Following the recent successful Craft Fayre at the ‘Chiringuita Naturista’ on Vera Playa – and the ensuing debate, I thought the time may be right to have an article in Euroweekly about the naturists of Andalucia, and in particular the naturists of Vera Playa.
We naturists are a surprisingly nice bunch of people. Whether predominantly nice people become Naturists, or whether the liberation of living a part of your life ‘sin ropas’ makes people nicer, I’m not sure, but I am sure that the hundreds of naturists I know are among the nicest people I know. Naturism is a great leveller. It is often said, stock-broker or bin-man, you all look the same with no clothes on. You don’t have the opportunity to hide behind a ‘uniform’ – be it a city suit, designer sportswear, a hoodie or a boiler suit. What you see is what you get.
Naturists, generally speaking, are very accepting of others’ imperfections, because 99% of us have imperfections but some ‘textiles’ not accustomed to the sight of the human body in all shapes and sizes, but bombarded with images of young, fit, airbrushed perfection, express the opinion that ‘it would be alright if they were all beautiful’. Naturism is not about how you look, it’s really about how you feel – and in particular how you feel about yourself, comfortable in your own skin.
Vera Playa is 2.75 km of designated naturist beach, in addition to the beach, there is a ‘Zona Naturista’, where the urbanisations and streets are also naturist. There are some 2000 naturist apartments and houses in total, and something that people in the surrounding areas are probably not aware of is the impact that we have on the local economy. Most apartments are full during the summer period. Vera Playa is very famous throughout Spain, Europe, in fact the world, as one of the great naturist destinations. This summer, as well as every European visitor, we have had Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, people from Saudi Arabia etc. As the summer visitors leave, the ‘snow-birds’ arrive. These people winter in Vera Playa. If you look around a typical ‘textile’ urbanisation, it will be almost deserted for 10 months of the year, the naturist urbanisations probably average 30 – 50% occupancy for the 10 months outside of the high season, and the vast majority of those people support the local bars, restaurants, buy furniture, employ tradesmen, read the Euro-weekly, etc. Our small urbanisation currently has British, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, Belgian, Swiss, Swedish, Austrian and Norwegians in residence.
Many ‘more discrete naturists’ choose to live outside the zone, your neighbour might be a naturist, maybe with a terrace that is not overlooked, who regularly uses the naturist beach. We have naturist friends in Mojacar, Vera Town, Antas, Lubrin, Los Gallardos, Puerto Rey etc . For all, the factor that brought them to this region is the famous and fabulous naturist beach at Vera Playa. Remember, you can’t identify us when we have clothes on!
To feel the sun gently warming your body, with no messing about with swimsuits, towels etc, and to swim in the warm Mediterranean without being hindered or hampered by restricting lycra is a delight. And the problem of where to look??? The answer is simple – look them straight in the eye!