Last Updated on March 17, 2023 by PowersToTravel
Ah, Retirement! Ah, the beginnings of snowbirding…
Experiment in Snowbirding in the Yucatan
In March / April 2018 we tried our first experiment in snowbirding. I had retired in September 2017 and soon after we departed on our 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey, returning mid-January.
Knowing I would soon be quite tired of New England winters, I had arranged a four week tour through the Yucatan in Mexico for March into April. However on this trip we would be more cost-challenged. To this point in my life we usually would spend a bit much on two week trips. Extending it to four weeks meant I needed to look for economy rather than splash. Additionally, two weeks of the trip we would spend in one location, relaxing, being snow-birds, not up and about sightseeing every day. That would be a big change for us.
We had previously visited the Yucatan in 2014 on a fourteen day driving circuit beginning and ending in Tulum. Merida was one of our stops, and in spite of Merida’s size, sprawl and sometimes rather urban environment, we loved its colonial center. We had not made it north from Merida up to Progreso, which we learned was a hot-spot for ex-pats.
The sea is very important to us, and we wanted to spend time near the ocean. In the fall of 2017, I wandered Homeaway.com looking for affordable waterfront, or water-near, apartments which could hopefully comfortably keep us for two weeks in March / April 2018. As I wandered further afield from Progreso the prices dropped. That was interesting! Finally I found myself in a little village to the west of Progreso called Chelem, and found myself at a beach front little compound of apartments called Deco Beach Club.
My criteria were met at Deco Beach Club
I applied all of my criteria:
- Waterfront – ocean views? check
- King-sized bed? check
- Side tables with lamps? check
- Dark curtains? check
- A/C? check
- Comfy looking sofa with coffee table to put one’s feet on? – check
- Kitchen with stove, microwave and frig? check
- Wifi? check
- Laundry? check
- Quiet sleeping? check, I hoped
- Secure parking? check
- Inexpensive? check
In addition, it had a private outside patio with dining table and a swimming pool and outdoor shower. For about $70 a day we had rented an apartment that satisfied my stringent criteria for fourteen days!
The big experiment began – could we be happy doing nothing or basically nothing, for fourteen days?
Would Deco Beach Club meet my expectations?
Our apartment is the right-hand door on the first floor.
The Deco Beach Club apartment was very spacious and looked exactly as pictured. The apartment block was a large compound of five, I think, apartments clustered around a large courtyard with a beautiful pool. We chose apartment #2. Ours had direct beach access from its secured front porch. Patio table, chairs and hammock completed the life of luxury! All at $70 a day!
What I did not expect was to be able to swim at the beach in front of the apartment! Pictures did not show people swimming, and the beach appeared to be more of a fisherman’s haven than a swimming club. But I learned that it also was a great place to swim.
The other guests at Deco Beach Club were friendly and quiet. We learned from John and Ron, the owners who lived on the second floor, that through the end of March they tend to have Snowbirds – in fact we just met some of them our first week; they had been there all winter and away they flew during our second week! Then John and Ron begin to have the local guests who come for Easter and to escape the heat in Merida in spring and summer. They as well were quiet and good neighbors.
Weather in Chelem in March and April
Weather in Chelem in late March / early April followed a consistent pattern: in the mornings the surf would be very quiet, the winds would be gentle and it was lovely to just bounce about the ocean using a noodle. In the afternoons the wind from the north would become much stronger, the surf would frequently be a bit heavier than I was comfortable swimming alone in. When Greg accompanied me I would be fine bouncing in the waves, otherwise I relaxed at the pool which was protected from the winds. The temps would reach 100 degrees fahrenheit in Merida, but with the winds and the sea, here in Chelem it would be very, very comfortable. We became very lazy.
The Town of Chelem
The neighborhood around the Deco Beach Club was quiet and friendly. Laid out in a long narrow grid format, the main street was just 3-4 blocks south from the sea, and we were just 6 blocks west from the town center and local restaurants. Each day we would either stroll out at mid-day for lunch, or in the evening for dinner. We would split our visits between TacoMaya and El Bull Pen restaurants. Both were inexpensive and very good.
The town of Chelem is perhaps a twenty minute drive from Progreso where we would go for groceries. There is a small grocery in Chelem itself, however just going for an outing to Progreso, checking out its malecon and restaurants was enough entertainment for us! I had an awesome French Dip sandwich at the Milk Bar on the malecon. (There doesn’t appear to be website for the restaurant, but you can find them on Yelp or Tripadvisor.)
Out and about
On a couple of occasions we took day trips from Chelem. Once we drove east along the barrier islands to visit the Xcambo Mayan ruins, the rose-colored salt flat near there, and had lunch at a food court in a tiny market plaza in the town of Mokul. We concluded the afternoon with a visit to the Sambula Cenote in Mokul. Full of locals on a hot day, we wished we had been able to visit in the morning as it was not quite pleasant due to the crowds when we went in the afternoon.
We also took a couple of day trips to Merida, to see the colonial city once more. Actually, the visits to Merida were mainly to stock up on Diet Dr. Pepper. The Walmarts there sell Diet Dr. Pepper, but you just never know which one will have it on any given day. There must be about six Walmarts, all along the ring road around Merida. We got to know them very well; round and round we went looking for Diet Dr. Pepper. We were always ultimately successful. On a normal vacation I would have been frustrated spending so much time in a superstore, but here in the Yucatan during our first attempt at Snow-birding, it was simply Entertainment!
Easter on the beach was a blast – there was a church baptismal service right off of our patio, the beach was packed with locals. We didn’t swim (Greg was very suspicious of water filled with children when no port-a-potties were available!) but we watched the parties and picnics with interest.
The one downside
The one frustration of the entire trip was the lack of cable TV. We have cable at home and don’t have Netflix or Prime accounts. So we arrived in Mexico hoping either to have cable TV, or be able to use our Cox Contour service away from home. While an internet-ready TV came with the unit, we neither had cable TV nor did our Cox Contour service work and we spent many an hour searching for free YouTube shows. We found quite a number of Comedy Central short shows and John Oliver shows, so were happy about that.
Interesting twist
Coincidentally with our trip to the Yucatan we were in the process of buying a condo in Puerto Rico. It could be that our level of comfort with doing very little was attributable to our enjoyment with surfing the web looking for decor choices for our new place!
So, in a way, sadly, our little adventure in snowbirding in Chelem Yucatan Mexico will probably be our first and last adventure at the Deco Beach Club, as we have our own place to visit now!
Links
Here’s a link to Villa #2 at Deco Beach Club
We don’t personally know Ron and John, just spent the one two-week period at the Deco Beach Club and receive no compensation for this review.
