Mazunte was a turtle-slaughtering village until the ban in 1990, and then had to invent something else. What it invented was conservation tourism, which is why the Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga sits in the middle of town with tanks of every species that uses this coast, and why the turtle releases here are run by people who used to do the opposite.
Boat trips leave from the beach at Mazunte, San Agustinillo and Puerto Ángel. From December to March they go out for humpback whales; the rest of the year for dolphins, turtles and mantas. These are small open lanchas launched off the sand, which is part of the experience.
La Ventanilla, a couple of kilometres west, is run by a village cooperative — Servicios Ecoturísticos La Ventanilla — who take you through the mangrove by canoe to see crocodiles, iguanas and a great many birds, and have a crocodile-rearing programme and a blue-corn kitchen on site. It is booked at the lagoon, not online.
Punta Cometa is the headland between Mazunte and San Agustinillo, the southernmost point in Oaxaca, and the walk out to it for sunset — or on a full moon, with a guide — is the other thing everybody does here.