西部落：我为自己建了一座岛屿（在线收听）

Floating Paradise

Man builds Mexican Island Paradise on 250,000 Recycled Floating Bottles

Castaways like Robinson Crusoe and even Tom Hanks didn’t intend on living on a deserted isle, but this next guy did. I mean when he couldn’t find an island to call his own, he created an unbelievable floating paradise out of this.

This man has given up his job, his family and all of his material possessions to run away and live on a secluded island paradise, a paradise made from plastic bottles.

It’s taken me two and a half years from the beginning, from the first bottle collection to get to this point now and I’m quite happy with the progress.

It was over two years ago Richie Sowa gave up his job as a carpenter and moved to Mexico in search of a simpler life. He made his way to the sandy shore of Cancun. He started collecting bottles for cash and that’s when he came up with an unbelievable idea, to build himself an island he can claim as his own.

The collecting of the bottles I started by hand first, just going round the, the local town picking them up.

Have a great day!

Cheers.

See ya.

Thanks.

This floating island is the links of a professional tennis court. Richie gathered thousands of bottles and started stuffing them in fishnets to create the foundation.

Well, this is the zone - total of three years’ work. It took me the first six months to just to get a base, which was about, that’s about 15 meters across and about 20 meters long. It took me about 4 months to get a base of around 7 or 8 meters that I started to put plants on.

Richie placed bamboo and plywood on top of the foundation of bottles, paddling back and forth over and over every day, scooping sand off the shore to build his own private beach. But the biggest challenge was trying to grow plants on the plastic bottle barge.

These are mangroves that were planted just a few months ago and they are growing really, really well. You can feel how...

These are mangroves that were planted like 4 or 5 months ago. They’ve got stems on them now, like trees, palm trees. This will be a lemon tree.

Today this real-life survivor is totally self-sufficient, growing bananas, coconuts, spinach, almonds and tomatoes on this island. He’s even built a solar cooker, collects rain to water the plants and even made a washing machine out of a plastic drum that rolls in the waves. This is one island cast-away who never needs to leave, but if the truth to be told, Richie is never alone on this island.

We have quite a few inhabitants on the island at the moment. It’s me, my cat Bonita, and my second cat Eezy, a little dog Rainbow, two chickens, Browny and Blacky and the duck, the heart of the island, Korasong.

This barbing island of bottles has proven to be quite seaworthy as well, surviving two hurricanes and several tropical storms. And now even the Mexican government wants to recognize the private paradise, declaring the island as Mexican soil for tourists to visit. But Richie has another idea for his paradise. Every day he adds bottles to make his island bigger. His goal is to one day float out to sea and eventually drift around the world on the island he built with his own two hands.

One day we’ll sail out on the ocean and become a small floating country.

像鲁滨逊或者汤姆汉克斯这样的漂流者都会真的想居住在荒芜的岛屿上，但是这名男子想。我的意思是，当他找不到属于自己的岛屿时，他利用这些东西创造了一个不可思议的漂浮的天堂。

这名男子放弃了工作，家庭和所有的物质财产，却跑到一个隐蔽的岛屿天堂来居住，一个用塑料瓶建造的天堂。

从最开始搜集第一个塑料瓶开始到现在的状态，用了两年半的时间。我非常高兴看到这个进展。

大约两年多以前，Richie Sowa放弃了自己的木工工作，搬迁到墨西哥寻找更加简单的生活。他到了位于Cancun的沙滩。他最开始的时候捡塑料瓶赚钱，就在那时想到了这个难以置信的主意，为自己建造一个属于自己的岛屿。

最开始我只是在当地的城镇到处捡塑料瓶。

祝你天天快乐！

干杯！

好的。

谢谢。

这个浮岛与一个专业的网球场相连。Richie搜集了数千个瓶子，用鱼网进行编织，开始了建设活动。

就是在这个区域——总共用了三年的时间。前三个月用来建地基，长20米宽15米。我用了四个月的时间建造了一个大约7米或8米的地基来种植植物。

Richie在用瓶子做的地基上放置了很多竹子和夹板，每天不停地从海滩上取沙来建造自己的私人沙滩。但是，最大的挑战是在这些塑料瓶上种植植物。

这些是几个月前种植的红树林，长势非常非常好。你能感觉的到……

这些是大约四五个月之前种植的红树林。这些已经长出了茎，看上去像树，棕榈树。这些应该是柠檬树。

今天，这名现实生活的幸存者能够完全自给自足，他在岛上种植了香蕉，椰子，菠菜，杏仁和西红柿。他甚至还建造了太阳能炊具，收集雨水来灌溉作物，甚至还用一个海浪吹来的鼓制作了一个洗衣机。这是一个没必要离开的荒岛，但是说实话，Richie在这个岛上并不孤独。

目前，这个岛上已经有相当数量的居民。包括我，我的猫Bonita和Eezy，我的小狗Rainbow，两只鸡Browny和Blacky，还有一只鸭子，这个小岛的核心，Korasong。

事实证明，这个用瓶子建造的小岛非常经得起海浪袭击，曾经在两次飓风和几次热带风暴中生存下来。现在，墨西哥政府也准备认可这个私人天堂，宣布这座小岛属于墨西哥国土，供游客观光。

但是Richie对他的天堂有另外一个打算。他每天都会添加一些瓶子，让岛屿越变越大。他的目标是，有一天能够乘着自己用双手建造的小岛在海上漂移，环游世界。

总有一天，我们能够在海上航行，成为一个漂浮的小国家。