Nov. 12 and 13 Progresso

Wednesday and  we at sea on our way to Progresso, Mexico.  This is a new port for us and we are looking forward to our tour there tomorrow.  The weather is cloudy and still a little chilly. 

We were up this morning and went up to Sabatini’s for breakfast.  I then went to the spa and Judi stayed back and read.  This afternoon we had lunch and then watched a movie on the big screen.

Thursday in Progresso.

We had an early tour today, so ordered breakfast in our cabin.  After docking we went down to the pier to meet our tour guide.  Leaving the pier we boarded our bus for the 2-hour ride out to the Mayan ruins at Uxmal.  (ush-mal)  It is known as the city of the Magician.

The site was wonderful.  There is a legend concerning the calling of Uxmal the city of the Magician.  It is purported that a shaman built the temple in one day.  The pyramid or temple is in fairly good condition and some of our group climbed it.  There are no ropes or railings, and gong up is a lot easier than coming down.

The deity that was worshiped here was the God of water.  There are few rivers and the underground water was too deep for the Mayan’s to dig to.  So they developed a system of cisterns to catch the natural rain water and store it for future use.  The received plenty of rain during the wet season and the ground was very fertile, so they grew many crops.  Corn is a main stay of the region, even today.  We had lunch at a Hacienda today, and the meal consisted of chicken and beef wrapped in a corn meal.  It was very good, but you had to be careful of the green sauce they served with it.  The drink was Hibiscus water, again very tasty and refreshing.

Uxmal was inhabited between the years of 800 BC to 200 AD.  From 200 AD to 1,000 AD it became the key city of the region.  The city surrounding the Temple grew to around 20,000 Myans’.  The region was governed by a group of aristocrats, who were considered intermediaries between the people and their gods.

The temple of the Magician is almost 115 feet high.  The pyramid has five sub structures, or temples.  They built a new one on top of the old one as requirements of the religion necessitated enlargements of a temple.

Their religion believed that a white man with a beard was there creator and so when the Spaniards came they at first believed them to be gods.  After the priest arrived and tried to make them Catholic, they destroyed all their books and religious symbols.  There are only 3 surviving books left in the world.  One in Germany, one in Italy and one in Spain.

Our Mayan guide was very knowledgeable and proud of his heritage.  It was a good day and we enjoyed the tour very much.

The weather was hot and dry today, but that was good.  We are looking forward to the same in Cozumel tomorrow.