Spiral Island

21.23043 - 86.737189Koordinaten: 21 ° 14 ' N, 86 ° 44 ' W

Spiral Iceland is an artificial floating island in a lagoon of the Caribbean Sea, north of Cancun in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It was built by the British Richart " Rishi " Sowa, inter alia, of empty returnable bottles and is inhabited by him.

A first prototype was created by Sowa 1997 in Zipolite, a small settlement on the west coast of Mexico, in the municipality of Santa María Huatulco. Under a three -meter-wide shell of papier mache fortified native of Middlesbrough musician, artist and carpenter disposable bottles, which gave it the boost it needed. Then he built a hut made ​​of branches. Four months later, the structure was destroyed by a hurricane.

In 1998 he started with a larger project, this time on the east coast of Mexico, one kilometer south of Puerto Aventuras, on the Yucatán Peninsula. In four years of work, he created the 16 by 20 meters large island of bamboo pipes, wooden plates and disposable bottles. As an avowed environmentalists and recyclers Sowa planted on the island to various plants, such as mangroves and built on it a two-story house, a solar oven and a selbstkompostierende toilet.

For buoyed 250,000 held together with nets plastic bottles. Coated with sand weighed the construction of about 60 tons. The spiral was the construction concept to increase the initially much smaller floating platform. The island's name is at the same time also explains the theories of Abraham Maslow on the human needs ( the image of a spiral for the personal development and the search for perfection but it comes at Alfred Adler back ). This island already reached over regional notoriety and the media reported about it. In July 2005 it was destroyed by Hurricane Emily.

Frustrated Sowa wanted to give up his project, but then he got financial support from the head of a local organic farms and other investors. He began 2007 in a lagoon of the island of Isla de Mujeres north of Cancun with the third version of its island, which he called Joysxee Iceland. With 25 meters in diameter, it is still larger than spiral Iceland. On it he has a three-storey building built with solar panels, a solar powered waterfall with a stream and three beaches. The island is his vision of a sustainable living with low resource consumption. Rishi Sowa improved and expanded his island constantly, being supported by volunteers. Since 2008, he offers guided tours of the island, to sensitize the visitors for environmental issues.