#eivissa

View of the islet Es Vedrà in Eivissa, Balearic Islands. Photo by MsLids on Wikimedia Commons.

One of the most well-known Eivissan legends says that a long time ago the islet of Es Vedrà was inhabited by a moody giant who caused fear among anyone who passed near the islet.

One day, two brothers named Joan and Toni went to the islet to pick rock samphire, a medicinal plant they needed to cure their ill father. After having tried all sorts of remedies without any luck, they were told their only hope was using rock samphire picked in Es Vedrà (the islet has been associated with religious and magical stories since antiquity). Even though they were very scared of the giant, they were decided to do anything to help their father.

They sailed on their boat to the islet, praying that the giant wouldn't notice them. But right as they were mooring their boat, the giant woke up and captured them. Every day, the giant sent Joan to fish octopus, his favourite meal. Meanwhile, he kept Toni imprisoned in a cave as a hostage, so Joan wouldn't be able to escape. The giant said he wouldn't free them until they Joan had fished all the octopus in the area, adding that if he didn't bring enough octopus, he would eat both brothers.

One day in which Joan could catch many octopus, he came up with an idea: he hurried up to fish as many octopus as he could in one day, but made sure to hide a sea urchin inside each octopus. As always, when he brought them to the giant, he ate them all in one bite. But this time the sea urchins caused him such a stomach ache, that he went to sleep. Then, the two brothers used the moment to tie up the giant's hands and feet and escape, taking with them a cure for their father.

The Balearic Islands (Mallorca/Majorca, Menorca, Eivissa/Ibiza, Formentera) are some of the best places to visit during summer holidays. But I beg you not to come here.

Right now, we are facing a big problem that is destroying our island in all aspects: mass tourism.

To give you some context:

The Balearic Islands cover 5,040 km², not even a fraction of the size of California.

The Balearic Islands are home to local residents; right now, we have 1,231,487 people living across Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa, and Formentera.

We have our own beautiful culture, but we are losing it to globalization, capitalism, and Spanish fascism.

So, why am I beging you to PLEASE not to come to Mallorca?

Tourism is killing our homeland.

Every year, we break records for the number of tourists visiting our island. Right now, in June 2024, tourists outnumber the population of the Balearic Islands. Last year, 14.42 million tourists came here. This is unsustainable. Do you know what that means? There are 12 tourists for every resident. THAT'S A LOT.

Not only is this system, where tourists get everything they want, killing all the fauna and flora, but locals can't afford to pay rent or buy a house, because landlords are raising prices or turning their properties into Airbnbs.

We regard tourism as a threat to our society. Tourists come and disrespect the surroundings, attending parties and drinking excessively, annoying those of us trying to live our everyday lives. Additionally, rich people profit from mass tourism: they build hotels on protected shorelines, construct golf courses, sell plane tickets at prices that are ridiculously low compared to the cost of housing, and send thousands of cruise ships and planes here each year.

Here you have some examples:

A group of British tourists causes a mass fight on Illetes beach, in Calvià

A hotel company fights to maintain its illegal pools in Menorca while some town halls from some villages, cut the water during a drought time.

There is a Twitter account dedicated to counting all the tourists who jump from balconies and get hurt or die.

Our government is doing absolutely nothing to stop this barbaric situation. That is why, since the outcry, we have launched a fight against these deplorable conditions.

In recent weeks, we have been demonstrating for many reasons, but one of the biggest demonstrations was under the slogan "Mallorca is not for sale", which brought together 25,000 people.

So please, in order to help us,