La Ventanilla is a small village on a beach and lagoon in the municipality of Santa María Tonameca, Oaxaca, Mexico.

[1][2] The La Ventanilla area consists of a long, unbroken stretch of undeveloped beach and a lagoon wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the Sierra Madre del Sur.

[3][4] The far east end of the beach is the location of a high rocky peak, which has a small opening that gives the area its name of “little window” or ventanilla.

Tannins from the roots of the red mangrove turn the lagoon's water reddish in the shallows and black in deeper areas.

[1] In the mornings, the lagoon fills with the sounds of the many birds that can be found here, including woodpeckers, kingfishers, ducks, storks cormorants, herons and others.

Initial cleanup of the area took residents three weeks and the decision was made to help the zone recover faster by replanting trees and mangroves.

Over 30,000 mangroves have been replanted, mostly of the red and white varieties as well as ferns, royal palms, mahogany, parota, ceiba and other plants.

[7] Much of the ecotourism was developed here in the 1990s when groups such as Ecosolar worked in this area to help after the ban on the sea turtle and crocodile trade eliminated most people's livelihoods.

On Uma Island, in the lagoon, there is a greenhouse for mangrove reforestation, a nursery to hatch and raise crocodiles for release, as well as captive deer, and other animals.