In this report, I will discuss why some of you may be able to retire early on $1262 USD Month in Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico.
I have been coming to Riviera Maya, Mexico for decades, but I have never visited the southernmost two towns just north of Belize, called Bacalar or Chetumal. We were wondering if either Bacalar or Chetumal would be a place that people would like to retire. So we headed south to explore the area.
Since Chetumal and Bacalar are only a 100 pesos collectivo ride apart ($5 USD), we decided to create a single retirement feasibility report containing data for both cities. But we have created separate videos for each city so you will see the difference.
Bacalar is one of the most visually stunning landscapes in all of Mexico. But the second video of Chetumal will show a clean practical city that has everything you will need to retire cheap in paradise including malls, hospitals, clean cheap neighborhoods, and a beautiful walk (Malecon) along Chetumal Bay.
Blue Lagoon of Bacalar Video
This Blue Lagoon of Bacalar video will show you things to do, where to eat, and the overall look and feel of Bacalar.
We have been investigating the best places to retire in Riviera Maya and we have two more stops we have to make before making a final decision. As shown in the below Google Map, we have already written retire cheap reports on Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos, Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, and Cozumel. So we headed to the south of Riviera Maya to gather data on Chetumal and Bacalar.
So we hopped on the Ado Bus for 450 pesos ($22.50) per person and ride it down to Chetumal. The below Google Map (clickable) shows you were the bus stations are in Playa Del Carmen and Chetumal. These last two towns in Riviera Maya are right on the border with Belize.
This video starts in the Playa Del Carmen bus station and shows you our life and our estimated cost of living in Chetumal. Make sure you watch both above videos of Bacalar and Chetumal before deciding if Chetumal or Bacalar are worth a visit on your exploratory retirement visit to Mexico.
Also, get our free eBook and subscribe so you won’t miss our video on Riviera Maya where we will discuss our favorite place to retire in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Plus check out our over 50+ retire cheap reports all over the world.
Retire Early $1262 USD Month Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico
Qiang and I were in the Chetumal-Bacalar area for about a week. Here is what we think we could budget, on the low end, if we were to live there for a few months.
$450: Rent: The apartment we rented was about $15 USD per night and that includes utilities and internet. If we offered to stay for a few months we might be able to negotiate a lower price. Plus, we may be able to save some other booking fees or other fees by paying cash. But I will just use the $15 per night rate for this estimate. $15 per night would be $450 per month including utilities.
$300: Groceries: We estimate about $300 USD a month for groceries.
$200: Restaurants. We would eat mostly at home because it is easier to control quality.
$25: SIM Card: About $25 USD per month.
$60: Local Transportation: Taxis and collectivos would cost us about $60 USD per month. We would mostly walk everywhere.
$12: Drinking Water: $12 USD per month.
$200: Entertainment: $200 USD per month.
Total Estimate: $1262 USD Per Month
The above cost of living for 2 people is just an estimate since we were not there for a full month. For a full understanding of what it would cost you to live here, visit Numbeo for Chetumal and add anything you spend money on in your home country that is not mentioned in the table. Your costs to base in Bacalar would likely be more than the above estimate for a Chetumal base since many of the excellent restaurants in Bacalar are likely to tempt you.
Never move anywhere until you have visited first personally to verify the living costs for your lifestyle and needs. I am not guaranteeing these prices. These are just my notes and estimates from the time of my visit and this post. Your costs will likely be drastically different depending on lifestyle and the time since this post.
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Best Area to Stay in Chetumal
I like being in Mexico when I am in Mexico. So my favorite area of Chetumal to live in would be the 5 or 10 block square area around Mercado Centro as shown below. I am not saying the other areas aren’t safe or anything. I would just start my investigations here and move later once you find your favorite place to stay. This area in red is walkable to the Chetumal Centro Mercado, the Chetumal Malecon (Bay Walkway), and Heros Shopping area.
Cheapest Flights to Chetumal-Bacalar
We almost always get our cheapest flights on this Skyscanner. They have a web crawler that is constantly looking for the cheapest prices all over the world. As usual, we found the cheapest flight on Skyscanner.
Chetumal-Bacalar Livability Factors
Here are some of the factors I think about when I consider each place for retirement potential. After I discuss each factor I will assign an overall desirability score to Chetumal-Bacalar.
Walkability: High. If I were to live in Chetumal in the unpretentious neighborhood shown in red above, I would be able to walk to restaurants, small fruit and vegetable markets, and two of the larger grocery stores. If you have too many groceries to walk home, you could get a taxi for about 30 Pesos ($1.50 USD).
Internet: High. We had no issues with the Internet speeds in Chetumal-Bacalar.
Food: Medium. We found a bunch of great Mexican food restaurants and food carts with fair pricing. But there were not as many foreign food choices. So if you are a fan of foreign foods I would rate the food as medium or even low.
Weather: Medium. Chetumal and Bacalar can get quite hot in the off-season and hurricane season can be extreme on islands. The cooler season is December through February when nighttime lows average 70F/21C and daytime highs average 82F/28C. The hot season is April through October when nighttime lows average 78F/26C and daytime highs average over 88F/31C, but it is not unusual for days to reach the high 90s in April through October. The rainy season is May through November, with most of the rain falling in September and October. The hurricane season is June through November.
Things to Do: Low. There is no beach in Bacalar or Chetumal. Your options are limited. You could deep-sea fish in Chetumal and play in the Blue Lagoon in Bacalar. You could also ride bikes, take salsa classes, yoga, and learn to cook.
Social Considerations: Medium. Chetumal is probably a better place to be single but only if you speak Spanish. Bacalar is too transient and small in general for relationships to develop naturally. You will want to learn Spanish if you decide to settle here.
Expats: Low. There is no “Chetumal Expats” page on Facebook. That is very unusual and indicates that it has low desirability for ex-pats. So if you like hanging out with ex-pats you may not find many. Bacalar has an “Expats Facebook” page but only has 520 members. That is a very low number. Depending on what you are looking for, that could be good or bad news.
Real Estate: I never recommend buying until you have lived somewhere at least 3 years. Read this to better understand why I don’t recommend buying outside your home country.
Chetumal-Bacalar Desirability Score: Low. Bacalar is a great place to visit. The beautiful lagoon and amazing restaurants make for a great 3 or 4 day weekend. But there is not enough going on there for me. Chetumal is a larger city with more to do, but I would want to be closer to the beach if I were in the Riviera Maya, the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico Best Restaurants and Markets
This report covers Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico Best Restaurants and Markets including the best places to eat, shop, and live.
The key to retiring cheap overseas is living like a local. In general, when you travel the world, you will get better prices if you stay out of the tourist areas and shop with the locals. If you are surrounded by locals instead of tourists, you are more likely to be paying local market prices.
By connecting with locals when possible, you develop more meaning in your life also.
Nothing teaches you about a new culture more quickly than their foods. So I will cover our favorite restaurants first and then the best markets.
Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico Best Restaurants
Our favorite restaurants appear below according to the area, whether locals or touristy. The below links are to Google Maps for each restaurant. Video of the food and our reviews are in the above video.
Bacalar ($$)
Favorite Breakfast: Enamora Bacalar: Breakfast 90 pesos $4.50 USD
Vegan Burgers: Mango y Chile: $8.00 USD, includes fries, went back twice!
Favorite Lagoon View: La Playita 6 Beers for 168 Pesos, $8.40 USD
Gourmet Vegan (Meat also): Nixtamal: Entrees for $8 to $15 USD. Amazing!
Patio de Aguacate Bacalar: Stop in here for happy hour 2 for 1 after having dinner at Nixtal.
Chetumal ($)
Chinese and Subway Food Court: Chedraui Mall
#1 Rated Restaurant (El Taco Loco Chetumal): Ceviche, 120 Pesos, $6 USD, plus $1 Tacos.
Best Expensive Breakfast (El Patio): $5-$6 USD breakfast per person.
Bread Store (Abarrotes Lety): 30 Pesos, $1.50 USD: Coconut cream filled croissants
Frozen Cappuccino (Art and Coffee): European style coffees (hot/frozen) 50 pesos $2.50 USD
Middle Easter and Asian Food (Mantura): mantura $6-$8 USD Entrees
Chetumal Mercado Centro: many family owned restaurants starting 60 pesos, $3 USD
Malecon Taco Vendors: 10 pesos per taco ($0.50 USD).
Vagabond Buddha’s Kitchen: To obtain substantial savings on your food bill, you may find that cooking at home helps you achieve substantial savings. It is certainly easier to control quality in your own kitchen. If you eat in local restaurants mostly, the savings from cooking at home may not be as substantial. Here are the markets where we found the best selection and prices.
Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico Best Markets
Here is the Google Map of our favorite places to shop for food.
The markets are in the following order on the Google Map:
Just click the above list and add your location to the list to see which place is closest to you. The first place on the list above is the first place on the list below, and they follow in order.
Chetumal Mercado Centro (Locals): This market has fresh fruits, vegetables, juices, meats, clothing, and accessories sold by Mexicans to Mexicans.
Sam’s Club Chetumal: This is a large bulk discount warehouse store that sells most everything including food, clothing and household items.
Super Aki: Is another large chain grocery store.
Chedraui Mall (Plaza of the Americas): This is a full-blown mall with theatres, a food court, and a super grocery store (Chedraui Groceries). There is also a high-end designer clothing department store at the end of the mall called Liverpool Department Store
Walmart: The largest retailer in the world possibly. They sell everything.
Chetumal-Bacalar Mexico Best Tours
Bacalar Blue Lagoon Tour
We recommend booking with Iselitas Tours which is located here on the Google Map. If you only speak English you may find it easier to communicate with them on their Facebook page because that is monitored by an English speaker. When we were there we took the 3-hour tour which is 450 pesos ($22.50 USD) per person. But since the lagoon (March 2021) was only blue at the southern end now (because of last summer’s hurricanes), we recommend taking the 2-hour tour now for 300 pesos ($15 USD) per person. If you stay where we stayed in Bacalar (see accommodations), you can walk to their dock in about 10 minutes.
Sunset Happy Hour at Lagoon
We recommend going to La Playita and have a few beers at around sunset. There is no entry fee and no requirement to eat a meal with your beers. It was walkable from our accommodations and is a lovely setting. 6 Beers for 168 Pesos, $8.40 USD
Dzibanché and Kohunlich Tour
We paid a taxi driver for the day to drive us from Chetumal to Bacalar, with stops in Dzibanché and Kohunlich, along the way. We asked 4 taxi drivers for quotes including 1-hour stops in both Dzibanché and Kohunlich. We took the best quote for 1360 pesos ($68 USD). he picked us up in Chetumal at 7:00 AM and we were in Bacalar by about 1:00 PM. He drove us right to our hotel. The ruins were 750 pesos ($3.75) per person. In the video of Dzibanché and Kohunlich, I promised a link to another fabulous Mayan site in the northern Yucatan. Here is that video. Here is the Google Map of the Tour.
Kohunlich (pronounced cone-leech).
This Mayan city was started in 200 BC. But most of the buildings were created during the classic period of 250 to 600 AD. It was along the Mayan trade route between Campeche and Guatemala near Flores.
Kohunlich is best known for its Temple of the Masks. The Temple was built around 500 A.D. and is one of the oldest structures in Kohunlich. The Temple of the Masks is an Early Classic pyramid whose central stairway is flanked by huge humanized stucco masks.
In about 700 AD, the Mayans covered the Temple of Masks with a Terminal Classic construction. The Terminal Classic constructions covered the masks which maybe while the masks are so well reserved today.
Dzibanché (pronounced sea-banschh) (“writing on wood”)
Sea-Banschh was the seat of the Kan (Snake) Kingdom of the Mayan Culture.
The most celebrated buildings at Dzibanche are the Temple of the Captives, the Temple of the Lintels, and the Temple of the Owl.
The Capital of the Mayan culture may have shifted 300 km south-west to Clakamul or possibly to Tikal in Guatemala between 600 and 900 AD. It will be almost impossible to get to Tikal, Guatemala during COVID, so I decided to visit Dzibanché while in the area.
Mayan Culture
The Maya had no central king. There were 20-15 rulers in separate areas, like Greek city-states. Each area had a king and noble class with surrounding cities and villages.
The Ancient Mayans developed accurate calendars based upon astronomy and recorded their knowledge in hieroglyphics. They created pyramids, palaces, and temples.
The Mayan writing system of 800 symbols or glyphs were pictures and sounds. They chiseled the glyphs into stone and books, celebrating their history and traditions.
The books had pages of bark with jaguar skin covers. They had hundreds of these books recording knowledge of medicine, astronomy, history, and religion. The Spanish burned their book so only a few remain. A local guide once told me that the Spanish considered Mayans as animals instead of people, and that is how they justified breaking all of the Catholic deadly sins against Mayan people.
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