🇲🇽 Mexico · Pacific Coast
Mazunte is one of the most special corners of the Oaxaca coast: a small beach village with a bohemian, ecological spirit, where time runs slow and life revolves around the sea, the turtles and the sunsets. Far from the luxury of the big resorts, Mazunte offers simple cabins, fresh food, yoga, temazcal and a community of travelers and locals who share a philosophy of respect for nature.
Its history is one of the most moving in Mexican tourism. Until 1990 Mazunte lived off the slaughter of sea turtles: there was a slaughterhouse here where thousands of turtles were killed each year for their meat, their skin and their eggs. When the government imposed a total ban in 1990, the village was left without a livelihood, but it managed to reinvent itself completely: the turtles' former executioner became their great protector. Out of that came the Mexican Turtle Center, reforestation, ecotourism and the natural cosmetics cooperative. Today Mazunte is a symbol of ecological redemption.
This guide covers Mazunte with a practical, warm eye: which beaches to enjoy and how careful to be with the surf, how to experience the magical sunset at Punta Cometa, what the Turtle Center offers, where to take yoga or a temazcal, how to combine it with San Agustinillo and Zipolite, and how to get around this slow, barefoot coast. A destination for switching off, reconnecting with nature and letting its magic carry you.
The name 'Mazunte' is usually traced to Nahuatl, with readings such as 'please lay eggs' (a reference to the turtles) or derivations from 'maxotetia'. Punta Cometa, the village's headland, is said to have been a military and spiritual enclave tied to pre-Hispanic peoples. For much of the 20th century, and above all in the 1970s, this coast was the national center of the slaughter and trade in sea turtles: up to around 30,000 animals a year were legally killed in the area, with a slaughterhouse in neighboring San Agustinillo. Overexploitation pushed the turtles to the brink of collapse, and in 1990 the Mexican government imposed a total ban on catching sea turtles. The village, which lived off that activity, was thrown into crisis, but it went on to carry out one of the most remarkable ecological reinventions in Mexico: in 1991 the Mexican Turtle Center was founded (a research and conservation center), the area was reforested, ecotourism was encouraged and the Cosméticos Naturales de Mazunte factory was created, pioneering projects in ethical economics. In 2015 Mazunte was named a Pueblo Mágico. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The state with the greatest Indigenous diversity in the country: Zapotec and Mixtec land of Monte Albán and Mitla, birthplace of Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz, capital of food, mezcal and Pacific beaches.
Read the history of Oaxaca →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The Mazunte region, on the coast of Oaxaca, was inhabited and travelled by indigenous peoples from pre-Hispanic times. This strip of the southern Pacific, wrapped in dry forest and rich in natural resources, was part of a coastal territory known to Mesoamerican communities, who used the sea, the lagoons and the forest for fishing, gathering and ritual life.
One of the most significant places is Punta Cometa, the rocky headland that pushes into the sea at the edge of the village. Tradition marks it as an old site of military and spiritual importance, linked to pre-Hispanic peoples, with remains such as a 'stone corral' and legends of hidden treasure. Its position, jutting into the ocean and facing west, made it a privileged point for observing the sky and the sun, which may have given it ceremonial value.
The name 'Mazunte' itself is usually traced to Nahuatl roots, with various readings: one of the most widespread and most poetic links it to the phrase 'please lay eggs' or to 'maxotetia', a reference to the sea turtles that have always come to nest on these beaches. That ancestral connection between the place and the turtles would prove, centuries later, prophetic: the turtles would define both Mazunte's darkest period and its redemption.
For much of the 20th century, and very particularly in the 1970s, this stretch of the Oaxaca coast became the national center of sea turtle exploitation. Mazunte and its surroundings lived off catching, killing and trading turtles: their meat, their skin (for leather goods), their shell, their oil and their eggs were all used, products in demand in Mexico and abroad. In neighboring San Agustinillo a slaughterhouse operated that drove the growth of the local population.
The scale of the activity was enormous. As many as 30,000 sea turtles a year were legally killed in the area, in an industry that gave work and a living to the village's families but that was decimating species thousands of years old. What had seemed for generations an inexhaustible source of resources soon proved to be an ecological catastrophe: the sea turtle populations that came to nest on these beaches began to collapse from overexploitation.
This period turned Mazunte, paradoxically, into a byword for the slaughter of one of the planet's most emblematic and most threatened animals. The whole village was economically tied to that activity. But growing environmental awareness, in Mexico and worldwide, and the evident collapse of the turtles, would make a drastic change inevitable, one that put Mazunte at a historic crossroads.
The turning point came in 1990. Faced with the collapse of sea turtle populations, pressure from environmental organizations and a deep shift in public awareness, the Mexican government imposed a total, permanent ban on catching, killing and trading sea turtles across the country. Overnight, the activity that had been Mazunte's livelihood for decades was completely prohibited.
For the village, the ban was a devastating blow in the short term. The local economy, which revolved almost entirely around the turtles and the slaughterhouse, came apart. Many families were left without work and without a clear future. Mazunte faced a deep crisis: it was the price of protecting the turtles, but it left an entire community without a livelihood and forced to reinvent itself from scratch.
Far from giving up, the village —with support from environmental organizations, institutions and cooperation projects— set about a radical transformation of the way it lived. The collective decision was to turn Mazunte from the turtles' executioner into their guardian, and to build a new economy based on conservation, ecotourism and the sustainable use of resources. So began one of the most inspiring stories of ecological reinvention in Mexico.
Mazunte's response to the crisis was extraordinary. In 1991, on the grounds and the memory of the old slaughterhouse, the Mexican Turtle Center was born, a research and conservation center devoted to studying and protecting the sea turtle species (and also freshwater and land turtles) that live on or nest along Mexico's coasts. What had been the site of the killing became a sanctuary, a living museum and a symbol of the village's new calling.
Alongside it, other pioneering projects in ethical, sustainable economics appeared. Driven by cooperation programs —and by figures such as the environmental organization that sponsored the transition— a massive reforestation of the area was carried out and the Cosméticos Naturales de Mazunte cooperative was founded, which began making soaps, shampoos, creams and products from local natural ingredients (coconut, cacao, plants). The factory employed many families without harming the environment, showing that it was possible to live from caring for nature instead of destroying it.
Ecotourism completed the transformation. Mazunte began to receive travelers drawn by its beaches, its sunset at Punta Cometa, its turtle sanctuary and its philosophy of respect for nature. Cabins, restaurants, yoga studios and wellness offerings sprang up, shaping the bohemian, ecological atmosphere that defines the village. In a few years Mazunte went from being a byword for the killing of turtles to a national and international benchmark for conservation and responsible tourism.
Recognition of Mazunte's transformation came on 25 September 2015, when the village was named a Pueblo Mágico by Mexico's tourism ministry. The distinction rewarded not only the natural beauty of the place —its beaches, its forest, its Punta Cometa sunset— but above all its unique story of ecological redemption and its model of development based on conservation and sustainability.
Today Mazunte combines its essence as a bohemian, barefoot village with a strong environmental and spiritual identity. It receives travelers from all over the world who come to switch off: to practice yoga by the sea, take a temazcal, eat fresh vegetarian food, watch the sunset at Punta Cometa and meet the turtles at the Mexican Turtle Center. Together with neighboring San Agustinillo and Zipolite, it makes up one of the most special and most free-spirited stretches of coast on the Mexican Pacific.
Mazunte remains, above all, a living lesson. Its story —from killing turtles to protecting them, from crisis to sustainable reinvention— makes it far more than a pretty destination: it is an example of how a community can radically change its relationship with nature and find a new way of life in caring for its surroundings. That spirit of respect, simplicity and connection with the sea is, today, the real magic of Mazunte.