Chuburna, Mexico

 The Yucatán - December 2022

Chuburna was definitely a wonderful reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the past month and a half of traveling around South America. We were so grateful to have finally found the sun and our days were spent lounging on the beach, exploring on our bikes or just relaxing at home watching the exciting World Cup games. 

We flew into Cancun and took a four hour ADO bus ride to Merida, then another hour drive to Chuburna. There is no direct public transportation, but you can take a bus or colectivo to Progreso and then a colectivo to Chuburna, which is much cheaper than taking an Uber or hiring a private driver. 

It's a small beach town where on any given day you find yourself secluded on miles of sandy shelled beaches. It's a place where men gather on the corner sharing stories, laughing and drinking beers; where grandmothers sit on the sidewalks teaching cross stitch to their granddaughters and as we rode by they would stop, look up, smile and wave to the only two gringos on bikes. It's a place where you can leave your bike with stuff in the basket for hours only to return and find it right where you left it. 

I am thankful we had bikes, my calves and ass might not be, but it gave us the freedom to explore trails, beaches and the town.  The only negative as we rode through the streets were the dogs that would nip at your feet, bark and chase you. One night I was in an authentic Mexican standoff in the middle of a street blocked on both sides by a couple of Chihuahuas and another bigger dog....the enforcer.  Jim patiently waited until I had enough courage to choose my escape route, we barely made it out alive.  

There are many small Tiendas, with basic necessities, mostly covered in dust. One store had a nice selection of fresh veggies and fruit, but none of the stores sold any meat, just packages of hot dogs and processed lunch meat.  Items like rice and cheeses were bought in bulk and broken up into smaller amounts wrapped in saran wrap and sold separately.  These small stores only take cash.  There is a larger convenient store, Oxxo, at the edge of town that accepts credit cards and since there were no ATM's we found ourselves riding out there every couple of days to stock up on ice and drinks, since we didn't plan the cash situation very well.

There are three main restaurants in town and only one that was open on a consistent basis and took cards. All served the same seafood items and had a very limited menu.  They did serve botanas with every drink order so one could basically have a full meal if a couple of drinks were ordered. There were many other food stands outside of homes with homemade signs offering tacos, tortas and pizza but we could never catch them open. We found an awesome pizza and pasta place in between Chuburna and the next town Chelem. It took cards, but was only open Friday- Sunday starting at 6:00. We risked the long nightly bike ride there twice.  

Chuburna definitely has not been discovered and during our time we never saw any other tourists. However, I am assuming there is an expat community living here, since there are American, Canadian and California flags hanging in the main restaurant. There is a lot of construction of homes and neighborhoods starting to be built, so I am assuming in a couple of years it will not have the charm it has now. 

For our trip to the Amazon we brought bug spray and not the family friendly kind, but the kind that will remove nail polish, thankfully we didn’t need it in the Amazon because we definitely needed it here. The mosquitoes were vicious, worse than any other place we’ve been. They were small bites that itched like hell and in places you shouldn’t get bit. I had bites on my face, feet, butt…you name it.  Our routine was to lather up before coffee, lather up before heading out, lather up in the evening, lather up for dinner…rinse and repeat and we would still wake up with new bites.

Most days we would pack a lunch and head to the beach.  We were only a five minute walk or a quick ride.  The beach was secluded and filled with beautiful shells and makeshift piers. We’d spend hours looking for unique shells or in some cases bones (don’t ask),  listening to music, the waves and making friends with the seagulls.

One evening we decided to take a ride to check out the lagoon and watch the sunset. As we rode I attributed the horrific smell to the garbage. It was common to see garbage dumped on the side of the road.  Jim.....it will pass just ride faster. Riding faster required deeper breaths which felt like I was sucking in the smell and tasting it in my mouth. So instead of admiring the beautiful view of the sun setting on the lagoon, I was stopped on the side of the road gagging trying to prevent myself from puking. It was so bad we had to turn around.  While laughing, gagging and pedaling as fast as I could with one hand, the other covered my mouth and nose to avoid breathing in the stench, I was able to catch a glimpse of the sunset and it was literally breath taking. Unfortunately this prevented us from biking this road which led to the Science and Technology Park and cenotes.

We ventured into Progreso for a day to find something other than seafood. We found the colectivo on a side street. It was a white beat up van with a handwritten cardboard sign in the window saying Progreso. We paid the driver $.60 each and boarded the half full van with the locals. We waited for about 20 minutes for it to fill up before leaving. After 45 minutes we arrived.  Progreso is a large beach town filled with a lot of tourists. Home to supposedly the longest pier in the world. We found some amazing birrias, hit the beach for a beer and did a little exploring.

The center square in Chuburna was always packed in the evening. Families would bring their lawn chairs and set up tables filled with food. Parents would sit around the table laughing and drinking Tecate light, while kids set off homemade fireworks on the dirt soccer field. I found it interesting that no one worried about them playing with fire or throwing fireworks at each other. 

One night we decided to join in the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We sat in the square and watched the torch runners make their way, along with the rest of the community to the church next to the square. After mass there was a huge celebration with live music, food stands and fireworks. 

Chuburna is a welcoming, kind community rich in tradition and culture. Life is simple here and that is something we are always searching for and appreciate. It had the potential of being a future place to settle down, but with blood sucking mosquitoes and Iguanas falling from the sky, we will continue our search for the perfect spot!