Playa del Ingles: Beautiful Beaches, Surprise Elderly Nudists and Cats

Next door to Maspalomas (down on the south end of the island where there is eternal sunshine), there is another quite famous beach — Playa del Ingles.  It’s on the other side of the nude beach in Maspalomas, so we drove straight there!  No nudies for us Puritanical Americanas!

Like Maspalomas, Playa del Ingles is known as a tourist mecca, and especially known as a gay (men) tourist mecca.  We’ve been told that one of the large shopping centers there – “Yumbo Center” –  turns into quite the gay club!   Gay Pride is held here in May, and apparently it is one of the largest gay pride festivals in Europe…

We didn’t find (nor look) for “the gay beach”; we actually didn’t see a lot of people on the beach at all, straight or gay (hard to tell anyways — those Germans and those Speedos are everywhere!).

Beaches to the south and beaches to the north.

We picked a fairly secluded beach area with nice clear blue water, next to a jetty.

Did I mention that the weather on Gran Canaria is pretty much awesome all the time?

SURPRISE!  NUDISTS!

As we walked onto the beach, Juliet indicated quietly to me that there were elderly nudists coming our way.  This was somewhat of a surprise because this beach is not clothing optional.   The naturalists were moving slooooooooooooooooooooowly to the water when Juliet thought to divert Lola and Lucy’s attention with this comment (pointing in the other direction):

“Look!  A cat!”

Of course, the girls’ attention was diverted indeed as they looked through some brush to look for a cat that was not there.  Juliet added that it was a black and white cat, just  to cement their belief.

Keep on looking, girls, I thought.

The girls scrambled over the rocks in search of the mysterious cat, and as soon as the naked elderly couple were in the water, we stopped looking for the cat.  The girls were disappointed.

But we found our spot in the sand, away from the bold naked folks.

I think one of the reasons why this particular part of the beach wasn’t so crowded was because every once in awhile, a sand storm (hello, Sahara Desert!) swirled on the beach.

But we picked a spot by the jetty, so we were not affected by it.

I grabbed my snorkel, mask and fins and did some swimming while Juliet took a sand/mud bath, courtesy of the kids.

It was a great day at the beach, made even better because we saw, coincidentally, a black and white kitty as we walked back up the hill to our car.  Perfect.

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Maspalomas: I See Naked People

We have been on Gran Canaria for three months now, and most Canarians are surprised it has taken us that long to visit Maspalomas — a tourist mecca  here on the island.  But we finally visited and it was fantastic, despite it being such a tourist destination.

For me, there are two things that make it clear that one is visiting a tourist destination:

1.  The locals don’t speak the native language in the restaurants and stores (even if you try to converse), and

2.  Your drink comes to the table decorated with a monkey on the straw.

(Please appreciate Lucy’s face in the above photo)

My Spanish teacher doesn’t consider Maspalomas part of Spain because no one speaks Spanish there.  

But who cares?!  It’s beautiful, and I now understand why tourists flock there!

As soon as we got off that off ramp to Maspalomas, it felt different.  It looked different.   Walking to the beach, all of us appreciated the shade and prettiness of the bougainvillea, and the town seems to appreciate keeping things clean — sidewalks are swept, trash is picked up, there is thoughtful urban planning and landscaping…awesome!

Maspalomas is one long stretch (7 miles?) of sand dunes with a famous landmark, el faro (the lighthouse).  It’s unlike any other beach I’ve seen.  The ocean water seems warmer, too.

So perhaps the foreigners head to Maspalomas for the year-round sunshine, or perhaps they go to see the impressive and unusual Saharan dunes.  Or perhaps people go to Maspalomas because there is a huge nudist beach there.

THE NUDIST BEACH

I should preface this by saying that Lola and Lucy wanted to jump into the water immediately, so we were fairly close to the boardwalk/restaurant area when they laid down their towels and jumped into the water (sadly, they picked the spot that had rocks and pebbles in it — lesson learned).  While they played with Juliet, I took a stroll alone down the beach.

I am no dummy; I can read signs.  Nudist area.  Got it.

I am not sure why I thought the nudist beach would be

a) better-signed and

b) cordoned off from the rest of the beach,

but it appeared quite suddenly, without warning.  I did not have my (prescription) glasses on, but I squinted and thought to myself, “Wait. What the ….?!”

I looked around, and saw hundreds of naked people, which is all fine and good, but I was really thankful that I didn’t have the kids with me.  And I felt so… American.  People just standing and talking to one another, naked.   Ordering food and drinks from the kiosk, naked.

You bet I took photos!  (Stealth, of course, and I felt like I was in Jr. High).  No close-ups, but still.

Here I am, overdressed in my one piece and water shorts (shorts!  Not even the Germans wear swim shorts in the water!).  “Such an American prude,” I thought.  I thought other things, too, but it’s probably not appropriate to share here.

I should also note that when I got back to where my family was located — not that far from all the nakedness — Juliet went on a long walk while I played with the kiddos.  😉

Tourist mecca or no, nudist or not,  Maspalomas, we’ll be back.  But maybe we won’t walk so far down into the dunes.

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