GEOGRAPHY
This island off the Spanish peninsula in the western Mediterranean basin is now officially called "Eivissa" as the Catalan language has been strongly favored since Franco has left politics: under his regime all other languages except Castellano were strictly forbidden! The local dialect is called "ibizenc" which is, for foreigners, as hard to understand or to speak as the Catalan. Hereafter we will use Ibizenc and Catalan for all geographic names, their Spanish name in brackets. If interested, read my chapter on culture and schools below for more in dept views.
Eivissa and it's neighbor island Formentera are the most southern islands of the Illes Balears(Islas Baleares) and are also called Pitiuses (from petit = small) because they are smaller in size thanMajorca( Mallorca) and Minorca (Menorca) . Eivissa's size is about 550 sq. kilometers in a rectangular shape, the longest distance from north-east to south-west is about 45 Km.
The island’s capital and harbor town called Eivissa (Ibiza) lies in the south of the island, population about 100.000 and growing fast. The overlooking old town is a true piece of medieval living, but:
Too many new apartment buildings have grown so fast during the last 3 years that the old town seems to be lost within the modern architecture. These new quarters are as ugly and bourgeois as any suburb and one better avoids them if one can.
The airport is being constantly enlarged and can handle now up to 200 flights/day while being located very, very close to the strongly protected (!) Natural Park of Salinas.
There are three yacht harbors located in the northern section of the bay, opposite to the old marina where now an endless stream of container boats, huge ferries and occasionally monster yachts of oil-sheiks are moored. This is a pity because this area was very alive not long ago with local fishing boats and market and open moorings for the real boat travelers from around the whole globe. The industry reigns over good taste.
The other bigger cities are Santa Eularia (Santa
Eulalia) with new yacht harbor on the east coast and Sant Antoni de
Portmany ( San Antonio) with a new harbour on the opposite west. The
old and tiny villages are Sant Rafel (San Rafael), Santa Gertrudis,
Sant Josep (San Jose),Santa Agnes (Santa Ines), San Mateo, Sant Miquel
de Balanzat, Sant Joan de Labritja, Sant Vicent (San Vicente) and Sant
Carles (San Carlos) plus some more suburban villages around the capital
like San Jordi,Jesus, Sant Franisco and Sant Agusti.
5
Km from Sant Miquel lies (formerly fishing-port, now a over constructed
tourist area) Port de Sant Miquel, the same division is true for Sant
Vicent with its Cala Sant Vicent and Sant Joan with Portinatx as their
beach resort sides and fishing ports. All together there are about
20.000 people living outside of the capital.
Two
mountain ranges appear on the island, one in the south-west and one in
the north-east region. The highest peak is the Atalaya near Sant Josep
with an altitude of 476 (!) meters while the lowest stretch of land is
in the far south where the salt fields are still in work. The total
coastline is about 500 km long and changes from rocks to pebbles to
sand. More about beaches, see below.
The
closeness to Africa is responsible for the relatively hot summers and
mild winters. The rainfall has changed somehow with the global climate
change, but usually there is only rainfall between October and May
which adds up to about 350 mm/cm2. Rainfall has declined in the last
years. There is a very high shortage of water on the entire island as
perforations have been undertaken without limits: only in fall 2001 the
local authorities do see themselves obliged to start handling the
situation by registering all wells already in existence. We all hope
that a strongly controlled regulation will be established to recuperate
what has been wasted and lost in the past.
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