Our first stop on the cruise was the tiny town of Progreso, Yucatan. It's a place of crushing poverty and is very third-world ... crumbling buildings next to posh resorts. It's pretty sobering. But enough of the liberal guilt... Brian and I went to the "Beach Resort" excursion, which was a long bus ride to a big resort in the middle of nowhere, where there would be an awesome beach and an open bar. Yes, I said open bar. Along the way, we were treated to a really horrible bus tour guide that barely knew pidgin English, got to see some wild pink Flamingos in the swamps, and a lot of abject poverty and rich mansions side-by-side in an environment that seemed to have almost no real infrastructure at all.

I was actually getting scared, until we pulled up in front of the resort, and it really was beautiful.

We mostly sat on the beach, drinking free double (and triple) margaritas, getting sloshed (hey, we didn't have to drive!), talking, sunning, listening to tunes... it was fun. During a brief tropical rain squall, we went and ate really some bad free food (seriously, not good at all, so thank god for the open bar). But it was over all too soon, and we had to take the bus back, get on the ship, and sail away.

( Click here to see the pretty pictures )