Boca de Agua

With tourism awash in greenwashing, a new boutique property in Quintana Roo has boldly made sustainability its DNA. Boca de Agua’s mission was to create a hospitality project that regenerates and preserves nature. The result, designed by renowned Mexican architect Frida Escobedo (winner of the 2024 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand), features 22 treehouse-style villas immersed in the jungle on the brilliantly blue Lagoon of Seven Colors. The suites and walkways float on pillars and are carefully built around the mangroves, minimizing ground impact. Of the hotel’s 82 acres, 90% remains untouched and 2.5 acres of previously damaged mangrove was replanted. The treehouses are made of local FSC-certified Chicozapote wood; most of the furniture was fashioned from salvaged materials by local artisans; and its waste water treatment system ensures that no effluent ends up in the lagoon. It’s an act of resistance in Quintana Roo, which staggeringly accounts for almost half of Mexico’s international tourism and hit record numbers in 2023, and for Bacalar, which some have ominously pegged as “the next Tulum,” referencing the popular beach town in the same state that is now synonymous with overtourism and overdevelopment. A few resorts already dot the lagoon. Boca de Agua offers a blueprint to an alternative future

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