The factor which may shock you about Ibiza is the quiet. Even in August, there are pockets of tranquillity everywhere in the island. Strolling alongside the character path between and behind two of its most well-known seashores – Es Cavallet and Ses Salines – you hear nothing however the chirp of cicadas and the smooth whisper of the Mediterranean. Additionally, you will see, when you flip away from the dunes and pinewoods, the salt pans that dominate this southern tip of the island with an nearly eerie stillness, a flamingo or two standing like ornaments on the mirror-like water.
As with many components of Ibiza – from the hilly forests of the north to the views of the rocky islet of Es Vedrà within the south – it’s simple to really feel like you have got handed into one other world. Much more so when you catch them at sundown, when the sky turns into gold and no matter clouds are round develop into luminous traces of orange-like furrows in some heavenly subject.
But this was an Ibiza I by no means actually sought to find once I lived and labored right here within the Nineteen Nineties. Again then, I labored for the biggest membership night time on the island, Manumission on the colossal Privilege membership. The late 90s are actually thought of to have been Ibiza’s wildest decade, an period when superclubs similar to Pacha, Area and Amnesia nonetheless had their magic and have been run by a reasonably chaotic band of entrepreneurial membership promoters, reasonably than the slick model managers who deal with issues at the moment.
This was when San Antonio’s Café del Mar was not solely a spot to sip beer whereas watching the sundown but additionally had its personal collection of best-selling compilation albums that nearly single-handedly popularised the idea of “chillout music”.
It was the period of Sky TV’s messy documentary collection Ibiza Uncovered, of sensationalist tabloid tales about Radio 1 DJs and pop stars going lacking after wild benders. Ibiza hadn’t but scrubbed up its status. The pictures of agroturismos, yoga retreats and luxurious holidays had but to take maintain within the creativeness of the British public.
Throughout this time I bought tickets at bars in San Antonio and Ibiza City. I was a misplaced and insecure younger particular person, contemporary from overthinking my method by a grasp’s diploma I’d solely taken to delay becoming a member of the actual world. I used to be more and more depending on alcohol and medicines till, in 1999, I made a decision to get wholesome. I started working each morning. I stop medication. I bought extra sleep. However issues didn’t keep secure for lengthy – I spiralled and needed to return dwelling.
A few years later, after one other spell of abusing alcohol, I had the remedy I ought to have had again then. A key theme was going through as much as my previous, so I made a decision to revisit Ibiza, however this day trip of season. The plan was to drive by France so we may take our canine. And so this was a unique me visiting what had develop into a unique place with the security of my favorite individuals and animals round me.
We bought fortunately misplaced amid the streets of Dalt Vila, Ibiza’s fortified outdated city, which is now a Unesco world heritage web site; we ate the perfect meal at a restaurant known as Sharmakanda within the north (the edamame hummus is unimaginable); we wandered across the small however well-curated up to date artwork museum; we went go-karting; we went horse driving; we went to Wild Beets vegan cafe in Santa Gertrudis. We did many issues I’d by no means have thought of doing once I lived right here.
Some issues weren’t fairly so completely different. We danced. We went to the night time market at Las Dalias, the place everybody from infants to octogenarians dances underneath the celebs to techno performed by ageing German DJs. This feels near the primary period of clubbing right here within the 70s, when entrance charges have been low, roofs have been nonexistent and the spirit was free. It was genuinely therapeutic to return right here, to see the place the place I’d almost died.
And it sparked an thought for a novel – one that might hopefully do justice to the completely different features of life right here.
Over the subsequent two years, we got here again a couple of extra instances. I justified this within the title of “analysis”, and really did be taught rather a lot that could possibly be used within the e-book. However we additionally holidayed. We hiked. We ate. We tried to enhance our Spanish. We even – soberly, fortunately – raved. However I additionally noticed issues I’d by no means observed in my hedonistic youth.
Ibiza is multifaceted and has all the time attracted individuals wanting completely different sorts of escape. Years earlier than ravers found ecstasy and the eclectic unifying music performed by DJ Alfredo at Amnesia within the late 80s, artists and intellectuals similar to Walter Benjamin flocked right here to flee oppression. Stars from the golden age of Hollywood similar to Grace Kelly, Liz Taylor and Laurence Olivier discovered it a protected haven, away from the highlight. Cormac McCarthy spent his hippy years on the island. Joni Mitchell got here and wrote a few of her seminal Blue album whereas staying right here and on the neighbouring island of Formentera. Bob Marley danced the night time away on the long-gone Glory’s nightclub after enjoying a well-known live performance right here.
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But now the island that was once a retreat from bother is itself the positioning of accelerating turmoil. After I take into consideration Ibiza these days, the phrase that involves thoughts is “delicate”. It’s in some ways a fragile place, which is why tourism has a big effect, and which explains the latest protests on the island towards the affect of Airbnbs and cruise ships, which tilt the equilibrium like a gorilla on a seesaw. Till the 80s, the affect of holidaymakers was comparatively optimistic. Ibiza had been a poor island, so locals embraced tourism with open arms. Now, the connection is extra sophisticated.
Some profit, however many don’t: having individuals sleeping within the woods or of their automobiles earlier than going to work at eating places with three-figure minimal spends is just not sustainable.
The Ibiza seen from the yachts of Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio is clearly a really completely different one from the Ibiza seen by a struggling household residing out of a campervan in San Antonio. And the setting, too, can simply fall out of stability. As an illustration, the island now has snakes, because of them being unintentionally imported with the totally grown olive bushes ordered to brighten the gardens of villas.
After which there’s the Posidonia seagrass meadow – a single organism, among the many oldest on Earth, that could be a extremely efficient carbon sink and demanding to the ecosystem of Ibiza and Formentera, however which is underneath risk from air pollution and boats. The good Ibiza Preservation non-profit organisation is working exhausting to guard the ocean and land from a few of these adverse shifts, and I’m making an attempt to assist them any method I can.
I realised I had a possibility to incorporate these points in my e-book, to attract consideration to the surprise of this place, and its contrasts and paradoxes. Hippy and capitalist. Loud and quiet. Timeless and completely twenty first century. But additionally, whereas making an attempt to convey its distinctive magic to those that roll their eyes on the very thought of Ibiza, I knew I had a possibility to spotlight the necessity to concentrate on the problems right here. To grasp, finally, how the locations we go to don’t simply change us, however we alter them.
So it turns into vital to let magnificence encourage us to tread gently, take into consideration the finite assets of small islands, and assist defend what nourishes us. Ibiza is a sacred place of sunshine and magic. We who adore it have an obligation to assist it keep that method.
The Life Unimaginable by Matt Haig is printed by Canongate (£20). To assist the Guardian and Observer go to guardianbookshop.com. Supply costs might apply
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