Matanzas: Brand-new but with 5 years experience, a photo by Second Life Beach on Flickr.

Come for the white sand beaches, stay for the waterfall, dance pavilion, rain forest, and so much more. With the sim’s five-year birthday coming up, its creator Skate Foss just keeps getting newly inspired. I took a tour with her last night, so put photos up on Flickr showing some of what we saw.

Something old (and in Second Life, five years is REALLY old): Skate Foss bought a beachy desert island sim almost exactly five years ago. Then….she started making it gorgeous and hasn’t stopped yet.
Something new: Mesh has transformed the possibilities of Second Life, even Second Life beaches, making it possible to create more detail using fewer prims, so you end up with even more gorgeous stuff. The interior of the island, a beautiful tropical wilderness to match our white sand beaches, is getting a big Skate Foss makeover with mesh plants and animals adding new levels of detailed believability.
Something borrowed: Great creators build on the work of other great creators. Two of great creators with lots of work displayed around the island are Nadine Reverie (3D Trees) and Antreas Alter (Real Waves.)
Something blue: That cheeky blue macaw I saw up high in a tree..but then I couldn’t find him when I wanted a photograph for this blogpost.
Come visit lovely Matanzas and help me look for him!