Chuburná Puerto

Chuburná Puerto is a fishing village on Yucatán's north coast, the westernmost comisaría of Progreso municipality, between Chelem and Sisal. It lies about 10 km west of Progreso along the coast road and roughly 55 km from Mérida. Like Chelem, it stands on the narrow strip of sand between the Gulf of Mexico and the ciénaga, the shallow lagoon and mangrove swamp behind the coast. The name comes from the Maya chubul naah, usually read as 'house of yellow cotton', though some translate it as 'place where the houses flood'.

It is one of the oldest settlements in the municipality. In 1663 the governor Juan Francisco Esquivel y de la Rosa named Chuburná and Chicxulub coastal watch towns, charged with spotting pirates sailing from the Laguna de Términos, and there are remains of Maya settlement in the surroundings. For a long time people here lived from fishing and salt; after Hurricane Gilberto struck on 14 September 1988 and wrecked the salt works, the village turned increasingly to tourism. It has grown from 110 people in 1900 to 1,720 in 2005 and 2,874 at the 2020 census, and it fills up in the summer holidays.

The beach is wide and white with shallow, calm, turquoise water, and the dunes that formed after Gilberto are used for camping and sunset watching. Behind the village, the fishermen's sheltered harbour, the Puerto de Abrigo, is the base for cooperative boats that take visitors through the mangroves, to the Boca de la Carbonera wetland and the Dzul Ha petén, and to Isla Columpios, the sandbank with swings in the lagoon. Flamingos appear in the lagoon in some seasons, and small family restaurants serve fish, shrimp and oysters.