behind the scenes
Ibiza Lobos de mar de Ibiza sea dogs
© Alex Soto
Piset, a wise and kind-hearted old fisherman. // Piset, pura sabiduría y bondad de viejo pescador.
PISET RETIRED FISHERMAN // PESCADOR JUBILADO “When I was seven, my uncles used to take me out fishing to catch squid. And this year I’ll be turning 85,” says Piset from his little fishing hut on the dock at Sa Caleta. Back then, he says there were very few boats in the cove, maybe just a few barges without motors. “The island was very poor. Houses had no electricity., people didn’t even have bicycles,” he explains, his eyes glimmering. When Piset was a young boy they used to fish, “squid, mackerel, and everything.” Piset says the yatchs don’t get in the way of their fishing, but he adds that “some of them are very big and go as fast as 50 knots per hour, so they make huge waves.” Piset has been a fisherman since 1962, but he barely goes out to sea anymore. “I don’t feel like going,” he says. “But I come here every afternoon to get some peace and quiet. Sometimes in the wintertime I go catch squid with a friend. He enjoys looking out at the sea. “I can swim, but I don’t go in the water. I don’t like it,” he affirms. Piset recalls that in all his years as a fisherman he barely slept: “I would get up at four in the morning and go out to sea. My son helped me.” Piset has watched the island change and says he doesn’t mind all the changes: “I’m not an envious person. I don’t mind having all these foreigners here. There’s room for everyone,” he affirms. The old sailor listens to the radio every night and recalls the old days when he used to make 25 pesetas (about 15 cents at today’s exchange rate) a day. At the time this was enough to have a good time: “Back then there were two houses in Ibiza with women, they were regulated. And they charged 15 pesetas. So I still had 10 pesetas to go out and get drunk with for more than a week. It didn’t cost a thing!” He also recalls when bikini-clad foreign women began to arrive; he and his mates could not take their eyes off them as they loaded their boats with salt from the salt flats. Piset says that Ibiza is one of the best places to live in Spain. “The only thing is that we also have ‘bad people’ coming.” He’s always hanging out in his fishing hut at the end of the cove, eager to talk with anyone who comes by.
54 THE USHUAÏA MAGAZINE
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23/08/17 12:47