Nuevo Progreso, Mexico

Hi all -- Dianne here. We finally took a day trip across the border to Progreso, Mexico on Monday. It was about a 45-minute drive from our campground to the international bridge. We parked ($2 for all day) on the U.S. side (along with hundreds of other "Winter Texans"), put 25 cents into a turnstile, and walked across the bridge.

That's all there is to it, to enter Mexico here from the U.S. (Coming back to the U.S. we had to show our passports and answer questions from the border agent about our purchases.)

It looks like Roger is in jail, but this is just a shot of him looking out at the river from the bridge.

Once across the bridge it is like a cruise port, with hundreds of people crowding the sidewalks, and shops catering to tourists all up and down the streets. The main difference is that at least half, if not more, of the shops were dental offices, pharmacias, optometrist offices, barber/beauty shops, even shoe shine entrepreneurs right on the sidewalk. Of course, there are people everywhere hawking merchandise as you walk along and handing out business cards for the many dentists and other services.

We didn't take advantage of these services this trip over, because we wanted to do a little shopping and have margaritas and lunch. We'll probably go back and at least get our teeth cleaned (I hear it's only $15 with no appointment necessary!) Many people have extensive dental work done and come here just for that. From all reports we have from talking to people who have done it, the dentists there do beautiful work and have all been trained in the U.S. Some even live in the U.S. and do business in Mexico. It's economically beneficial to them to do this, because they can avoid paying malpractice insurance and can therefore charge lower prices.

We had a delicious lunch at Arturo's, with white linen tablecloths, attentive wait staff, and delicious food. We each had a margarita; mine frozen and Roger's on the rocks. The fresh salsa was especially tasty.

I took a quick photo before we finished if off, to give you an idea of how fresh it was. The warm baked tortilla chips were also especially good.

Roger had beef tacos

and I had something called Arturo's torta, which was soft bread rolls with beef and peppers inside, smothered with a spicy sauce.

We split some caramel cheesecake for dessert.

Kaia, when we see you next month, we'll give you the little bracelet we had made for you with your name on it. Here is a photo of the young man

making the bracelet for us as we watched. Kaia is an unusual name, so it was fun to be able to get this custom made so quickly. Of course, it's always fun to buy trinkets for our granddaughter!