There are dramas that you can see coming, and this is one of them. At 12 noon yesterday, the cruise ship ‘Costa Toscana’, a floating city of 337 meters long and 1,550 cabins, docked at es Botafoc on Ibiza. On land, just four buses are waiting to pick up passengers who have decided to pay 11 euros for the private transport service offered by the cruise ship company. The rest of the passengers leave the ship under a scorching sun and walk towards the temporary maritime station. If the observer stands on the breakwater wall opposite, there is a panoramic view of what is coming: on one side a crowd of people is advancing, while a taxi is waiting in front of the maritime station. Yes, just one taxi.
The first cruise ship passengers disembark from the cruise ship ‘Costa Toscana’. Vicent Marí
Cruise ship passengers indignant
Minutes later, hundreds of incredulous and suffocated people and tourists begin to come to terms with their situation. “I can’t believe it,” comments David, a man from Zamora traveling with his wife and two teenage children. “I just asked the Guardia Civil here and he told me that there is no bus service, and that we have half an hour walking with this sun to the city center. It really can’t be”.
“There are nine of us, we are grandparents with our children and grandchildren, we have a baby and here we are under the sun”, complains Elena Gómez, a woman from Granada who shares her indignation with the other people waiting in line, mostly Italians, “and there is no cab, we are suffocated by the heat, there is no organization”.
The woman’s annoyance is noticed by the other tourists waiting, some of whom bombard the journalist with questions: can we rent a car? where is the bus? what can we do? “I didn’t want to pay the 11 euros that Costa Cruceros wanted to charge us for their bus, but we’re stuck here. It’s a shame,” says José Luís, a tourist from Jaén who hasn’t lost his humor and points to the queue of thirsty tourists as if it were just another attraction.
“In the other ports they gave us the shuttle for free, but here they charged us for it. So they leave you in the middle of nowhere and there you go!
José Luis poses next to the queue in front of the cab rank, where there is no vehicle. Vicent Marí
The queue is several hundred people long. Vicent Marí
Peak demand and rush hour
Why are there no cabs at es Botafoc pier when they have so many customers at their disposal? A seasonal cab driver from Vila, who prefers not to be identified, answers: “It is not true what is said that cab drivers do not want to take clients from es Botafoc to the center of Vila because it is a short trip. The problem is that at the time when the cruise ships arrive there is a lot of demand for cabs everywhere. In addition, the dock is not on your way, you never go there, unless you are taking a client. And even if you do go, at the cab rank at the Talamanca roundabout there is always a client who raises their hand, so it is normal that there are no cabs in es Botafoc”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.