Sant Antoni de Portmany

I enjoy early Mediterranean mornings when the air is cool and the world feels clean. And in the case of a city, has literally been washed by municipal vehicles in the night. Alas, this doesn't last long; as soon the day warms up, it becomes uncomfortably hot, humid or both. And so it was this morning: after I grabbed a simple breakfast of coffee and slice of toast, on the way to the bus stand the humidity started to oppress.

I was ambivalent about visiting Sant Antoni, Eivissa's second largest town. Its West End has a large concentration of joints offering British cuisine, e.g "traditional British breakfast", so you can guess the clientele of the nearby mass tourism resorts. I figured that the clubers of the night before would be sleeping it off and I could see the town, have lunch (of local food) and escape before they woke up and never have to bump into them.

The beach is no great shakes but it is in a protected bay and sees the sunset, as it is on the west of the island.

There were advertisements of sunset excursions to Es Vedra, running everyday, but starting at 1500. I didn't really want to hang around that long. Even less so when "champers" was advertised as supplied. Foiled again in my quest to view Es Vedra.

The fountains in the waterfront promenade are pretty enough and are gathering points for locals and photo opportunities for visitors.

These automats reminded me of the ones in Amsterdam selling snacks like kroketten. The shop it was located in also sold souvenirs such as T-shirts advertising that the wearer had been clubing in Ibiza.

Another local landmark, this one in the middle of a traffic roundabout, is The Egg, to celebrate a local claim that Columbus was born there.

The town's namesake saint has a church in standard Mediterranean white on a back street. Beyond that there are no sights that require a visit.

By this time it was lunch and I was fortunate to find a restaurant serving a Spanish menu of the day. The cool gazpacho was good and just the thing for a warm day. I have always thought of merluza (hake) as the quintessential Spanish fish since it was the first fish I learnt in Spanish lessons. I was served by a serious looking old waiter. For decent cooking, and a dessert of a couple of scoops of ice-cream and a refreshment, it was a good deal at 10€.

In the evening, I elected to go to Eulària again for dinner. This time I had to be mindful of the timetable as the service was only hourly on Sundays. I had a few minutes free before departure and took a walk around this peace pool in a park.

I got there in time to join the evening paseo. On Sant Vicent, the dining street, the establishment I wanted to try was closed on Sundays, and I had just missed early bird hour at the Tex-Mex place that had decent reviews. So I went for an Asian fusion place. The starter of satay was genuine enough, and the main of pork and julienned vegetables with noodles stir fried in oyster sauce was fine, but a bit too salty. I tried their Woktail which contained vodka, Midori and fruit juice. It was tasty and didn't feel alcoholic at all but was potent all the same.

On the way back I saw a merchandise shop selling double CD sets of club compilations for 10€. What the heck, at that price, worth a try. They had hits of past years (not that I would notice). I would have to wait until I got a rental car with a CD player to start booming out club music.

Platja d'en Bossa

One preparation task which I never completed was booking a rental car for Eivissa. I got expensive quotes like 60€ per day or was warned on forums of rentals that required prepaying for a full tank. (Eivissa is small and you'd never be able to use it all.) I considered a moped but was worried about heavier traffic and steeper hills than Formentera. I was going to decide whether to rent for 2 days but instead I procrastinated to thinking about renting for 1 day tomorrow.

On the way to the bus stand I came across Mercat Nou, the town market. It's a pretty standard Spanish produce market but I enjoy looking at what people buy and eat.

I succumbed to the pastel del dia (pastry of the day) offer of this stall. It was a pastry with vanilla filling, chocolate paste, and a sprinkling of crushed nuts. When I finally ate it at the beach it was alright but too sweet for my taste. Some fruit, i.e. a danish, would have been nice, but what can you expect for 1€.

Platja d'en Bossa is the closest major beach to Eivissa town. The airport is not far away so you can even see planes overhead coming in to land. I stayed on the bus till the end of the line which was also the southern end of the long beach then started walking north. You can rent recliners or sun beds like these. Taking in the sun is not an activity I desire; It puzzles me why paleskins are attracted to it. I prefer cool breezy days.

Attire on both locals and visitors ends to be casual due to the warm weather, even this late in the year. Shorts are acceptable and the women even manage to look txic, sorry I mean chic, in casual wear. (Txic is the name of a real fashion shop in town.)

I saw a poster for a 3 hour boat cruise taking in Es Vedra. It can be viewed from Cala d'Hort, not served by buses, thus the reason for wanting my own transport. But only on Thursdays and Fridays. If I had known, but the sea was choppy yesterday. Then again it might have been a larger and more stable boat. Anyway too late now.

There is one beach closer to Eivissa town called Sa Figueretas, but it's a pebbly beach rather than sandy. There was also a lot of dried seaweed on the beach.

A billboard outside a rental agency quoted 60€ for a car and 25-30€ for a motorbike. So I think no rental tomorrow.

It was walking distance from town so after leaving the beach, I found myself on Avda. Espanya, one of the main streets. About 20 minutes later I was back at the hotel.

In the evening I decided I would go to Eulària for dinner or I would go stir crazy. It is only 2€ each way anyway, and a 20 minute ride. This turned out to be a brilliant move. Eulària is a more mellow place than Eivissa town. I strolled on the promenade for a while, enjoying the cool air.

The jetty where I had arrived the day before.

A few streets back from the water is Calle San Vincent which is lined with restaurants. After walking back and forth a couple of times, checking the menus, I picked a traditional restaurant. I had Waldorf salad, followed by gallo (translated on the menu as St. Peter's fish, but possibly Megrim) baked with tomato and potato slices, finishing with a banana split. The dry house white from Catalunya was outstanding. It wasn't available in less than ½ bottle (375ml) so I was a bit tipsy by the end of the evening. I was glad I was taking the bus. I'd never be able to do this in a rented car.  It was a splendid splurge.

Eulària's bus station advertised itself as the new location of the town market, but from the incomplete state of the station it looked like another case of oversupply of infrastructure.

Santa Eulària des Riu

Eivissa town has brightly lit streets near the harbour but most of the illumination was supplied by the shops, not street lights; the glitter petered out the further away you walked. The population is bolstered by visitors in summer so the municipal authorities were not providing lighting beyond the needs of a small town all year round.

I wished that the night-time temperatures were a couple of degrees less. When I got my room I noticed the electric insecticide vapouriser. And indeed I got a couple of mosquitoes in the night. Between the vapouriser and the repellant I had, I got through the night. I wondered where they breed. Perhaps it's not surprising, Eivissa foliage is lush, suggesting ample rainfall.

I wanted the bus to Santa Eulària des Riu and went to the new bus station. I had to walk around it a couple of times to convince myself it was not in use. I asked at the police desk there, possibly the only occupant of the empty building and got pointed to one of the main streets. I couldn't find it there so walked down to the harbour. There I saw a water taxi service and decided to take that. With some time to kill I had a coffee and a pastry. In the local newspaper I found the answer to the bus station mystery. The private developer of the bus station complex told the municipal authorities they couldn't charge less than 5€ per bus movement if the station were to be inaugurated. They were losing money on the empty premises. Negotiations were continuing. This was just one example of overbuilding that had landed regional governments budgets in the red. I had noticed all over, to various degrees, property for sale or rent. This was exacerbated by businesses failing.

When the water taxi didn't arrive at the scheduled time, I asked at the tourist office about the (old) bus terminus. They gave me a map and circled a location on one of the main streets. As I was headed there the boat arrived so I hopped onto it. Unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast and the water was choppy so the boat rocked a lot. I was close to throwing up, and was saved by some menthol lozenges I had with me.

I suppose I did get to see an intervening cove called Cala Llonga on my boat ticket.

When we arrived at Santa Eulària des Riu I could have kissed terra firma.

The Riu refers to the river it's built by, the only one on the island. It is possible to take a river bank walk but it really is more like a stream most of the time, turning into a torrent only after heavy rain. Eulària is one of the more tasteful resorts and not as brash. The tourists here tend to be older. Some looked peevish on seeing me, as if to say, what's a relatively young person like you doing in our resort?

There is a market there where you can buy colourful clothing and accessories. At Es Canar, further up the coast, there is a "hippy market" on Wednesdays selling similar things.

I found a restaurant serving Indian cuisine which turned out to be quite good. I think they had a real Indian chef. Quite a few nationalities have washed up on Eivissa. There are locutorios (phone centres) all over serving these new residents. In reviews of restaurants on Eivissa, I noticed that quite a few are located in Eulària.

I decided to abandon the return half of my boat ticket and catch the bus instead. I would have lost my lunch otherwise. It was actually faster by bus, only about 20 minutes. Back in Eivissa town, I tried a local speciality, a slice of flao. I didn't like it that much, too sweet for my taste. The chocolate truffle ice cream I had in the evening after pizza was also too sweet and I began to wonder if this was characteristic.

Eivissa 1

The Formentera hotel was the best I'd stayed in so far. Aside from the already mentioned breakfasts, the furnishings are modern and the services excellent. There is a swimming pool, good for cooling off after touring. The major drawback was that the WiFi did not reach the rooms and I had to go down to the bar to go online. I expected and found Formentera to cost more than the bigger islands since things have to be imported but even at the higher price, the hotel was good value.

The return journey went without drama and by noon I was in my Eivissa accommodation. After lunch I retreated for a siesta, saving Dalt Vila (old city) for the evening.

Like many other desirable middle ages city, Eivissa was keenly fought over so the old city and fortress is a remnant of that time. Beneath the fortifications is an entire city with narrow passageways that is pleasant to explore.

The harbour edge of the fortified city has many fine dining possibilities. I however took dinner in a more mundane cafeteria away from the harbour because of the tourist maxim: Everything is more expensive on the main drag.

I wanted a pastry and coffee to follow, but this proved elusive. Such morsels are for the earlier part of the day and in the evening, main meals, alcoholic drinks and snacks (tapas) are in vogue.

My hostal was 4 stories up from a popular square. The hubbub of conversation reached all the way to my window. Within a stone's throw were several dance clubs and the thump thump reached this far until the small hours of the morning. Especially as posters all over advertised that this was the end of dance season so every club was holding noisy farewell parties on the weekend. Fortunately I'd been staying up late and and can adapt to sleeping with noise. There are always the ear plugs. In the popular mind Ibiza is associated with the dance club scene. DJs are like rock stars, and have parlayed fame into lucrative spin-offs, such as Kathy and David Guetta's chain of merchandise stores with the double entendre name F*** me I'm famous! (sic)

I admit I was ambivalent about choosing to visit Eivissa. I couldn't even find a current guide book for the island; one published several years ago was not renewed. It seems that those who come here know what to expect (i.e. package holiday, clubbing, and other hedonistic pursuits). However the tourism scene, including the clubs only accounts for 5% of land use. There is a lot of pretty landscape around the island.

Formentera 2

The hostal served breakfast from 0830 to 1200, as compared to previous places I stayed in that started at 0700. They expected you to be an indolent guest. I didn't mind, I had adapted by this time already but it meant that I couldn't start touring until 0930. By about 1400 it's time for lunch and after that it's too hot. So you get about 4.5 hours of touring and maybe an hour or two in the evening. Incidentally the buffet was the best I'd encountered so far, with several choices of everything. But I can't be the glutton I used to be, sadly.

My first destination was the lighthouse Far de Barbaria. It featured prominently in Julio Medem's 2001 film Lucía y el sexo (Sex and Lucia), a stylish love drama which was a breakout role for Paz Vega. A sign outside the ground acknowledges that the film generated tourist interest in this lighthouse. It also said that the lighthouse was remote controlled by technicians on Eivissa.

The terrain around Far de Barbaria is even more barren than that at Mola. It is the southernmost point of the Balearic islands. From here it is possible to see Eivissa as well as a remarkable island off Eivissa called Es Vedrà.

From there I retraced my path to the turn off to Cala Saona, the most accessible west coast beach. The cove has a large hotel, there is beach furniture and the sand is tidied by a vehicle every morning. However it was very uncrowded, with only a few late season tourists, mostly German it seemed, some sunbathing in the nude.

I stopped in the central town of Sant Francesc. There were stalls selling colourful new age clothing and accessories. Eivissa and Formentera have attracted hippie types for a long time. I felt like a gelato. But there was no such shop. How can that be allowed?

North of La Savina, a long peninsula, which, looking at a map, is obviously a geologic continuation of Eivissa, has many good beaches on both sides. There was that incredible clear water again. There is an upmarket restaurant where I had an expensive beer. But the views were worth it.

On the way there are disused salt pans.

I lunched at La Savina before calling it a day's touring due to the heat.

Formentera 1

The tourist office helpfully publishes altitude profile charts of the main bike routes on the island. From this I gathered that I would be challenged by the hills so I settled on a moped instead of a bike. All the shops looked similar so I went for one run by a middle-aged man on a less frequented street on the reasoning that he needed the business more than the shops on the main street.

A moped is of course more exposed than a car. On the other hand Formentera is a small island, no more than 18 km long and about 2 km wide at the narrowest part. I was more concerned about bumps and potholes than car drivers. I would have to be more alert.

I had the moped for 2 days so I decided to explore the eastern half today and the other half tomorrow. I headed out for Far de la Mola, at the tip. The road ascended to the town of El Pilar de la Mola, and then led out to the mostly bare headland. Lighthouses these days are automated remote controlled affairs so nobody lives there.

Just the sheer cliffs and the Mediterranean beyond.

On the way back I stopped at El Mirador (The Lookout) which has a commanding view of the east coast.

You can also see the neck of land that the island narrows to. I bought a bottle of mineral water at the restaurant there because I had taken pictures. A tour bus full of older Spanish tourists arrived and I made my escape while they were snapping away.

Back down at sea level I took the short side road to the beach of Es Caló. This was the first time seeing the water up close and I was amazed by the clarity of the pale turquoise water.

The last time I saw water like that was on the north coast of Cuba. No wonder that Formentera tourist brochures talk about Caribbean-like waters.

I took the turn-off for the southern beach of Platja de Migjorn. There is a large hotel here using the long stretch of sand. But as the season was winding down sections of the hotel were closed down.

That beautiful water again.

It was time for lunch and I found a place in Sant Ferran de Ses Roques serving a menu del dia.

In the evening I decided to travel to La Savina for dinner. But first I captured these sunset colours behind the beachfront at Es Pujols.

On the way to La Savina, I passed these salt pans, now out of use. Several cyclists had also stopped to take pictures of the flaming sunset.

Café del Lago, the restaurant I picked, was an upmarket joint. It had a view of Estany d'es Peix, a small lake. The salad with goat cheese was quite good. I noted that the balsamic vinegar came in a spray bottle. The main of lubina (bass) could have been better if they had not overwhelmed it with capers. Service could have been faster. The Italians had even brought their characteristics to Formentera.

It was cold mopeding back to Es Pujols but it was only a few kilometers. I made it back in time for the complementary drink given by my hotel.

Island hopping

I felt sorry to be leaving Menorca. It was a mellow place. These feelings were engendered by an early morning walk to the fish market. But then I reflected, I'm a tourist, I live in a bubble created by my status, I can leave when I want, whenever it gets boring. The locals have to stay, they have to earn a living, they have to deal with problems, they can't just move on. Incidentally the fish market was closed and looked like it had been for a long time. Perhaps it had moved elsewhere, closer to where most people live and the building was awaiting repurposing.

This was the day I would be on all four major Balearic islands within a 6 hour period. Departing Menorca went without a hitch. The small jet landed me in Palma de Mallorca airport and I waited in the departure lounge while they refueled. As I suspected, the same jet then became the Mallorca to Eivissa service. We even left by the same gate. Where's Eivissa, you ask. It's the Catalan name of what most people know by its Spanish name Ibiza. I collected my backpack and caught the bus into town. It dropped me off metres from the ferries to Formentera, the smallest of the 4 major islands.

A couple of days before, the hotel in Formentera had sent me a coupon for 50% off a return ticket from 1st October. It was a campaign to woo more tourists. This was very fortunate for me and the counter clerk accepted a copy on my e-book reader, so I didn't have to print it.

The ferry was large, stable and comfortable. It was nowhere near capacity which is why they were eager for more passengers.

I watched as we left Eivissa harbour, then the ferry accelerated as soon as were out of the speed restricted zone. I settled in my chair. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, we were disembarking at La Savina, Formentera's port.

At this point my luck with smooth connections ran out. The timetable at the bus stop showed that new reduced schedules had commenced 1st October and the next bus to Es Pujols, where my hotel was, wasn't due for an hour. The timetable giveth and the timetable taketh. I didn't mind the wait so much, I took the opportunity to have a look at La Savina harbour and take some pictures, but I didn't like lugging a backpack all the time.

After freshening up I went down to the waterfront in the evening. Everybody was enjoying the evening paseo or having dinner in the restaurants. There seemed to be many Germans and Italians in Formentera. When I did my research, there were many guest reviews in Italian. Even some staff were Italian, I think. The waitress who took my pizza order spoke some Italian to customers.

There was a full moon over the water. The hotel had provided a free evening drink so I finished off with a glass of sangria in the lounge. There were heaps of shops in town to rent a bike or a moped from. I wondered how to choose one.