Yucatan

 About The Area  Maps

The City:

Merida, a city of about 1 million people, is a wonderful mixture of colonial city and cosmopolitan destination. With Merida as your base, you can visit cathedrals and churches, Mayan ruins, museums, haciendas and cenotes. You'll also find movies, theaters, important hospitals, public and private schools, four universities, shopping malls with such stores as Sear's, and chain stores such as Sam's, Costco and WalMart as well as the Mexican chains of Liverpool, Comercial Mexicana/MEGA, Soriana and Sanborn's

Because of its tranquility and cleanliness, Merida has become a popular place for families from other Mexican states. Many people have moved here from Mexico City, where crime, pollution and overcrowding are ever growing problems. Crime is not tolerated in Merida, and it has the distinction of the city with the lowest crime rate per capita in Mexico.

The Beaches:

The state of Yucatan has about 250 miles of beach front property. Many people from Merida and other inland towns have built their summer homes at the beach to beat the summer heat. Many of these homes are for rent off-season, from September to June.

Near Merida, the most popular beaches Progreso, Chicxulub, Cocal Josefina, San Miguel, are Chelem, Yucalpeten, Uaymitun, San Benito, San Bruno (both these are not really towns, but they do have signs), Telchac Puerto, San Crisanto, and Dzilam Bravo.

East of Merida

Telchac Puerto (Tell'-chock Pwair-to) is a quaint fishing village has a harbor, stores, market, plaza, restaurants and telephone, but is still pretty much untouched by foreigners. The advantages here are more open space, less congestion, and more virgin beaches. A lot of foreigners are beginning to discover this area. To make the most of the area, we do recommend you have a car.

San Crisanto and Dzilam Bravo (Zee'-lom Bra-vo) are tiny towns to the east of Telchac Puerto. There too, we recommend that you have a car to take advantage of your stay. San Crisanto is also being discovered by North Americans and many are building beautiful homes - the beaches are outstanding and prices of property are still relatively low.

Chicxulub (Chick'-shoo-loob) is a very popular area with the snowbirds. This is an older area for the Yucatecans, so the homes tend to be quite nice, have telephones and nice furnishings, but the beaches seem to be disappearing - they are quite narrow with lots of jetties and fishing boats up on the beach. You will find more foreigners, more social life, stores, and good transportation. Pantaleon is the hang-out for tourists escaping North American winters. You don't really need a car in this area either.

Right beyond Chicxulub, the areas with names such as Colonia Doctores, Cocal Josefina, San Miguel and Uaymitun (Why-mee-toon) are located. Children of the homeowners from Chicxulub moved here to build their homes when they got married and wanted to build their own summer places. The farther east you go, the nicer the homes, furnishings and beaches tend to be. Uaymitun, is the premiere property area, featuring nice homes, many amenities and homes sell for more in this area. This area also has a flamingo sanctuary.

It takes about 12 minutes to drive from Uaymitun to Chicxulub. There are no stores or services in this stretch, but there is public transportation from Merida into Chicxulub and Progreso.

The next area going east is San Benito, followed by San Bruno. Here you will find wonderful stretches of open beach, and few or no neighbors. Public transportation is more sporadic and rents are lower than the Chicxulub to Uaymitun stretch. Having a car in this area would make things easier.

West of Merida

The town of Chelem (Cheh-lem') is a quaint older town, with full services - stores, shops, restaurants, taxis, buses, telephone. The homes, that are pretty much wall to wall, are modest. Prices in this area for rent and purchase are cheaper - say between $300 and $500 USD a month for rentals. To get here you do not enter Progreso, but head west on the overpass before entering Progreso. You will find other foreigners here. You do not need a car to live in this town.