The lagoon is what makes Barra de Navidad different from a standard beach town. It stretches behind the sandbar on which the town sits, and it is alive with birds — herons, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, and frigatebirds are all common. The mangroves fringing the far shore are worth exploring by kayak or panga, and local fishermen gather scallops in the shallower areas.
The lagoon is navigable by water taxi (panga) from the malecón, and the short crossing to Isla Navidad and the village of Colimilla on the far shore is one of the best ways to experience it. Colimilla, a tiny Colima-state community accessible only by boat, has a string of waterfront seafood restaurants built on stilts over the water — the kind of place where the fish was swimming an hour ago and the beer is cold. The lagoon also functions as a harbour for the local fishing fleet and for visiting yachts, making the anchorage one of the more popular stops on the Pacific cruising circuit.