40 years of memories - preserved forever in slides

The view from the fortified city of Dalt Vila in 1971. Click on the images for larger versions. Take a good look at the coastline in particular: no marina in sight and very few buildings to speak of. Even the container terminal still remains to be built.

The famous "Alfredo" restaurant on Paseo Vara de Rey was already in business back in 1969. However, it is now known as "Can Alfredo" and the cars parked outside are a bit posher than they used to be - even if the donkey does seem to be smiling for the camera.

The face of Ibiza is changing so fast that it's hard to keep up. In the space of just a few years, the island has taken steps forward that would take decades anywhere else. This fact makes looking at photographs from times gone by all the more fascinating.

This is one of those cases where someone's love for Ibiza as a holiday destination has developed into a real passion for the place. Exactly 40 years ago, back in 1969, Margaret Leafe set foot on the island for the very first time - and has repeated the experience every year since, until two years ago when she had to stop her annual visits to Ibiza for health reasons.

However, there are two things that no-one can take away from Margaret: the first is the large collection of old slides that she has been accumulating ever since she first visited the island, and the second is her copy of IbizaNOW that she has delivered to her doorstep in Nottingham in the UK every month, as her link to the island. It keeps her informed of what's going on and is full of memories.

In 1969, traffic on the Paseo Vara de Rey was still literally directed by hand.

In her letter to us, she wrote:
"Your magazine keeps me up to date and gives me monthly nostalgia" So one day, she decided to take a look through her archive of slides and sent us these pictures from times gone by. Images that will make you smile, gasp in amazement and relive your memories.

Few places can boast a period of such rapid development as Ibiza. On the other hand, time sometimes seems to have stood still in some of the island's villages. When you get away from the bustling towns, you can still bump into peasant folk walking along country paths in their traditional costumes. The island is and always will be a mass of contradictions, a dot on the map that has held on to many of its traditions. Still - everywhere you look, you see the signs of progress.

Many of us have been here to witness at least some stages of the island's development. For example, we can still recall the time before the new dyke in Eivissa harbour was built - constructed at the beginning of the new millennium and extending from Botafoch lighthouse right out into the bay.

Foodstuffs stored in wooden barrels, goods packed into wooden cases - and one or two of the first generation of cardboard boxes. A freighter unloads in Eivissa harbour in 1970

Looking at the yachts bobbing about in the harbour today, it doesn't seem all that long ago that the rickety wooden boardwalk that used to grace the craggy coast outside the Hotel Benjamin - now known as Ocean Drive - was still being frequented by guests waiting for the taxi boat service. Even back then, Aniano was skippering the little ferry. Today, the company still belongs to him and he is a regular passenger during the summer months. Incidentally, the Hotel Benjamin also used to belong to his family.

There was hardly a house to be seen on the promenade that today is home to a casino and a series of cripplingly expensive luxury apartments. Back then, there were very few buildings on this side of Eivissa bay, with the exception of Pacha. The Paseo Maritímo, known today as Avenida Joan Carles I, ran alongside the isolated and unspoilt coastline. The photographs at the beginning of this article show just how little construction had taken place on this stretch of coast by 1971, shortly before the Ibiza Nueva marina was built.

There was practically no traffic to speak of anywhere on the island. Horses and donkeys with carts were still a common sight on the roads. Traffic lights..? A foreign concept on Ibiza and Formentera until the 1970s. The first set of lights was installed on the Paseo Vara de Rey; until then, a policemen had manned a traffic island and directed the traffic by hand.

San Antonio bay.....

The first traffic lights initially caused a lot of confusion. Many drivers had no idea when and how they were supposed to be used. Everything ended in a chaotic cacophony of horn blowing and swearing. In the early days, people also used to prefer using hand signals to indicate their next move rather than trusting the colourful new-fangled lights installed on their vehicles for this purpose.

One feature that is still part of our modern landscape is the Renault 4 - which can be seen alongside a traffic policeman on the Paseo Vara de Rey in the photograph, next to the orange tipper truck. Even in 2009, you will find plenty of these neat little all-rounders on Ibiza's roads.

Many of them are carefully looked after by their loving owners, but even those that are worked to the limit on a daily basis are so reliable that they can keep going with little or no maintenance at all. In fact, it looks as if they will be able to outpace the wheels of time. This French precursor to the SUV has pretty much died out everywhere else on the globe...

Portinatx

The best way to reach the island back then was by ferry. Most commodities were also transported here by sea, although back then, they tended to be sent in cases and barrels rather than containers. The arrival of ferries and cargo boats was still a major social event.

The airport was basically just a large parcel of land and a house where a few isolated passengers checked in for their flights. To reach the house, you had to walk through the romantic little front garden. Security check? Services? As a rule, passenger inspections were carried out by one guardia civil officer, leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe.

Ibiza airport - No, this isn't a finca with a large adjoining car park - it's the airport 40 years ago, back in 1969. Only the huge floodlights betray its true identity. The garden around the former terminal, which was basically housed in a building very similar to a finca, is still around today and located next to the big arrival and departure halls.

There were no formal baggage services either. You simply disembarked and collected your luggage straight from the hold - and hoped that you'd be able to hail one of the few taxis outside the airport afterwards.

A lot of things were very different back then. Most of the houses outside the capital, Eivissa, didn't have a lock on their front doors. Crimes were as few and far between as domestic telephones. Even as recently as the late 1970s, the only telephone to be found was usually located in the village bar - the same place that dealt with all of the local mail and where you would go to pick up your letters and hear all of the latest gossip that had found its way to the village.

Time moved at a different pace in those days and in spite of all the progress that has been made in the interim, it still does - which is what gives the islands their unique and everlasting charm.