The day we went to the lookout of es Vedrà for this report – Tuesday, August 9th – the sun set on the horizon at 8:57pm. An hour and a half before, the parking lot near the main viewpoint, with capacity for fifty cars and twenty motorcycles, is already full and car traffic begins to accumulate at the entrances.
“I seem to have arrived late”, laments Zoe, a Catalan who works on the island and who has taken advantage of her only day off to go to the lookout: “The parking lot is very small and there is no one organizing it. People park in double and triple row and it ends up getting messy”. And she asks us if we can go ahead of the traffic to the area that serves as a parking lot to see if “there is still an empty space or if I’d better turn around”.
Zoe, inside her vehicle, takes the wait with good humor. David Ventura
Many vehicles are concentrated at the same point causing traffic chaos. Irene Vilà
Traffic and parking chaos
With the parking area saturated, vehicles are scattered a kilometer and a half along the access road, which is municipal property. Tourists leave their cars on the sides of the road despite the fact that last year the Sant Josep City Council painted an orange line on the road indicating the prohibition of parking, and the signs warning that the tow truck will take away the offending vehicles. The signs have no dissuasive effect and on busy days, such as weekends, vehicles accumulate on both sides of the road.
“Yes, we know it is forbidden to park here, but we have no choice. There is no other way”, commented Ana and Álex, a couple of tourists from Alicante. “We have gone to the parking lot but we had to turn around because there is no room for anyone else. I hope the tow truck does not take the car”, exclaim Mara and Paula, two tourists from Madrid, who point out that “if so many people come, they should enable a slightly larger esplanade”. A couple from Guipuzcoa, Joseba and Iratxe, with their two teenage daughters, walk along the road after leaving their vehicle a kilometer away and agree that “they should put a guide because with all the traffic there is, this is unsafe“.
At 8:30pm, any space is a good place to leave the car, in what has become a race against the clock: “Hurry, hurry, there are only twenty minutes of light left!” At that time, between 600 and 700 people have already gathered at the main viewpoint, while another hundred do so in the one located closer to Cala d’Hort. At the main viewpoint, the ritual of viewing the sunset is like a massive festival in which there is no lack of a stall selling mojitos -at 10 euros-, families who have set up a picnic with sandwiches and folding chairs and groups of friends loaded with coolers full of beer.
A daily headache
“It’s like having a festival every day at the door of the house,” complains Santi Donaire, a resident of the area, who complains that he has called “the Policía Local and Guardia Civil countless times to no avail. They all pass the buck saying that it is the responsibility of others”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.