A rough wooden table, accompanied by a cloth held by metal pins. On top of the board rum bottles, plastic cups with crushed ice, dozens of straws and ingredients for the mojito like a handful of mint leaves and a bowl of strawberries. Once all this is ready begins the clandestine sale of mojitos in the main viewpoint of es Vedrà hours before sunset. An unauthorized and entrenched activity in this area of Sant Josep that for years forms part of this space surrounded by nature without a solution to this endemic problem.

Without going any further, when the sun falls tirelessly on the horizon next to the islet of es Vedrà, one of the vendors takes the opportunity to pick up the empty plastic cups distributed by the viewpoint while the other two merchants hide this illegal 'chiringuito' among the weeds for the next day. One more day and these people have again evaded legality achieving in just one afternoon profits that could be around 1,000 euros thanks to the long lines formed by customers who buy dozens of mojitos for 10 euros each. English, Italian and Dutch visitors are the most used to this service while national tourists are more likely to take their own drink in a fridge and some food to enjoy the put in this crowded viewpoint. «They are very expensive. We prefer to bring our beer bottles», said Joel, a traveler from Seville.

«Unsustainable»

Before sunset, and in a matter of minutes, the space begins to fill with tourists causing, according to two visitors from Barcelona, an «unsustainable massification» that collapses this enclave of the island of Ibiza in protected terrain. With the passing of the seconds, many of these tourists begin to imitate behaviors alien when accessing the best photo, generating a mirror effect that causes even queues to get the best snapshot that, Apparently, it can be achieved next to the edge of the cliff where the sun surrounds the rocky islet located in the middle of the sea. A dangerous location considering the amount of people piled up at this point of the viewpoint.

Only they will be in the picture, but the reality is totally different: hundreds of people sitting and standing, drinking alcohol, taking pictures or listening to reggaeton songs on amplifiers while the other half desperately seeks to take home the perfect photo worthy of many likes on Instagram. This is the reality in summer of one of the most important enclaves in Ibiza. Before coming here we knew what we were going to find. However, seeing him in person impacts more», explained Irene, a tourist from Alicante, who was visiting Ibiza for the first time.

Municipal measures

For their part, the City Council explained to Periódico de Ibiza and Formentera that it is the Guardia Civil which has jurisdiction to sanction and detect irregularities in this interurban road while the Local Police is responsible for traffic management. In this sense, they also indicated that one of the measures to alleviate this saturation of cars parked on the sides of the road will be the placement of guardrail barriers at the required points.

An initiative that, as they explained, wanted to launch the previous local government of Sant Josep, but it has been the new municipal corporation that has tendered the installation works of biondas. In addition, according to these sources, other avenues are also being explored to increase parking spaces in the ground car park. When asked about the illegal street sale of mojitos in the viewpoint of es Vedrà, they said that the Sant Josep Local Police is working intensively in other areas of the municipality where these illegal activities are also carried out. «Agents have gone several times to the viewpoint, but when the merchandise was not there and the sellers had hidden», they pointed out that they will continue with the police control in this area of the town.