Travellers Ibiza & Formentera

196 Pages·2007·8.239 MB·English

by  Thomas Cook Publishing

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IBIZA &
FORMENTERA
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3 0120 02104635 4
IBIZ/i
aND
FORMENTERA
BY
Christopher and Melanie Rice
Produced by
Thomas Cook Publishing
Written by Christopher and Melanie Rice
Updated by Jane Egginton
Original photography by Caroline Jones
Original design by Laburnum Technologies Pvt Ltd
Editing and page layout by Cambridge
Publishing Management Ltd, Unit 2,
Burr Elm Court, Caldecote CB3 7NU
Series Editor: Karen Beaulah
Published by Thomas Cook Publishing
A division of Thomas Cook Tour Operations Ltd
Company Registration No. 1450464 England
PO Box 227, The Thomas Cook Business Park,
Unit 18, Coningsby Road,
Peterborough PE3 8SB, United Kingdom
E-mail: [email protected]
www.thomascookpublishing.com
Tel: [phone]
ISBN: 978-1-84157-696-1
Text © 2007 Thomas Cook Publishing
Maps © 2007 Thomas Cook Publishing
First edition © 2004 Thomas Cook Publishing
Second edition © 2007 Thomas Cook Publishing
Project Editor: Linda Bass
Production/DTP Editor: Steven Collins
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise,
in any part of the world, without prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission
should be addressed to Thomas Cook Publishing, PO Box 227, The Thomas Cook Business
Park, Unit 18, Coningsby Road, Peterborough PE3 8SB, United Kingdom.
Although every care has been taken in compiling this publication, and the contents are
believed to be correct at the time of printing, Thomas Cook Tour Operations Ltd cannot
accept any responsibility for errors or omissions, however caused, or for changes in details
given in the guidebook, or for the consequences of any reliance on the information provided.
The opinions and assessments expressed in this book do not necessarily represent those of
Thomas Cook Tour Operations Ltd.
Printed and bound in Italy by: Printer Trento.
Cover design by: Liz Lyons Design, Oxford.
Front cover credits: Left © Thomas Cook; centre © Massimo Ripani/4 Corners;
right © Thomas Cook
Back cover credits: Left © Massimo Ripani/4 Corners; right © Thomas Cook
Contents
Features
background 4-25
The Catalan connection 16
Introduction 4 Tourism and immigration 24
Land 6 Caivi’s Walls • 34
History 10 The Carthaginian heritage 42
Governance 14 Pirates and corsairs 50
Culture 18 Hippies 64
Festivals and events 22 Ancient sites 90
Clubbing 102
f i rst steps 26-31
Saltpans 118
Dalt Vila festivals 152
what to see 32-139
Ibizan wines 170
Eivissa 32
Extramuros (beyond the walls) 48 Walks, drives and cycle rides
Jesus 58 Walk: exploring Dalt Vila 46
Santa Eularia and the east 60 Drive: from Eivissa 56
From Cala Nova to Es Figueral 66 Walk: a stroll from Santa Eularia 62
Santa Eularia des Riu 70 Walks from Cala Llonga 68
Serra de Els Amunts 78 Walk: exploring Santa Eularia des Riu 76
Sant Antoni de Portmany and the west 92 Walks from Santa Agn&s 88
Sant Josep and the south 106 Walk: Platjes des Comte 94
Formentera 122 Drive: from Sant Antoni de Portmany 104
Walk: Sa Talaiassa and around 116
getting away 140-45
Walk: Ses Salines Natural Park 120
directory 146-89 Cycle ride: Es Trucadors and around 128
Cycle ride: to La Mola 134
Shopping 146
Entertainment 154 Maps
Children 158 Ibiza overview 5
Sport and leisure 160 Eivissa 32
Food and drink 162 Walk: exploring Dalt Vila 47
Hotels and accommodation 172 Drive: from Eivaissa 57
Practical guide 180 Walk: a stroll from Santa Eularia 63
Walks from Cala Llonga 68
index 190-91
Walk: exploring Santa Eularia des Riu 76
Walks from Santa Agnes 89
Walk: Platjes des Comte 95
KEY TO MAPS Drive: from Sant Antoni de Portmany 105
Walk: Sa Talaiassa and around 117
^731° Road numbers Q Church
Walk: Ses Salines Natural Park 120
fll Museum 4 Wooded area Formentera overview 122
Cycle ride: Es Trucadors and around 129
HT1 Information A Mountain
Cycle ride: to La Mola 134
background
4
Introduction
To the Phoenicians, Ibiza was a magic island, blessed by the
gods. They came here to bury their dead because there
were no poisonous snakes or other creatures harmful to
man. Ibiza was prized by the Carthaginians, who extracted
salt from the pans near today’s international airport, and
by the Romans, who found the soil of Formentera well-
suited to growing crops. For the Moors, too, Ibiza was a
land of plenty; they introduced revolutionary agricultural
techniques still discernible today in the marshes of Ses
Feixes. The Catalans saw Ibiza as a forward base in the
Mediterranean, ripe for economic exploitation. Sunrise over Eivissa
But it was the Ibizan landscape, and a In his wake came the hippies, who
way of life that had changed little over found a Garden of Eden unsullied by
the centuries, that captivated the Beat material values and bad karma. They
Generation writers William Burroughs explored the island’s hidden reaches in
and Jack Kerouac in the 1950s. Folk search of mystical secrets and banged
singer Bob Dylan arrived a decade later. their drums in homage to the setting
sun at Benniras.
Much has changed in the last 50 years.
Mass tourism and more than two million
visitors a year have left an indelible mark
on Ibizan society. It has generated a great
deal of wealth (the residents of Santa
Eularia have one of the highest income
per capita in Spain) and the hippies have
largely been replaced by fashion designers
and DJs. But large tracts of coastline have
been sacrificed to insensitive urban
development in the process. The image
many have today, of eyesore hotels and
soulless apartment blocks, of hordes of
British and German tourists packing the
beaches by day and the bars by night, is
not an unfounded one. But neither is it
wholly fair or accurate. There is a lot
more to Ibiza than burger bars and cut-
background
5
price beer. Four
different areas on
the island have been
declared a World
Heritage Site thanks
to its endemic
seagrass, known as
Posidonia, its
Phoenician sites of
Sa Caleta and Puig
des Molins, and the
fortification of Dalt
Vila. The latter,
found in Eivissa, the
capital, a lively town
with a cosmopolitan
feel, is the walled
city founded more
than two and a half
millennia ago. Sant
Antoni is where the
young come to
party, dancing the
night - or sometimes the day - away of wetland and coastal waters around
and also offers the wonderful bay which Ibiza and Formentera. Within its
boasts three Blue Flag beaches. Sedate confines are numerous hiking and
Santa Eularia is for those who want to cycling trails and untold opportunities
give the hectic clubbing scene a wide for birdwatching - more than 200
berth. Visitors are charmed by the species have been recorded to date.
stark simplicity of its fortified church, Visitors looking for solitude may find it
built in the 16th century to ward off in the pine-forested hills of Els Amunts
pirate attacks. and Sant Josep or on the terraced slopes
Not all of Ibiza’s coastline is of the Corona plain. Ibiza is sometimes
developed. With more than 50 beaches, referred to as the ‘white island’: the
there is still plenty of scope for hillsides are peppered with casaments,
discovering a remote cove in the shelter lime-washed cottages modelled on an
of a lowering cliff, or a patch of fine Arab design more than a thousand years
white sand backed by dunes and sabine old and never bettered, as the
pines. During the last decade, whole revolutionary modern architect,
swathes of the Pitiusas have acquired Le Corbusier, was quick to recognise.
protected status. The largest Natural For genuine lovers of the island, this
Park is Ses Salines, 810ha (2,000 acres) unspoilt ‘other Ibiza’ is the real one.
background
Land
Ibiza and Formentera form part of an archipelago which is
situated southwest of Mallorca and about 170km
(106 miles) east of the Spanish mainland. From the time of
the ancient Greeks, they have been known as the Pitiusas
or ‘pine islands’. There are more than 50 in all, though most
are uninhabited. Ibiza, the largest island in the group,
has an area of 572sq km (221sq miles) and a 210-km
(131-mile) long coastline. Formentera is only 14km
'Atlantis' is the name given
(9 miles) long from west to east, with a total area of
by hippies to the quarry
82sq km (32sq miles). near Torre d'es Savinar
Landscape one to the south (Barbaria), the other at
There are two uplands in Ibiza, clearly La Mola, are joined by a narrow isthmus
visible as your aeroplane flies overhead. with dunes and white sand beaches on
The Serra de Els Amunts stretches all the either side. The salt lagoons of Estany
way from Cala Sant Vicent on the Pudent and Estany de Peix are included
northeast coast to Cala Salada in the in the Ses Salines Natural Park. Other
west. Ibiza’s highest peak, Sa Talaiassa features include a number of offshore
(476m/1,562ft), rises not here but among islands and Es Trucadors, a finger-like
the pine-covered hills of the Serra de promontory with more stunning
Sant Josep in the southwest. The best beaches backed by dunes and pine
farming land, characterised by a reddish woods.
clay soil, lies in the depression between
the two ranges. The rugged coastline to Climate
the west of Els Amunts, roughly from Ibiza and Formentera have a
Cap Nono to Cap d’Aubarca, is wild and Mediterranean climate with long, hot
inaccessible in places and consequently summers - warmer than Mallorca - and
free of tourist development. By contrast, mild winters. Temperatures range from
the safidy coves and beaches in the south a daily average of 15°C (59°F) between
and east have been heavily promoted, November and April, to 29°C (84°F) in
turning the ancient settlements of Santa August. Sunshine levels are also high,
Eularia, Sant Antoni and Eivissa into with a daily average of 10 or 11 hours
major holiday destinations. The wetlands from May to September, and rarely
in the southeast corner are of great fewer than 5 hours in November and
ecological importance and form part of December. Cooling afternoon breezes
the Ses Salines Natural Park. tend to mitigate the high summer
The topography of Formentera is temperatures, which only really cause
relatively straightforward. Two plateaus, discomfort when the hot, dry wind
background
known as the leveche blows in from citrus fruits. Almonds are a speciality of
Africa. Rainfall is moderate, the wettest the Santa Agnes plain, where blossom
months being March (51mm/2 inches) falls in January and February to create a
and October (77mm/3 inches). Virtually snowscape effect. Bougainvillea,
no rain falls in July. There is relatively oleander and hibiscus all come into
little fluctuation in sea temperatures, flower from July to September, adding
which range from a high of 25°C (77°F) more than a splash of colour, while
in August down to 13°C (55°F) in cacti, agaves and palms thrive all year
February. round. Rosemary, thyme and wild fennel
are among the herbs used to season
Flora and fauna traditional Ibizan dishes. Numerous
Ibiza’s southern latitude determines its native plants are protected by
flora and fauna. The ubiquitous pines, environmental legislation, for example
sabines and wild olive trees flourish on rock samphire (crithmum maritimum)
the upper hillsides, while on the lower which grows on Es Vedra. The soil oh
slopes are junipers and rock roses. The Formentera is not as productive because
rich soils of the central plains and of the erosion caused by winds sweeping
valleys are ideally suited to the growing across the countryside during winter.
of olives, figs, vines, carobs (the fruit of Even here, though, vines, carobs and figs
the algarroba tree) and a variety of grow around El Mola and along the
background
central isthmus, while clumps of found around the cliffs, while the
rosemary and thyme can be found even outlying islands support colonies of
in the wildest reaches of the Barbaria gulls and cormorants. Sightings of the
peninsula. The Ses Salines salt marshes rare Eleanora’s falcon, an endemic
in Eivissa and the salt lagoons of Balearic species, are not uncommon on
Formentera form an ecosystem unique Es Vedra.
to the Pitiusas. Here and around the Ibiza’s marine life is equally varied.
coastline to the south of Sant Antoni is d The island’s fishermen bring in regular
vast ‘prairie’ of oceanic posidonia. This trawls of tuna, amberjack, barracuda,
endemic Mediterranean plant, with scorpion fish, spiny lobster, grouper and
roots, stalk, leaves and fruit, lives John Dory, while further out to sea one
underwater to a depth of 40m (131ft). can expect to find turtles, hammerhead
Posidonia contributes to coastal stability, sharks and dolphins. Mention should
protects beaches and is the habitat of also be made of the indigenous wall
numerous plant and animal species, lizard podarchis pityusensis. This hardy
some of which are threatened with reptile, bright green in colour and up to
extinction. 7cm (3 inches) long, is easily spotted. Its
The Ses Salines Natural Park is also a natural habitat is barren, rocky land, but
bird sanctuary. The salt pans are one of it can also be found near houses and
the first ports of call for storks, herons around garden walls.
and flamingos and other migrant species
on their way to Africa, while permanent The environment
residents include black-necked grebes, No one can pretend that the
warblers and ospreys. Theckla lark, blue environment has not changed drastically
rock thrush and crag martin can be in the Pitiusas over the last fifty years.