CALA DE Benirras is a timeless and evocative cove in the northwest, where I sat at dinner with my old friend; we were joined by a distinguished resident, Sandy. Only the ancient Domino Bar — now defunct, once the sole foreign hang-out in Ibiza town — shimmers in the dreams of old-timers like Sandy’s bar in Santa Eulalia. Reminiscing, the two men dropped resonant names of bohemian seraphim: Denholm and Terry the actors, Elmyr the forger, Ivan Spence and Bob Mumford the artists; and do you — does anyone? — remember the dazzling American neurotic Janet Frame? Or the stunning, doomed Nico, a sometime Warhol muse who fell mortally off her bike on an island back road? Pot Peggy? Bad Jack? Canadian Bob, founder of The Domino? They say he went home to Toronto and became a monk. It figures.

Sa Penya used to be the cheerful neighbourhood where I once lived over a breakwater, under the walls of Dalt Vila. It was populated by descendants of peasant farmers, refugees from traditional hardship and the perils of the countryside. The area has been taken over by gypsies, I was told, who deal drugs and live apart under their own law. Nothing looked familiar in the neglected streets of crumbling houses, deserted except for a solitary ruined youth pounding on a door that would not open.

Urban antennae a-quiver suddenly, I knew I was being watched from more than one high window; I hurried back to more congenial stone-cobbled streets, where old folks sat outside on kitchen chairs, cats prowled, babies cried, bougainvillea glorified walls and gardens, and here and there, between small traps laid for tourists — a jewellery store, a coffee bar, shops selling clothes made in India — was our old paradise glimpsed, if not regained.

Determined to witness night-time carousal before leaving, I waited dutifully behind a glass of wine outside a bar in the port — truly, Soho-on-sea — for a bruited parade of transvestites around midnight. On a balcony nearby stood a local woman, older and greyer than I, looking out to sea, her eyes sheltering a library of memories. I couldn’t hear but saw from the movement of her head that she was singing happily to herself.

Traffic increased, two young drunks shrieked and laughed; undistinguished music bothered the gathering dark. When the woman smiled and turned away, I quickly paid my bill and left.

Later, alone in the small roof garden of La Ventana Hotel, within the embrace of ancient walls, I reclined on Moorish cushions. La Ventana’s decor, like much in Ibiza, is indebted to hippies. Ages before hippies, before beatniks, bohemians, and the current marauders, Ibiza was invaded by Arabs, Romans, Byzantines and Visigoths. Nevertheless, from where I sat in the luscious, starry, salt-stung silence, it was evident that paradise, ever an island vulnerable and protected, endures. And so it will. Sure as hell.

“Only avoid high season,” I thought, as I crept downstairs to bed, “wake early, go to sleep early, and let the night take care of its children.”

OUTSIDE THE Portal de Ses Taules, on the road to the port, the morning fruit market was in full swing; its perfume of melons and bruised oranges rising from the olden days. One disconsolate reveller winced when the wheels of my suitcase clattered past the cafe terrace where he nursed a beer. He was fair-haired and handsome in his white feather boa and a see-through hoop skirt edged in silver.

My old friend keeps Ibiza time; I did not wait very long before boarding for Barcelona. Sure enough, the ship was already shuddering towards departure when he appeared dockside. We saw each other, much too far apart to speak, we both spread open arms and hands to the sky, and made a dumb show of regret and farewell.

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()TRAVEL BRIEF

Getting there: current scheduled flight deals to Ibiza include EasyJet (0870 600 0000, www.easyjet.com) from Stansted, and BMI Baby (0870 264 2229, www.bmibaby.com) from East Midlands, both from about £130. One way to arrive by sea is to take the train from Waterloo to Barcelona, from £185, through Rail Europe (0870 584 8848, www.raileurope.co.uk), and then catch a ferry. Umafisa (034 971 310 201, www.umafisa.com) operates ferries between Barcelona and Ibiza, from £37pp one way in a double cabin.

Where to stay: La Ventana Hotel (Sa Carrossa 13, 00 34 971 390857) is on a hillside in Ibiza old town; doubles from £135. Or try the art-deco Hotel Es Vive (Calle Carlos Roman Ferrer No 8, 00 34 971 301902); doubles from £73.