One man's garbage is a moving treasure island for another man. Spiral Island, or Spiral Island, may be the strangest and most successful handmade paradise the world has ever seen. For those unfamiliar: the first iteration of this mobile island was built fifteen years ago, but it was destroyed by a hurricane. The current model also floats on millions of recycled plastic bottles just like its predecessor, created from nothing by a man and a rotating crew of followers and friends. And to this day, the entire island is growing and the people and structures that inhabit it are still developing eccentrically and excitingly.
Arguably more amazing than the mere fact of a private luxury floating island is the fact that it keeps changing over time, it's always a work in progress. Second floors have been added, remodeled and replaced over the years, once with a suite, a swing for two people under one solar panel in another (complemented later with a massage table).
Apart from reusing and recycling the plastic bottles to form its base (made from used tires filled with bottles to make the ship float, an update of the mesh bags filled with bottles that it previously used), other sustainable features include growing food on the island itself: there is a protected garden with beach grapes, tulips, a cactus of edible fruit and palms. Many of the building materials on the island are harvested locally, donated or discarded and reused by its nomadic inhabitants.
Aesthetics loom somewhere between camping and a beachfront resort, with mesh and cement edges (to provide a sense of security along the borders) and living among palm trees, mixed benches, and sandy paths along the island. The tropical and rustic motifs of the island can be found in the architecture and interiors as well. The island welcomes visitors as well as donations to help stay afloat.
This is not to say that living in this paradise comes without problems. On the one hand, another natural disaster could jeopardize its existence – and the flexibility of governments cannot remain so forever (although for now the island travels with relative freedom from one place to another in the Mexican Caribbean). On the other hand, freshwater, security and other issues are always under consideration. However, the island grows and changes with the tides, increasingly prepared for the next source of trouble, and usually floating one step ahead.
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