Ibiza is an island of excess. The annual tourist invasion strains the island in many ways: Hooligan behavior strains the nerves of the locals, drunk tourists clog the inadequate roadways, and the enormous, high-priced resorts cater to those who decadently waste water that, in summer, is in short supply.

This pre-packaged, take-what-I-need-and-throw-the-rest-away lifestyle, combined with the island nature of Ibiza that makes it difficult to properly dispose of otherwise easily recyclable materials makes it the perfect setting for FalconBlanco.

FalconBlanco could be described as an Eco-Village, or perhaps an Intentional Community. In 5 acres of land atop a small hill in the center of Ibiza rests a community of usually between ten and twenty people who live off the waste generated by the island.

Daily, we visit food distributors who import food from the mainland. Often, a pallet of the food will become damaged, and rather than salvage what they can, these companies will throw away the whole lot! We take this food, which would be otherwise wasted, keep the good for ourselves and put the bad on our compost pile. Later, we sell compost to friends as a source of income for the community. We also pick up the pallets from these companies after the food has been removed from them. The good ones are sorted, shipped to the mainland, and sold. The broken ones are repaired, and the irreparable ones are cut up into firewood. In a time where governments are subsidizing traditional farms because they are unable to stay afloat financially, we find that our methods produce an excess of income, which we plan to use for charitable purposes. We have found everything we need on the physical level in the waste of others.

Ecologically, we foster a culture of encouraging our members to be good citizens of the planet. We use only what we need of water and electricity - for instance, all water used for washing dishes or filling our pool eventually ends up watering our plants. For hot showers, we have a kiloliter hot water reservoir that uses solar energy. We run our vehicles on Biodiesel created from used vegetable oil collected from around the island. When taking produce from food distributors, we take the good food as well as the rotten because even rotten vegetables can be recycled in our compost pile. The general idea is that while recycling much of the waste of the island, our own lifestyles should impose on nature as little as possible. This is not only good for the environment, but also lets us feel good about what we do on an emotional level.

Amongst ourselves, as a community, we try to foster consciousness and awareness. We live life one day at a time, always responding to what comes into our environment. We meditate, converse, write, and make music. Because we live with such a variety of people from different cultures of the world, and because the lifestyle at FalconBlanco is completely different from what most of us are familiar with, we're forced to deal with new situations every day that have no obvious proper or pre-prescribed method for being dealt with. All of these exercises make us stronger people on the spiritual level.

Many people find that their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are better met by the lifestyle at FalconBlanco than the lifestyle they're used to. We wake up in the morning with a cheery disposition, anticipating rather than dreading the day's work. We form close personal friendships that feel like they'll last forever. Occasionally, we reach spiritual epiphanies that take our entire lives in a new direction.