We happened along this nice, but very cartoony, street art on the side of the road on our way to a secluded beach called Cala de sa Ferradura.
As it was a working holiday, and we were looking for venues for our writing retreat we stopped at this small boutique hotel... and the art was amazing as seen in the next three pictures.
The small eye-like painting above the tree is actually a hole in the wall with a blue bird sculpture sitting on the balcony in the perfect spot to create the illusion that its part of the painting.
I love how vivid the blue of this eye is and how clever the artist has been to make the shape of a face by painting a spindly tree.
There was another spot where the artist and owner of the hotel had used perspective in a very unique way.
A grotto that led out to sea at the beach and cliff area of Punta de sa Pedrera. A funny story - I actually did a cliff jump into the ocean just near to that grotto and received one of the most painful stings from a jellyfish I've ever had.
Sunset while chilling in a rockpool at Atlantis.
Atlantis in the evening just before the sun went down.
Datscha Ibiza
Many years ago I was lucky enough to be invited on a working holiday to the Island of Ibiza. My friend from university had come into some money and she wanted to start a retreats business in Ibiza, having lived there for about four years before having moved back to Liverpool I think she was yearning to get back to the sun, and the Hippie vibe of the northern end of the island.
Loads of people know about the club scene and the party town of Sant Antoni and we did stay a few days there, taking in the madness and visiting the famous Cafe Del mar at sunset to drink cocktails and watch the fire artists spin fire lit poi late into the night.
But a large part of that trip was spent seeking out a potential location for a high-end writer's retreat, and (my job) assessing the health and safety of various activities wanted to offer as inspirational catalysts. Things that might inspire poems or stories, however, most really inspirational activities come with an element of risk, and as my friend was looking to make a business, which needed insurance, I needed to fill out proper health and safety risk assessment forms for insurance purposes. Boring... I know.
The whole thing came to nothing in the end as she changed her mind about building the business, but I had ideas for leading snorkelling trips (as I'm a qualified dive leader). hikes to some of the more beautiful and remote places like an abandoned quarry that has slipped into the ocean that the locals call 'Atlantis' which overlooks the island of Es Vedra.
After a lot of running around the island, we found this amazing place called Datscha Ibiza. As the owner was an artist she was very interested in our idea for a retreat, but the hotel was very beautiful and up-market and basically out of our price range. I remember saying to my friend (who had a budget of over £60k) that she might need to get a business loan.
It's All a Matter of Perspective
As you can see in the pictures, the artist uses perspective in a really clever way. Even the pizza oven was home to an ocean blue porcelain duck, which the owner assured us was removed every Friday which was pizza night 😂
But, even the pictures I managed to get, which she was a little cagey about me taking (she would only let me take a certain amount and from certain positions), don't do the place justice. I realised later why she asked me to leave my camera with the reception as we were shown around the rooms. Each room had similar clever use of perspective utilizing the views through the windows, the white-washed walls, some other paintings I wasn't allowed to photograph and carefully placed sculptures.
This meant that each room in the place had its own bespoke piece of art for the paying guest. It really was a perfect place for a writer's retreat, but we both soon realised that we'd need to attract a big-name writer to be able to charge prices that would allow us to afford to hire Datscha for a full weekend or even a week.
Unfortunately, what we discovered by the end of the trip was that to afford to put on a decent writer's retreat, hire a published author to give fiction workshops, as well as run some poetry workshops ourselves, for me to also run optional inspirational activities.... we would have to had run the retreat at a campsite. And after looking at a few, my friend simply decided that it wasn't close enough to what she'd envisioned.
But, in the end, I got a free working holiday as all I paid for were my flights which were about £30 each way, and some wonderful memories and pictures. I've since returned to Ibiza twice, always staying in the north more peaceful Hippie side of the island hunting down secluded beaches, visiting the famous drum circle at the beach Cala Benirrás, that some locals will tell you has never stopped since the 1960s (the truth is there has been a drum circle there every Sunday since 1960s 😂) and generally hiking the hills around the coast.
This is what I fell in love with on the Island of Ibiza rather than the clubbing scene, the wild places, the smell of pine resin (as 90% of the trees on Ibiza are pine) and the chilled-out sunsets.
Thanks for reading 🌿
Camera used: Samsung S7 Edge Smart Phone
Photos by @raj808 - All Rights Reserved.
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