Maria, the 79-year-old retiree who built her own house made of bottles in three months

When the small El Salvadorian village of El Borbollon was struck by an earthquake in 2001, an elderly lady saw her house destroyed. Left with no other option, Maria Ponce took matters into her own hands and built herself an ingenious replacement.

After the devastating quake Ponce did not have the money to buy a new house, or even buy the materials needed for a rebuild, and was facing a future on the streets. However she was able to use recycled materials to build a new home from scratch and in the following decades it has become something of an attraction in the local area.

BZI reports that Ponce built the house on El Litoral - the main road in the village - and it is a visible reminder of the earthquakes’ consequences. Despite only being around 10 meter-squared, it is a remarkable sight.

The walls are made of discarded plastic bottles, hand-painted and embedded into the structure. The form of the walls is given by bamboo sticks, stuck deep in the ground, which provides the foundation for the house.

Incredibly, she said it took her only one and a half months to collect all of the bottles and other materials needed for the project. She then spent around three months completing the construction, doing the entire thing on her own.

Ponce revealed that she worked every day, from dawn until dusk, for those months. It’s now a major attraction in the area and the retiree admitted that it’s been a transformative experience for her: “Until yesterday I had nothing, and today people stop to admire it.”

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