Maspalomas 🏳️‍🌈

THE GAYEST PLACE IN THE WORLD ?

I recently shared some photos from the Sahara, but how did I actually get there? I didn't fly into Western Sahara directly. It's remarkable, but not surprising, that it's not very easy or affordable to do so. Instead I flew into Gran Canaria and then connected from there, over the Atlantic, to mainland Africa.

I did, however spend a week or so on Gran Canaria itself. It's the second time I'd been there - the last time just before Covid. It was one of the places I was looking to move to for better weather :). I was on the other end of the Island this time; Maspalomas. It was just as charming on that side of the island but, boy, was I in for a surprise.

Take this from someone who lives in London and spent a lot of time in Soho, Brighton, e.t.c, but Maspalomas is probably the most gay place I've ever been. The entire region is covered in rainbow flags, but it's not really "LGBTQ+" per say. It's basically just G. LOL. I had no idea at all since I'd already been to the island before, so I did no research about the place beforehand. I just found a nice cheap trip and took it.

I didn't see, or notice, any same-sex female, i.e., "lesbian" couples there at all. In fact may of the private club signs I saw seemed to discourage the presence of women or even ban them, straight or otherwise, altogether. I found that quite interesting. To be fair, those same places also would usually say "no drag queens" too. I think they just didn't want anything "feminine" in any way. Not really LGBTQ+ then eh :). Dogs were always allowed everywhere though haha.

The region seemed really peaceful with near zero crime. The driving there is also a lot better than in mainland Spain. People there are very polite and the cars actually stopped at zebra crossings, unlike in Barcelona or Madrid. There was once incident when the driver sped up when he saw me approaching the crossing, but that's understandable. I was also quite surprised by how relatively conservative people are there with very little to no PDA (public display of affection).

I stayed in an extremely charming little bungalow village. It had a cafe/cocktail bar called "The English Bakery". It's located halfway between the beach and a range of mountains, which creates a picturesque view always. The sunrises and sunsets were stunning even though I never got a proper photo of one. The weather was perfect, even though it rained on my first night there - an apparently rare occurrence.

Maspalomas has sand dunes reminiscent of mainland Africa. In fact if you walk into the dunes far enough, you could believe you were in the African Sahara. In fact I saw better dunes on Gran Canaria than I saw in Western Sahara because I didn't go far inland enough. I wouldn't dare, that's a near certain death sentence for a desert novice with no camels or experience. The sound storms are brutal and the temperature there is capricious.

There is a lovely promenade along the beach with a lot of choice of shops, restaurants, bars, cafes and so on, including even MacDonalds which came in handy one time I ran out of battery power on my phone :). As usual, though, MacDonalds there has the best real estate with an outdoors area overlooking the dunes and the Atlantic ocean.

The coffee there is good. They serve the European portions though so I always needed a bottle of water with me to balance out the fluid haha. I also had too much ice cream, which I allowed myself, but walking for hours a day burnt it all off.

Talking of long walks, I decided to venture a little further out on one of my walks, at which point I walked into the area where there are no hotels or buildings, just sand dunes and beach. That was where I got the shock of my life. Thousands of men, thousands, average age of around 65, were on the beach, naked as the day they were born. It was quite a surreal sight. Naturists. I've been on a naturist beach before on Fuerteventura, but not quite with so many people, and all men. As I approached the hotels and buildings on the other side of the walk, an hour later, there were dotted sightings of women too, also stackers lol, and also about a hundred years old on average 😂

I decided against returning via the same route and went inland instead 😂🤣

Peace & Love,

Adé