7:40am and it also said to be there 15 minutes early. I'm not really sure why they say to meet so early. People were still coming at 8am. They were making announcements that if anyone wanted to buy water they could go do so at this time. Like why did they tell us to be there so early then?

So what are we doing today?

Like I said, we purchased this prior to our cruise so we managed to get a discount for doing so. Here's what we paid:

At 8:15am it was time to head off the ship. Now I had read that this is the longest cruise pier ever built. It was built to accommodate larger cruise ships as the area is very shallow. The pier is 5 miles long and they do have free shuttle buses running down the pier to the main land.

I'm not sure what I expected to see or what it would be like but I know it wasn't this. I guess I expected to walk off the ship onto a long pier and buses lined up taking you back and forth like other ports. But it was different. It looked like you are just walking down a short pier to the port. It was obviously a large "port" pier and you felt like you were just on land. I almost forgot I was actually 5 miles away from land.

They had the people on the pier dressed up to take pictures with. Just like in Cozumel.

Each tour guide held up their sign so you knew which line to get in.

They did have the drug sniffing dogs at the port sniffing everyone in line. I have to admit I was SUPER nervous. I vape and I know I read multiple times that you are not allowed to bring vapes into Mexico. I've also read the "new rules" (which were a couple of years ago) that you were no longer allowed to smoke unless you were within your own home. I've never done it before, I decided I would this time around and ...just play dumb right? Dumb may get me prison time I've heard. Eek! I nudged the hubby and told him to pick that bag up off the ground and put it on his shoulder. "No the other shoulder" "Turn toward me". The dog kept walking. Whew! Safe. Honestly, I don't know if there's any truth to it or not and once in Costa Maya we spoke to the locals and establishments and was told that they don't follow it and you still could as long as it wasn't by a restaurant. So, who knows. The dog did pick up on someone's bag in our line and they had her empty out the bag and found a bunch of fruit in it. They only confiscated it and she didn't go to jail. Whew!

It was now 8:33am. Don't you know our group was the last to leave for our excursion. They told us to follow them out to the parking lot and off we went.

This is like any other cruise port, you have to walk through the shopping area to get out. I swear it doesn't feel like you are 5 miles out on a pier.

Out in the parking lot the buses were lined up for everyone.

Sakari yells "IT'S THE CATERPILLAR BUSES!!! WE GET TO RIDE ON THE CATERPILLAR. AND LOOK!!! THERE'S A NEMO CATERPILLAR!!"

We all got on the bus and found a spot to sit. It looks like the actual tour guide company is called "Total Gusto" in case anyone wondered.

We finally pulled out at 8:50am and was on our way. It was really hard to tell that you were on a pier because this was most of what you could see

Eventually you would get to see a little water along the way toward the end:

Before arriving to the main land, I noticed there was a beach right on the side of the bridge.

We made it to the main land and off we went. I would take pictures along the way and I noticed there were a LOT of wind turbines here. The tour guide kept us busy telling us various things along the way. However, the speaker sitting right above us was blown and we could not understand most of what he was saying and of course with it being above us, it would drown out being able to hear any of the other speakers. It was annoying and we had no idea what was going on except a few things here and there.

We're going right along and then we hear a POP! Um....what was that? The hubby said "yea, there's definitely something wrong and that did not sound like we ran over anything I'm telling ya". We did pull over and many of us decided to get off.

It was now 9:30am. The hubby had to go see what was going on. Yep, it was the water pump that broke and we lost a line. He let them know the issue and they called for assistance. We weren't going anywhere in this bus.

Our excursion guide called for another bus and we were told they would be here to pick us up in 30 minutes. They notified the cruise ship of what was happening as well.

We headed across the street to a little convenience store to get something to drink. We would find that they only accepted peso's or Zelle. Well, there's that. Everyone that went over was told the same thing. The bus driver said that's normal because people on the mainland that are not in a tourist area do not deal with US dollars and don't want to take the time to go to the bank to exchange for peso's.

We were told about another little store a block away and there was also a gas station beside it. The hubby and Karl were going to be our hero's and walk down there to get their thirsty damsels something wet and cold before we melted. Off they went.

Well, the other store wasn't open yet (we would be told that most places do not open until 10am their time) UGH! Come on man! It's hot and we are thirsty!

Well so many people were going across the street that FINALLY the store decided to look up the exchange rate and start taking peoples money! Yep, they knew how much money they were missing out on and the hassle to have to exchange to peso's was definitely going to be worth it. Almost the entire bus was in the store at this point.

Yep, they probably made enough money to go ahead and close for the rest of the day. Here's the great thing...A large actual bottle of pop was only .80¢. Can you believe it? I would have bought up every diet they had if I had a cooler.

So at some point, when we were in the store, our bus pulled off. Wait, what? How did this happen? I guess the policia told them they would have to move off the main street blocking traffic and drive it down the road to a safer place. We were told that another bus was on the way to pick us up in 30 minutes. Wasn't it 30 minutes like 30 minutes ago? This is all that was left of our bus...fluids and the belt that broke.

Oh look at the mango trees growing in the yard across the street:

Aww, look at this cute little colectivo car going by.

Then they tell us the bus is coming and should be here in 20 minutes. Then he suggested we all should walk down to where they took the other bus. Well now I wish I would have got back on the bus before it pulled away.

Off we went. There were some REALLY big sidewalk curbs. Some of them was as high as my knee.

Fancy trees along the sidewalk:

We continued on and finally the bus was in sight.

Whew ok, we made it. I was really trying to reserve my steps for the excursion but they decided to get this party started sooner than expected.

There were actually people still sitting on the bus and let me tell you it was HOT in there! We stood outside by the bus trying to stay in the shade. "It will be here in 20 minutes" Geesh!

Well eventually it did come and we were finally in the a/c and happy to be sitting down again.

Now I don't want to scare anyone off but getting to the first stops, which would be the Aki Ruins, is around an hour to hour and a half drive. Now that we are on a different bus, WE HAD SPEAKERS THAT WORKED!! Yippee! The tour guide announced that the ship was aware of our break down and that we would not be rushed during the excursion and they would be waiting on us when we returned no worries.

The tour guide told us about the country and the different colonias (neighborhoods) we would pass. I remember one area we were passing he said the people there had no place to take their trash so everyone would just go down the street to dump their trash. The fields around there were given to the people as extensions of the land after the Mexican revolution. Sometimes they would burn it. There were a lot of wild fires in the dry season because of this. The soil in the area is very poor and low in nutrients so not much would grow there. By "slashing and burning" parts of the land the ashes would be used as fertilizer. They would create borders on the property to keep fire from jumping from one property to the next.

Most of the homes would be single story homes and the highest would be 2 stories. They all must have a back yard for families to hang out in and where they would spend most of their time at.

We were almost to the ruins so he gave us a little history regarding the ruins. The name Ake means vines. Most are made of stucco and are archeological ruins that have been restored. They are not like pyramids. They loved astrology and the temples were a way to get closer to the sky.

The Spanish invasion was in the 1500's and destroyed everything they could find on the temples with writing or carvings. They call the big ruins the IRS because it was the ruin that people come to give offerings or to sacrifice. No, it was not to sacrifice humans but something that they owned. The offerings could consist of essence to burn, deer meat, flowers, perfume and tobacco and paid to the priest to pay their taxes by the rich.

So we had finally arrived at 11:27am and the bus was parked and we started our walk toward the ruins. It was a 10 minute walk to get to the ruins from the parking lot. Along the way...

Along the way there was a place that was making twine and other things.

There were other ruins/buildings around the area but they were blocked off

Finally we could see the ruins!

One of the ruins on the side we had to go up with the tour guide. He said it was unsafe to go alone and he would have to show us the proper way to get up. The others that wanted to explore the big ruins could do so on their own. We decided to go up with him.

It took us 2 minutes to climb to the top of this one. Once up at the top we had a great overview of the area and there were several spots they said was the perfect place for a "selfie".

The only way to climb this thing is to go slowly and use your hands on the way up. On the way down, butt crawl by sitting and putting your feet down on the next steps and repeat.

A few selfies and we were photobombed by the kids:

We walked around the other side and found it interesting. Maybe a fit pit? For those incense to burn?

We slowly but surely butt scooted our way back down the ruin and it was time to head over to the other one.

Time to climb again. These stairs are huge and there is a reason behind it. They were used to separate the different levels so that people could not get up them easily. Every section was ceremonial. They were temples, not houses. It was a place to reach the heavens and talk to the gods. You must be respectful. Now although it can potentially be a rough and slow climb, it only took us 3 minutes to the very tippy top.

Yep, it's selfie time again.

The hubby decided to photo bomb the kids picture since they had done us earlier.

It was really pretty up there with the stones reaching to the sky.

A few more pictures and it would be time to head back down.

The kids were a little quicker getting down than I was. But I would weave myself back and forth finding little "extra" steps to make it not a steep in places. But it was not a butt crawl type of situation on this one.

Although we had only been there for around 30 minutes, it was more than enough time to climb both of them, get great pictures of the views, and now it was time to go. I've never been to an actual "ruins" before (at least the kind that you climb) and now I can say I've been there and done that. I've done replica ruins and seen small ones in various places, just not ones that you climb.

There was also a deer park here beside the place that was making the twine. It said the white tail deer became endangered back in the 70's there. At the entrance we would see this:

We were back on the bus at 12:10pm and headed to our next stop, which was the cenotes at Mucuyche. It was going to be another hour drive to that stop as well. Yes, there's a lot of traveling time on this excursion. I believe it was a little longer because we didn't arrive until 1:30pm.

We were told to gather our things and bring them with us and then off we went. The grounds were really pretty.

This would be the area you put your items. They had shelves with numbers on them. We were told which number our excursion was and were assured people would be watching our things and they had camera's in each section as well.

After putting our things away I would find that the hubby would still have his shoes on. "You plan on swimming in your shoes?" He said he didn't want to walk on the ground in bare feet or burn his feet. Well, then you will be swimming with them on if that's the case. I had brought my water socks with me so he decided to wear those instead. I had my water shoes. The kids...well, they would just have to suffer with their bare feet.

We went over to get our life jackets. No one was there handing them out or sizing you up. You just grabbed one and put it on. Then you are REQUIRED to wash off at the outside shower prior to going. The water was cool and refreshing on this hot day.

Then our group headed toward the cenote. My heart was racing and I was so excited.

It was a super short walk and before long, I was looking down past the trees and could see the cenote.

We had arrived at the cenote/cave area and were instructed there were several ways to get in. You could jump at the edge (when the guide told you to go) or you could walk in at the stairs. Most people jumped...including my daredevil self. The hubby told me it wasn't a good idea with my foot but I was doing this!

Yes there are bats flying above in the cave. No they didn't bother anyone or come down low.

They allowed 2 people to go in at a time if they wanted. So, Sakari and Karl went.

I was up next. The hubby wasn't going to jump because of his ears. So, he decided to stay above and take a video of the event instead. I was a solo jumper. As you can tell from the pictures of the kids above jumping, it's just a ledge above the water and not high at all.

I met up with the kids as the hubby walked down and got in

Can you see the little bats hanging upside down toward the right of the picture?

Down below the surface the water had lights and it was really pretty. There were a few fish but very little to be seen. I don't know why, I'd pick this beautiful place to live if I was a fish.

The beautiful rocks above and beside us.

After everyone was in the cave and exploring, they told us to swim out and toward the light and there was an opening between the rocks and in the cave. We could see the light.

A couple of fishes down below (on the right side of the picture)

We were headed out into a beautiful area. It was like floating down a lazy river.

Along the sides were pathways for walking. It was just beautiful in the area with the rocks beside us, the clear water and the vines hanging down. We continued to float.

A few little fishies down below.

Coming out of the tunnel

Then we started hearing this noise. It was loud. It sounded like water. IT WAS WATER! A waterfall to be exact. Oh how pretty!

Well that was refreshing! At the end there are steps to get out easily. I might add that they do have tubes to float on if you don't want to swim. There was one lady from our group that used it. You may have noticed her with the walker in one of the pictures from Ake. So just know if you have mobility issues or maybe even swimming issues, you can use a tube (if you can get down into the water).

See the little fishies in the water?

Looking back toward the way we just came out of the water.

As we came out there was a path to follow and they told us we were going into another cave and off we went.

It was really pretty in there with the trail all lit up. I didn't know if we were going out a different way to get back out to the regular area or what was happening.

Then we came out to another area of water that was lit up. I couldn't tell what exactly was going on at this point. Was there another cave?

We were told to enter the water at the stairs and swim where ever we wanted. They said there was no way to get lost no matter where you went. There's one way in and one way out only. They also let us know that it was over 110' deep in there. YIKES!

It was really dark inside but there were plenty of lights in the water and oh my goodness it was gorgeous! It was really hard to get good pictures and none of my pictures will give it the justice that is needed to show just how beautiful it was in there. There were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere.

There were several holes at the top of the cave, which was really really high up there, and the light shining down from the sunlight in there lit up the water and I don't think I've seen anything more beautiful.

Just look at those beams of light!

Now look how it lit up the water in the cavern. The water was so blue.

I tell the hubby to go over to the light for me to take a picture. He swims over, then sticks his head down in the water. Um...you want me to take a picture of the your head? Ok then. Head picture it is. I guess I might as well take a picture down below to see what he is looking at.

I could not get him to look up for anything.

So let me show you what we really see in these light beams in the water. Think of the most beautiful thing you have ever seen and that's the light we would see dancing below us. I could have never imagined it to look like this.

I really wish these pictures could show you the beauty we were witnessing. This was right up there with visiting the bioluminescent bay.

Time for a few "selfies" while we are in here.

I can't imagine coming here on a gloomy or rainy day. It would not have the same effect.

It was time to get out. We didn't want to. We could have spent hours in here.

We swam over to the stairs and there was a ledge to get up onto before walking up the steps...with absolutely nothing underneath it. Just a drop off to no where.

Reluctantly we climbed the stairs and got out. I didn't want to leave.

Back out the way we came in.

Sakari was one happy girl after this swim! We all were.

So the walkway along the river we floated in was now our path back to the beginning. It was just so beautiful there.

We had made it back to the very first cave we went in. There were other stairs that you could go in as well (other than the ones the hubby used).

We headed back to the beginning to get our things. All we could talk about is the most amazing experience we just had.

After taking our life jackets off and gathering our things, they let us know that we would have to walk up to the restaurant to grab our lunch. Normally you are able to go up and eat lunch at the tables and they also have a VERY large pool up there to enjoy as well. However, since our bus broke down and we were pressed for time, we were going to have to get our lunch to go and eat it on the bus.

They had prepared our lunches and packed them in to-go containers and they also had Rice Milk to drink. We decided to buy pop instead. It was an OUTRAGEOUS amount. It definitely wasn't .80¢. It would cost us $5 EACH! OUCH! They made a killing off us and such a rip off.

The lady was single handedly making every tortilla by hand.

Heading back to the bus now. BOO!

Our bus waiting for us.

We got settled into our seats and it was time to take a look at our boxed lunch. We had 3 small chicken tacos and 2 types of salsa. It was AMAZING! Like I could have had 2 of these lunches. Everyone was raving about them and how good they were. So the tortilla shell was made out of corn and cooked in a way that you can open/cut down the middle of it and it would be filled with mashed black beans and cooked. I've never tasted anything like this before (or seen it). Simply amazing!

Time to continue this review on another page. Things are starting to lag and that's always a sign that I've said way to much on this page already.