The Balearic Islands: Mallorca & Menorca

Mallorca and Menorca are often compared to two unequal sisters: One dazzling and spectacular, the other reserved and charming. However, both have one thing in common: Mallorcans and Menorcans are unimpressed by tourism and attach great importance to their Catalan culture. In Petra, a picturesque village with houses made of golden-brown quarry stone, 10-year-old Margalida practices the "ball de bot," an old Balearic folk dance. The costumes are homemade, the music is played on traditional instruments, but there is nothing dusty about the "Ball de bot". It is fresh and modern again for every generation of Mallorcans. The Gordiola family still makes each piece in their glassblowing workshop using the old method. The young glassblower Pep, after more than ten years of apprenticeship, now conjures up artistic vases, glasses and figurines. In the "Serra de Tramuntana" mountains, animal rights activist Juan José Sánchez feeds a dead sheep to black vultures. The impressive birds are threatened with extinction, the last island population in the world lives on Mallorca. For the young extreme athlete Katiana Torrebella, the steep, lonely roads of the mountains are ideal training tracks: In the winter, she speeds down the serpentines at more than 50 kilometers per hour on an extra-long skateboard. On Menorca, a team of archaeologists is at work - on land and underwater. Throughout history, the island has been conquered again and again by changing cultures, making it an El Dorado for archaeologists like Fernando Contreras. The film accompanies him and his colleagues as they uncover a Roman basilica and an early Christian burial site. Today, horse breeding is perhaps Menorca's greatest treasure. The Marques family stud farm has won many international prizes with its dressage horses. Father and daughter, however, enjoy most the horseback riding on the "Camí de Cavalls", an old patrol trail that leads around the island.