"Gaviotans live in peace surrounded by narcotics dealers and guerillas. They live without guns, without pesticides, willing to serve and teach all comers. They count their wealth in sun, water, and community."

Elsewhere, they're tearing down the rain forest, but I've come to a place where they're actually putting it back, even as they create more livable space for people. I remember asking Paolo Lugari back in Bogota if Gaviotas is really Utopia." Mr. Lugari replied, through a translator, "Not Utopia, but Topia. In Greek, the prefix "u" signifies 'no". Utopia literally means "no place". It s just an idea; but Gaviotas is real. We've gone from fantasy to reality, from Utopia to Topia."

Lugari recruited engineers from universities in Bogota to develop technology for the rural tropics. Their marvels are found all over the village. The Global Citizen writes "The technical and architectural triumph of Gaviotas is its hospital, cooled by the wind, heated by the sun. The sun also provides hot water, boiled sterilized water, and the heat for six pressure cookers in the kitchen, plus enough electricity for the lights. By the time the hospital was built, Gaviotas had several hundred inhabitants, including the only doctors, nurses, and teachers for hundreds of miles around. People came there for medical care and sent their children there to school." 

Alan Weisman adds: "For years, Gaviotas has been a non-profit foundation, a model for the United Nations development program; but to finance themselves, the Gaviotans must also market their technology. That isn't so easy, Gonsalo says, since Gaviotas refuses to patent their inventions, preferring to share them." 

Their FAX numbers: 281 18 03 or 342 97 21. 

They have no e-mail. 

Their postal address: 

Resources

---

booksgaviotas on the webrelated sites

---

Friends of Gaviotas -- "a nonprofit organization established to further an exchange of ideas, knowledge and resources with the community of Gaviotas. It also aims to stimulate creative thinking and action among people who want to capture the 'spirit of Gaviotas' in their own lives, work and communities."

"Restoring a prairie with fire and oozy seeds."
"Random paths to a stable ecosystem"

Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World Alan Weisman Review Publisher's Website for the Book

The publisher's Website for the book includes a sample from the audio CD, and this excerpt from the text.

The book also inspired a film, which won the academy Award for Best Animated Film of 1987. A less expensive version is available.

The several sites offer the full text of the book on the Internet. Copies: 12