We drove around some more today and then drove out to the beach at Progresso. Mérida's beach is about 20 miles away and it is the major port for the Yucatan peninsula. The Gulf is so shallow that the pier reaches a full mile out into it to get to deep enough water.

I'm not tempted by the beach towns here, the Gulf still leaves me kind of blah. It's the city that calls me. It is nice out here though and a lot of foreigners are buying up beach houses along this coast. It has a kind of old Venice Beach feel, or maybe not but it does have a feeling that I find familiar. Kind of shabby and casual and sandy.

We went into an ex-pat hangout, Buddy's, for drinks. It's owned by a Dutch guy who came over and talked to us. I ended up getting pescado ingles, english style fish and chips. Mimi had the corn chowder. The food was good, the grouper really fresh and great fries. I practiced my new stealth camera technique, the new camera has a fold out LCD that makes it fairly easy to pretend you are not taking someone's picture when you are. This could be handy if I get a little better at aiming.