Laguna Nichupté

Laguna Nichupté is the body of water enclosed by the 7-shaped Hotel Zone of Cancún, between the resort strip and the mainland city. It is not one lagoon but a system of seven connected basins, among them Laguna Bojórquez, the northern, central and southern basins, Río Inglés and Laguna del Amor, covering more than 3,000 hectares. Its brackish water reaches the Caribbean through two channels, Sigfrido and Nizuc, and its shores are lined with red, black and white mangrove and buttonwood.

The mangroves and the lagoon around them were declared the Manglares de Nichupté flora and fauna protection area in 2008 and listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance the same year, with about 4,257 hectares. The protected area shelters Morelet's and American crocodiles, black spiny-tailed iguanas, green turtles and about 160 recorded bird species. The decree has been controversial: an adjoining strip of mangrove known as Tajamar was left outside it and later cleared for development. Hurricane Wilma badly damaged the mangroves in 2005, and since 2008 a local conservation group working with CONANP and Cinvestav has replanted tens of hectares.

For visitors the lagoon is mostly something seen from the Hotel Zone road and the restaurants and docks along it, especially at sunset, when the light falls across the water toward the city. Marinas on the lagoon side run speedboat "jungle tours" through the mangrove channels out to the reef, along with kayaking, paddleboarding and dinner cruises. In May 2026 the 11.2-km Puente Vehicular Nichupté opened, carrying traffic 8.8 km across the water between Boulevard Colosio and the Hotel Zone. Swimming in the lagoon is a bad idea: crocodiles live here, warning signs mark the shoreline, and there have been serious attacks on people who ignored them.