Last weekend, the four of us (Me, Yvonne, Manuel and Carolina) decided to spend a lazy day at the beach. Manuel wanted to take us to his favorite beach, which is just outside of Vigo. So we hopped into his car and took a one hour drive to this favorite beach of his. We arrive at favorite beach only to find ourselves searching for parking and Manuel having to avoid with his car, the many cars and pedestrians along the narrow beach route. Manuel decides this is no longer his favorite beach and suggests driving to another beach. We agree and it´s off to another beach.
We arrive at beach number two and were relieved to find parking. After parking the car and a brief ice cream break, it´s time to walk towards the beach then plop our towels and bodies onto the sand. Access to the beach, from where we parked and had ice cream was maybe a 200 yard walk over this small hill. We reached the summit of this small hill and straight ahead from a distance we can see a nice long stretch of sand, blue water, bare assess and pubic hairs. Yep, Manuel unknowingly took us to a nude beach. Well Manuel actually knew there was a nudist section at this particular beach, he just assummed we would end up where the non-nudists hang out. After the initial shock of hanging genitals, cottage cheese and sunburnt assess we all looked at each other and burst out laughing.
After scanning the ¨horizon¨ and seeing yards upon yards of naked flesh, I´m thinking there´s no way in hell there´s a ¨normal¨ section out here and there´s no way I´m taking my clothes off. I prefer not to be the talk of the Spanish nudist community ¨Mira did you see the Asian guy with the little chorizo? Look there he is jogging along the coast!.¨ Uumm no thanks. The others were also in agreement about not hanging out (figuratively speaking) with the nudists (believe me not the most attractive looking group of people). Also, the thought of having to practice my Spanish with a naked Spaniard just seems kinda weird. ¨Hola que tal?¨
Still at our small summit - Mt. What the Fuck, we can see another section of beach quite a distance away and can actually see color, this must be the ¨normal¨ section of beach. We decide to head towards the sea of colors. But in order to get to our destination, we´ll have to walk through a small section of the nudist beach, then climb over some large boulders to reach the next section of beach. So as we´re walking along the nudist beach a few thoughts come to my mind, such as…. ¨Why is this guy dribbling a soccer ball…..in the nude?.. ¨That must hurt running full speed for that frisbee, I know my nuts couldn´t take a pounding like that¨… .. We approach the large boulders, all we need to do is climb over these rocks and we´ll reach our sea of colors. We climb atop of the boulders, scan the surrounding area….more naked bodies…the sea of colors we had seen from a distance were only beach towels laid out on the sand. Again we look at each and burst out laughing. This time no one´s dribbling a soccer ball, just a couple playing paddle ball….. .in the nude.
Manuel is absolutely sure there´s a ¨normal¨ stretch of beach nearby and convinces us to walk through the sea of color beach towards another set of boulders. So as we´re walking along another stretch of nude beach more thoughts come to my mind, in particular sunscreen application…Anyway, we reach the boulders, climb up to the top and see another sea of color - this time the folks are wearing bathing suits, well both men and women wearing bottoms, many women topless (at least they´re attractive, Manuel and I weren´t complaining). We found a nice spot, settled ourselves on the sand, went for an occassional dip in the water; sipped cold beer and let the time pass away.
So there you have it our day at the beach in Spain. Where one can: roam around naked and if you don´t like it you can go to different spot; drink a beer ; let their dogs run around freely; and stay on the beach as long as you nice - very nice considering if we did anything I just mentioned back in California it would involve the police and an expensive citation… (How I hate the police bullhorn back home ¨It´s 10 O´clock the beach is now closed!! Get off the Beach!!¨). So nice, here in Spain, that no one tells us what to do or not to do, everyone minding their own business and enjoying themselves. Aahhh… Only in Europe.