Blog - Playa Viva Luxury Eco Resort, Mexico

The Tragedy of the Privates

Over a recent discussion at brunch in Los Angeles at Akasha Restaurant with some friends of Playa Viva, the discussion turned to some changes we were seeing in the economy. We were discussing the inefficient use of some resources and the tragedy of these dormant assets. The example used by our friends came in an “aha” moment as they were walking through the boat marina near where they live on the coast. As they walked past pier after pier of gleaming yachts docked and unused over the weekend, the tragedy of these assets laying idle made a significant impact on their ecological psyche. What if each of these boats were not private property but available for use by the commons? So many assets would not lay idle, less waste, better for the planet. And so they tossed out the the phrase, “The Tragedy of the Privates” which lead a longer discussion.

This is the same concept that drove our decision making early on in Playa Viva, to develop a “fractional” model for vacation homes. Why build a home, sell it to one person and have it sit idle. Sure, we all love the idea of having our own beach home, our own yacht, our own everything. But in the emerging sustainable economy, the real winner is the zip car, the zip home the zip yacht.

Taking this model even further, we have become big fans of freecycle.org. This further lessens the impact of the tragedy of the private, yet in this case you get all the benefits of private ownership and common benefit. Freecycle has worked particularly well for us with childrens’ toys. Our daughter has obtained as much benefit from someone else’s Barbie dolls as they did; and we will sure to pass along this derived value to the next young girl when our daughter grows out of the “Barbie” phase. The same is true for our son and Pokemon cards. Rather than buy all new cards and be a wasteful consumer, which would have helped the local economy through our expenditures at the locally owned independent toy store, instead my wife turned to freecycle where she found a family whose older children came over to our house to personally deliver their once treasured Pokemon cards. I’m not sure who enjoyed the moment more, my son upon receiving the ultimate card collection in one gigantic gesture of charity, or the young man who handed them over and the pleasure he gained in seeing the joy he brought to our son.

In your quest to use less, we encourage you to look for solutions where you can share assets, hand them down, re-use, recycle, freecycle. This type of behavior will be a large step towards a more sustainable economy. Sure it may reduce the size of key measures such as GDP, with fewer Barbie’s and Pokemon’s, Yachts and Houses being made and sold, but the key measure of human satisfaction, an under-measured and under-appreciated key indicator, will probably go up, significantly.

Turtle Sanctuary – Volunteer Opportunities

Playa Viva is working jointly with WildCoast/CostaSalvaje on a summer turtle volunteer program at La Tortuga Feliz, the turtle sanctuary at Playa Viva in Juluchuca, Mexico (30-minutes south of Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa). We have two options, one upscale staying at the “eco-lux” accommodations of Playa Viva and the second is more modest plan staying in Juluchuca in the homes of local townspeople. Part of the fee for attending will go as a donation to WildCoast to continue their work in turtle conservation throughout the coast of Mexico. If you have questions about this program and would be interesting to join this September or October, please send us an email to info @ PlayaViva.com.

Just to catch up those of you tracking the progress of the volunteers at La Tortuga Feliz, here are the statistics for last month. Overall, the results are 27% down from same time last year, so that is why it is so important to have your support in person or through donations to provide the resources necessary to keep the turtle safe.

For a video about La Tortugo Feliz go to the Multimedia section of Playa Viva’s website and click on the video entitled “La Tortuga Feliz“

Playa Viva Featured in Book on Green Building

Playa Viva was recently featured in a book entitled “The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability” by the 7group and Bill Reed. We highly recommend the book as well as Bill Reed and the team from Regenesis that lead our early design process.

We have been contacted recently by several groups that have been inspired by Playa Viva as a model for sustainable development. These folks wanted to know how to get started working in a sustainable manner. Many of the early lessons we learned are covered in this book. A quick look at the table of contents gives a snap shot of the process we underwent over the last three years. With Playa Viva scheduled to open November of this year, we are about to enter into one of the most important cycles in this regenerative process – Feedback and Evolving in the Field (see Table of Contents of the book below).

In reality, we have constantly maintained a feedback loop and have been evolving in the field. What started as fractional offering now will open as a boutique hotel. Moving palm trees in order to build tree houses on the beach, evolved to moving the tree houses to were the palm trees are already located. These are just two of so many examples of feedback and evolution in our project. Yet each of these changes remains true to the core values that were agreed upon by the entire development group early in the design process (see Chapter Four).

We congratulate Bill and team for this wonderful book and thank them for including Playa Viva as a case study from which others can learn.

Chapter One: Many Minds.

Chapter Two: Building as an Organism.

Chapter Three: Reframing Sustainability.

Chapter Four: Aligning Values, Purpose and Process.

Chapter Five: The Discovery Phase.

Chapter Six: Schematic Design.

Chapter Seven: Design Development and Documentation.

Chapter Eight: Construction, Operations, and Feedback.

Chapter Nine: Epilogue: Evolving the Field.

Chapter One: Many Minds.

Chapter Two: Building as an Organism.

Chapter Three: Reframing Sustainability.

Chapter Four: Aligning Values, Purpose and Process.

Chapter Five: The Discovery Phase.

Chapter Six: Schematic Design.

Chapter Seven: Design Development and Documentation.

Chapter Eight: Construction, Operations, and Feedback.

Chapter Nine: Epilogue: Evolving the Field.

Mexico Tourism Department Report on A(H1N1)

We have been reticent to report on the most recent influenza virus A(H1N1) until time provided us with some perspective on the topic and allowed us to be more rational and less reactive. We now feel that enough time has past to put this “potential pandemic” into perspective, at least for this season.

The influenza story is part of the story of place. Mexico’s reaction to this threat has catapulted Mexico into the middle of the international media and has placed its public health system under the world heath infrastructure’s microscope. Did Mexico react appropriately to this potential pandemic threat? What will be the repercussions of this event for Mexico over the short-term and long-term both economically and from the perspective of cultural evolution? All questions that will be answered over time.

However, the reason for this post is to share a recent update “For Travelers in Mexico” distributed by the Mexican Department of Tourism (English – Influenza Update paquete 5 May 12 ENG/Spanish – Influenza Update May Paquete 5 12 SPA). The report is dated May 12 and claims that Mexico has the second largest reported “laboratory confirmed” cases of A(H1N1) influenza of any country with 2,059, second to the US with the largest number of reported and confirmed cases, 2,600. The schools in Mexico opened officially on Monday, May 11. Only 3 states in Mexico did not report cases of this flu. Also, no cases have been reported in the resort cities of Puerto Vallarta or Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.

For more information, visit the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website specific for the A(H1N1) virus or for specific information about Mexico go to the Mexico-Update website managed by the Mexican Department of Tourism.

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Playa Viva Refracted in a New Light

In the last few days I’ve received some of the best photographs ever taken at Playa Viva. While we have been involved in this place for close to three years, the images that are captured there still do not cease to amaze me. Just when you thought you saw all of Playa Viva, someone sends you slices of life from Playa Viva that refract the place in a whole new light.

In late January, Daniel Camarena, an amateur photographer, naturalist and co-founder of Mexican non-profit Gente Como Nosotros (translates to “People Just Like Us”) spent 3 days in Playa Viva taking pictures of the wildlife. His primary purpose for the trip was to photograph the birth and migration to the sea of the highly endangered Leatherback (Laud) turtle. The turtle sanctuary, La Tortuga Feliz, had reported to us that a nest of Laud turtles had been found and the eggs were scheduled to hatch on that weekend. Daniel and Gente Como Nosotros are in the process of deploying an environmental education project in Mexico that will involve hundreds of schools and thousands of school children. As part of this project, they wanted to capture the Laud Turtle for promotion and adoption by the school kids for environmental protection – we will provide you with more on this project as it gets formally released.

Daniel took photos of the volunteers of the turtle sanctuary at work in collecting and storing eggs safely in the sanctuary. He also got great images of the birds of Playa Viva and the landscape. Enjoy PowerPoint below.

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Julia Butterfly Hill First Visit to Playa Viva

Julia with Odin at Playa Viva

Last week we had a very special visitor, Julia Butterfly Hill (here pictured with Odin Ruz, Permaculture Team Leader). It was a great treat to have Julia join us for the week where she enjoyed a tour of Playa Viva, turtle release and lots of swimming in the ocean.

We had met Julia breifly and were aware of her commitment to sustainability, regeneration and knew that we shared many of the same values; yet Julia is more than we could have ever hoped. While she demonstrates a commitment to living an exemplary life of minimal footprint, she combines living by example with excellent people skills, great business knowledge and realism about how to accomplish sustainable goals, not to mention a great sense of humor.

As a result of the great working sessions between Julia and many of the members of our team, Julia has agreed to be a Strategic Advisor to Playa Viva. She has already starting working with both Michel, Odin and myself. With Michel, they reviewed the source of materials in construction, how we selected which woods to use, what is the status of “certified” wood in Mexico and our ability to get sustainably forested woods, choice of local and sustainable woods that are plentiful for construction (such as palm, bamboo, guapinol, etc.) and discussing various points of sustainable construction in Playa Viva. I wish you all could be there to join that conversation, very lively and informative to all parties. Julia also went on a tour with Odin of his teams work in regeneration and restoration of the reserve and was pleased with the work in progress. She also is working with me on issues of design, business models, community engagement and much more.

Julia is a great asset to the team and we are glad to have her commitment to the project. We look forward to providing you more updates on her various contributions and hope you will join us in supporting Julia and the causes she promotes.

An unusual helper in biological pest control

coati

The white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) is a common site all around Playa Viva. A member of the raccoon family, it’s name means long nose (coá: long, tî: nose). Aside from being a rather exotic addition to the Playa Viva family, this furry rodent has a large appetite for just the kind of critters we want to keep at bay around our casitas.

While they will travel up to 2000 meters in a single day in a quest for food, they are just as happy to eat what’s near by. Keeping their muzzle down close to the ground as they search for food, they are happy to eat any beetles, spiders, scorpions, ants, termites, grubs, centipedes, and even land crabs, mice and lizards they might find

Of course their willingness to help comes at a price. They also love to eat fruit. And that leves the many exotic fruit trees at Playa Viva vulnerable. So while we appreciate their valuable assistance with pest control, the Permaculture team has also had to come up with some creative solutions for containing our Coati population. So far our most successful strategy for keeping them out of our fruit trees has been nailing metal around the trunk so they can’t climb up.

But since the Coati is so smart and territorial they can be domesticated and trained to a certain extent, thus allowing us to get the benefits of natural insect control around the casitas, without worrying about the fruit trees.

Bamboo Frames

one-bedroom casita bamboo frame finished

Michel Lewis, architect for Playa Viva, sent this photo of the one-bedroom casita (suite). Photo was taken during his visit last week. The frame of the casitas is made of bamboo (highly renewable materials which have been planted at Playa Viva). The palapero has just started to work on the thatched roof hut made from palm fronds harvested from plants within Playa Viva as well (again using highly renewable materials). 3-D AutoCAD image of 1-bedroom Casita at Playa Viva This photo is taken from the tapanco, the second story above the kitchen in the common area. The roof is also up on the common area and the pool is being poured. Playa Viva is progressing at a rapid pace. Below is the 3-D image from the original AutoCAD drawings superimposed over the photo above, showing what the Casita will begin to look like when completed. Missing are the surrounding vegetation and some other details. We hope you will come visit us this season.

Save the Turtles Campaign

Organization Supporting "La Tortuga Feliz" at Playa Viva

The last few months have been the height of the tortuga season in Playa Viva. The all volunteer team has released 27,000 plus turtles last month. But the bad news is that overall, they have released 30% fewer turtles than last year and the reason for these lower results is that the volunteers just don’t have the same support as last year and are in vital need of key resources. As a result, for this holiday season, we have started a small charitable giving campaign to raise $10,000 for a new 4×4 vehicle and gas to keep the volunteers reaching and rescuing as many baby turtles as possible.

How are we doing this? We have partnered with several organizations. First, the Oceans Foundation has agreed to serve as a clearing house for charitable giving. This way, you can make a donation and it will be tax deductible. We are asking you to give $100 (for adults) and $10 (for children). Go to the following link or go to www.oceansfdn.org and click on the “Donate Now” link. On the Donate page, you will see this:

Gift Information:

I’d like to make this donation
on behalf of in memory of Please send acknowledgement of this gift to:

(email address or postal address)

Make sure to click “on behalf” and write in the blank either: “La Tortuga Feliz” or “Playa Viva Turtle Sanctuary”. This will guarantee that your donation will directed to this campaign. You can also send an email acknowledgment to info@playaviva.com. If you would like to send a check, please make it payable to “Oceans Foundation” and on the memo or for line please write “La Tortuga Feliz at Playa Viva”. Mail checks to our address: Playa Viva LLC, 20 Melrose Court, San Mateo, CA 94402.

Also, the good folks at GreaterGood Network/CharitiesUSA.com, LLC have partnered with us on click-to-save program that will direct matching funds. We recommend highly that you visit their website and participate in their click-to-save programs.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if you have any ideas on how to help these volunteers continue their great work in saving more turtles.

Thank you for your donation and support.

Rainforest2Reef Honored

Rainforest2Reef, a non-profit, founded by the folks behind Playa Viva was recently honored at the SalesForce.com Dreamforce Event in San Francisco. See this video presentation where Rainforest2Reef is honored along with other non-profits worldwide using Salesforce.com products. We are proud of the success this organization has had over the last 8 years in establishing a successful model for conservation by private individuals in Mexico. This group has an agenda of accomplishing some extraordinary feats in the years to come including obtaining carbon credits for the owners of the land and setting up a permanent trust fund to insure the long term viability of its programs. To see more about Rainforst2Reef, please visit their website.