Day Three, Part One: Shopping in Progreso

Me, standing in our tour's meeting area in downtown Progreso, Mexico. Note the football merchandise in the background. 

When I woke up on day three, we had already docked in Progreso, our first stop in Mexico. We debarked, and I only brought a small bag with a point and shoot, my sail and sign card, my passport and $60 in cash. 

We'd booked our excursion with AutoProgreso, a local tour company. Shannon, a cruise veteran, warned me it wasn't a good idea to book through Carnival — you'd end up paying too much. Always go for the local tour companies, checking consumer service reviews to make sure they're good. It was about $50 per person, compared to about $80 for the Carnival-sponsored outing. 

The tour hub was a short bus ride from the cruise terminal, deeper in Progreso. We hopped on a bus and away we went. We ended up with time to kill at a small shopping area staffed by actual Mexican people (Caroline is Captain Obvious today). Discounting the cruise terminal, it was my first experience in a foreign country. I guess you could say I learned a few things. 

Among them: there are abundant designer fakes in Mexico, some more convincing than others, but certainly both obvious and available. I saw Michael Kors, Chanel, Coach and Louis Vuitton.

A close-up of some of the fake designer bags. 

1.) You can haggle. Don't accept the prices at their stated values. Here, you don't question the sticker price. There, you'd be a fool not to. I began by looking for a small leather coin purse, which is the souvenir my baby sister requested. 

I saw one in a small stall. The attendant didn't speak much English, so I switched to my poor schoolgirl Spanish, a language I hadn't studied since my sophomore year in high school. I was horrified with how horrible my accent had become.

Anyway, she told me it was 14 (catorce) dollars USD. I told her I couldn't pay that much (no puedo pagar catorce dollares; no tengo mucho dinero). To my astonishment, she kept lowering the price, even though I kept refusing. This is because:

2.) The first sale of the day brings luck, suerte. I didn't end up buying the coin purse, but I did purchase a "silver" necklace for my mom for $10 (stated price: $45). Don't start with the price you want to pay, but give a lower figure and meet your salesperson in the middle. 

I couldn't reach a satisfactory number with the sweet saleslady for the purse, who begged me to buy the trinket anyway, claiming the first sale of the day would bring her luck. She explained this in rapid-fire Spanish which I only understood by asking her to repeat herself, mas lentamente por favor, several times. If I left without buying anything, on the other hand, it would be bad luck for her. That would be the reason I bought the necklace. Also to make my mother happy. 

3.) Keep refusing, even if you have to walk away. They might just find you again to offer you a lower price. It's better than paying more than $10 for a coin purse. In the end, I paid $4, after the owner of the kiosk found me right before I boarded the bus that would take us to the ruins we were scheduled to visit.

But more on that tomorrow. 

In addition to souvenirs like fake purses, leather goods, silver and turquoise, there were also pieces of Americana, like these football knapsacks. 

More souvenirs for sale.