The third day of our trip – the eclipse day – had come. Crowd-management precautions and a full parking lot forced us to adapt our plans at short notice. We decided to walk up the hill, and my love came to the brilliant conclusion that we should use one of our rolling suitcases to carry the gear up to the cliff. Once up there, we quickly realized that our favorite sunset spot, which we had been visiting for the last 16 years, still had plenty of room to set up.
The 36°C heat meant we had to bring all our cooling devices and cooling cloths to manage the temperature. My Vespera scope worked flawlessly as the crowd grew – until a thunderstorm cloud towering over Spain’s eastern coast covered our view of the Sun. The entire crowd groaned a sad “NOOO.”
Luckily, totality still came with all the surrounding effects: a 360° (minus Sa Talaia) band of sunset colors, Venus flashing in the darkened sky, and a noticeable drop in temperature. Emotional yelling and cheering created another moving, communal moment of humanity. Then the Sun reappeared, and the cheering returned.
To top it all off, the now-visible crescent Sun dipped into the Mediterranean Sea to close the event – a scene the crowd celebrated with the traditional clapping and cheering of Ibiza’s sunsets.

The picture is a testament to my mental state: the action was so intense that I forgot to capture the 365 picture, preferring to enjoy the super-short totality instead. I only remembered to take it while walking back up to the car for the drive to the hotel.
The next opportunity for a total solar eclipse will arrive in my future. This experience was magical regardless of the disappointment – on the bright side, I didn’t have to uninstall and reinstall the solar filter. 😅

👣 1,700 m