When Mallina Visarraga lived in Taos, New Mexico, she used to drive through a mountain pass every day to go to work. “I felt like I was indoors, or driving through snow, for a big part of the year,” she says of her former life.

These days, Mallina walks two short blocks to work from her two-story house overlooking Lake Bacalar, Mexico’s mystical Lake of Seven Colors in the Yucatan Peninsula. The weather is tropical. And her work is running Gaia, her new vegetarian restaurant, spa and yoga center.

Walk into Gaia, a two-story building with a soaring palapa roof (traditional Maya thatching), and you feel its calm right away. Soft music—often jazz—plays in the background. The downstairs shop and restaurant have an open, uncluttered layout. Gleaming natural wood—in shelves, doors and the long bar—accents the whitewashed walls. A staircase with steps of hand-laid mosaic leads up to the yoga studio. Here, wide windows flood the room with light and offer views of Lake Bacalar’s multihued waters.

Mallina spends much of her time at Gaia these days. Her petite figure moves from shop to restaurant to spa rooms, her long hair caught up in a loose bun, as she greets customers and oversees operations.

Like many other expat entrepreneurs, Mallina opened Gaia to provide something she missed from home.

“You couldn’t get a good loaf of bread or a vegetarian meal around here,” she says. “There wasn’t anything like that here.” Nor was there a yoga studio or a movement center. “I’m going to be the first in Bacalar.”

The town of Bacalar hugs the shore of Lake Bacalar and is the largest town on the lake. It’s about half an hour from Chetumal, the capital of the state of Quintana Roo, and the Belize border. The town has about 10,000 residents and a vibrant expat community—30 to 100 people, depending on the season. Long under the expat radar, Bacalar is starting to attract attention for its beautiful lakeside setting, low costs and peaceful atmosphere. Bacalar’s expats tend to be a relaxed, artsy bunch. Mallina, who’s lived in Bacalar since 1998, was one of the first here.

She first started to think of moving abroad in 1996; she dreamed of somewhere warm and tropical. After scoping out Hawaii, she focused on Mexico—a natural choice given her Mexican-American roots. In Bacalar, opportunity knocked.

“I came to teach a workshop at a large hotel in the area. And they asked me would I come down and work if they built a spa? The opportunity kind of fell into my lap. I had to make a decision whether to come. And I thought, Well, yeah!”

Mallina worked for the hotel for 12 years. Still, she dreamed of having her own business. About eight years ago, she bought the lot on which Gaia now stands. “I just kept thinking about the restaurant, creating it in my mind until it was a reality.”

In 2008, she contracted a local architect known for creating modern buildings that capture the essence of traditional Maya style. “I wanted to do a palapa, a building that was very natural and beautiful and earth-friendly.”

Construction began in January 2009, and Gaia opened for business in June. She hosted a gala opening last December, complete with a dance performance and a party for the local community.

Already Gaia is a hit with expats, tourists and local Mexican residents. In a place as small as Bacalar, businesses must attract both locals and expats to be successful. Gaia is doing that. “The Americans use the restaurant. The locals come to the yoga classes,” says Mallina.

“Weekends are always good,” she adds. “And we get a lot of people from Cancun and Tulum and Chetumal—Mexican nationals who have businesses and come down for the weekend.”

She reels off some of the projects she’s planned for Gaia. An African dance workshop one month, an East Indian dance workshop another. Later this year, a potter from Oaxaca is scheduled to hold a workshop there.

Like a number of Bacalar’s longtime expats, Mallina is deeply involved in local projects. Activities at Gaia provide just one more outlet. She’s started a large organic garden across the street from Gaia that will serve as a training ground for local kids and others. Then there is the woman building a bamboo house in Belize; Mallina has contacted her to see if construction like that might be feasible for Bacalar.

The goal of all these projects? “We want to attract more jobs for the locals here,” she says.

For Mallina, Bacalar is now home. She has no plans to leave. Just last July she applied for Mexican citizenship.

“I feel like I have roots here now,” she says.

Mallina has many friends in Bacalar—locals and expats. Her employees at Gaia are like family. “We depend on each other.”

And, of course, Mallina now has a business—the success of which she attributes to the community.

“The amount of support for any expat from the community is amazing. This community here…they hover…and they really make you feel at home. It’s a very tolerant place.”

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