A Vision for Vilcabamba

Vilcabamba is one of a number of important refuges in the world: an isolated, abundant enclave where enthusiastic travelers from North America, Europe and all over the world relocate to build new lives.

Everyone who's been driven, or called, to come to Vilcabamba feels in their bones that it's a special place.

But this is not just a subtropical, alternative village community where one may hope to live an easy, unhassled life. There are many of those on every continent.

Vilcabamba seems to be way more than that. It may literally be no less than a beacon — an inspiration for the world: a showcase community, which Ecuador could rightly be proud of, where able, visionary mavericks of every discipline, of every age and from every walk of life, arrive here to sow seeds together for the future that we all want to experience.

And what challenges might that future bring?

Thinking defensively
Thinking proactively and creatively

The world might see significant changes, and challenges, in 2012-13. For more on this, please download and read the reference files here.

If these events come to pass —

  • Political changes precipitated by catastrophic financial collapse
  • Solar events causing the partial loss of the electrical and communications grid

— then Vilcabamba may be one of a limited number of ideal places to be.

To optimize this, resident Vilcabambans need to organize themselves to work very closely together

  • To share resources, knowledge, skills and experience.
  • To welcome, assist, support and expedite the relocation of new expat visitors, who may come to Vilcabamba in the tens of thousands over the next 18 months.
  • To assist and work closely with the local Ecuadorian authorities to respond positively and supportively to this large influx of people and money, which is both an opportunity and a threat.
  • To establish integration and education programs to establish very close co-operative connections with the local Ecuadorian community.

It's possible that the world might continue with many of the potential global threats dissipated, handled, or otherwise mitigated.

In that case, the challenges will come from within:

  • An increasingly segregated, two-tier community — triggering resentment, greed and the temptation of crime.
  • Destabilization of the local economy, driven by unregulated real estate sales and inflated construction costs.
  • Overloaded water supply, sewage treatment, and garbage disposal.
  • The new highway that may come right through the town.

These issues alone are a call for us to work far more closely together both with one another and the established local community in order to preserve the quality of our new home. It's possible that this may only happen if we begin now.