What’s Palma all about? Visiting Bellver Castle and Illetes Beach

Orientation is complete, and we are ready to see what Palma de Mallorca has to offer! After a morning lecture on marine science, we hopped on to the bus to learn about the history of the island at the stunning Bellver Castle. Well, it turns out the castle is up a steep hill followed by hundreds of more steps. Little did we know we will be getting in shape on this trip. At the Bellver Castle, we learned about the history of the island and its residents, read about the different architectural styles of the area, and saw ceramic containers from hundreds of years ago.

The Bellver Castle was built in the 14th century for the Kings of Mallorca. We all versioned our lives living on top of the hill while walking around the castle. We were impressed by how cool the air was inside the castle compared to the sweltering heat. Up a few more stares we reached the top of the castle with sweeping views of the Mediterranean Sea, Palma, and the Tramuntana mountains, but it was too hot to stay up here all day. With the high temperatures, there was only one thing we could do with our day, go to the beach.

​Hopping back on the bus, we rode the bus west to the stunning Illetes Beach. We were all ready to relax on the beach and swim in the blue water after days of traveling and orientation. After grabbing a spot on the crowded beach, some of us swam out with our snorkels to see what fish we could find in the seagrass. We spotted a lot of smaller fish like silvery breams moving around with the current, as well as, a school of larger fish. We kept swimming until we reached a small island. On the island, we escaped the crowds and found unobstructed views of the Mediterranean Sea and huge crabs crawling around the rocks. After a quick swim back to the beach, we gorged ourselves on ice cream and headed back to Palma for dinner. We ate dinner right next to our hostel and ended the night with a 15th birthday celebration for Kenna complete with chocolate cake, a lei, and ice cream!