Garden of Paradise is a new community with a healing center and retreat accommodations located near the small village of Vilcabamba, Ecuador. We are currently seeking a small number of full-time or part-time community members— creative individuals who are interested in coming in at the ground floor in building this unique community.
Retirees (or those who are semi-retired) who may wish to pursue new interests, hobbies and activities in a supportive social network are welcome.
We also offer a small but growing number of rental rooms for artists, writers, film makers, musicians, innovators and others who are looking for an inspiring and beautiful place to do a retreat.
“Garden of Paradise” is well named
Blessed with 350 beautiful acres of mile-high temperate ecosystems, the Garden of Paradise Healing and Retreat Center has over a mile of river frontage bordered by flat fertile fields that are being planted in organic gardens, pastures and orchards. Lovely glens and hollows are found all along the entire length of this beautiful stretch of river, connected by meandering pathways. A small road strategically connects part, but not all, of the property.
From several locations, hiking trails pass upwards through a series of micro-ecosystems to the mountain tops. From there, well over 1000 feet above the valley, you see stunning views that go for many miles in all directions.
Most of the land in the Garden of Paradise Community will be placed in the equivalent of an “eco-reserve” or “conservation easement”. We’ve begun a reforestation project and, as funds allow, will expand this effort.
Only a small number of building lots will be sold in this community and most of these will be clustered in areas on the edges of farmland with easy access to the main road that passes through the village of Santòrum. A small number of “cabañas” will also be built in some special areas on the property to be used as retreat units both by community members and by visitors coming to do retreats here.
Our goal is to create an attractive model of sustainable living—a model that can be replicated around the world, with modifications to accommodate specific conditions in other areas. From the beginning, we’ve been documenting our progress in writing and photos and, more recently, with video. We plan to continue this documentation on a collective basis with community members who wished to participate in this process.
Our economic model for organizing micro-enterprises locally is loosely patterned after the highly successful Mondragon community in the Basque region of Spain. Mondragon is a democratic and collaborative community that places great value on personal and group development, in an atmosphere of mutual support and pride in workmanship. (Much can be found on the Internet about this remarkable experiment.) While Mondragon’s enterprises are based primarily on education and industry (appliances, automotive parts, electronics, etc.), we aim to base our enterprises on education (primarily in quality of life, health and sustainability practices), organic farm production, music & the arts, and—importantly—the production and sale of a variety of “info-products” and “info-services” related to human survival, transformation and sustainability issues.
Our Vision Includes...
Healthy Lifestyle Choices — Organic foods, meditation & spiritual practices, exercise and walking as a way of life. Preventive medicine, spa & a variety of healing services—all in a low-stress and beautiful environment.
Economic Development — Cottage industries and eco-businesses of different & complementary types. Film and video production, music recording & editing, fine art and handicrafts of various sorts, computer / internet-based businesses. Also, health products (organic produce, organic dried fruit, etc.), health and spa services (including Rolfing, Voice Dialogue, hot tubs, saunas, flotation tanks, etc.), educational products (books, CDs, DVDs, seminars & workshops, small conferences, multi-media production, consulting services of different types.)
Learning Community — We will continually explore, demonstrate and model more enlivening social, economic and environmentally-sound ways of living. High-speed internet connectivity & advanced skills in communications will enable us to share what we’re learning with the global community in creative ways.
Incubator Programs — We invite participation, in a mutually beneficial manner, by highly talented & motivated people — artists, writers, musicians, healers & innovators. We will offer, at reasonable rates, a small number of retreat “cabañas” for doing retreats.
Richly Diverse Participation — We are open to exploring different possibilities for participation with people who resonate with this vision. Some possibilities we see at this time include (1) joining us as community members (part- or full-time) (2) sharing a membership with one or more friends, 3) participating as business partners, investors (traditional and innovative) or as "Patron Angels". Our goal is to create win–win relationships with everyone, in both for-profit and non-profit structures.
Land Preservation — We are putting a large percentage of our mountains into the equivalent of a conservation easement and plan to reforest many areas with native species and a small number of trees to replace the ones we’re using for building here. To start the process, this year we're planting 1,000 trees. Our vision is to make our development “footprint” as light and lovely as possible, with few houses and other structures. We will farm the fields organically, work with biochar & other soil-enhancement processes and increase the native forest cover of the mountains. In short, we aim to “leave the trail better than we found it.”
Organic Production — We are strongly committed to improving the soil structure. To this end, we've introduced a great deal of composted material (more to come) and started worm beds. We’ve been planting many types of fruit and nut trees—about 600 to date. We've also planted 300 coffee bushes, one large field each of organic sugar cane & corn, as well as a variety of berry bushes and grape vines. Our large garden supplies a great variety of organic vegetables and herbs, both culinary and medicinal. After less than a year here, we are already selling some of our produce locally.
Sustainable & Innovative Design — In the design of community facilities, we are combining a variety of technologies, old and new. We seek to find the balance between a high-quality living environment and a low- carbon or negative-carbon footprint. We seek to walk our talk here, while also seeking to influence the global process of transformation to a sustainable civilization. In all of our endeavors, the year-round “springtime” climate of this locale lends itself to a wonderful indoor-outdoor style of living that invites a relaxed lifestyle, innovative architecture and great creativity.
