For our beach vacation this year Aaron and I decided to go to the Canary Islands. Aaron had been before but I hadn’t. I really had no Idea what to expect., That was probably due to the fact that I don’t think I had ever heard of them before. The Canary Islands although Spanish are located closer to Northern Africa than Spain.
Aaron and I were pretty busy these last few months so I virtually did nothing to prepare for Maspalomas, the town we were going to which is located on Gran Canaria. Usually I am making sure we are staying at what I think is the, “best,” place for us, trying to make restaurant reservations, finding out what we should do and than bugging the fuck out of Aaron to make sure it is all good, From Aaron I get, yes, yes, yes, because he is easier to please than me and knows if I am happy he will be too.
Aaron had told me it was one of the big gay destinations in Europe, that it was inexpensive and that there was a huge mall where all the gay bars and clubs were and of course, great beaches. What more could you ask for?
When making reservations I was amazed at how cheap it was. I had to get my reading glasses to make sure I was not mistaking the prices, When booking at hotels there you basically have two choices. Stay at the beach or in town. We decided to stay in town. We both prefer being in the center of things and being able to come and go as we please without getting a cab all the time. In the center of things we were, we ended up staying about two blocks from the Yumbo, The Yumbo is the center of gay life or at least the bars and clubs.
Whoever designed the Yumbo did a dam good job. I believe it went something like this. Floor one cabarets and lounges, floor two restaurants and cruisey bars, floor three bars and fourth floor clubs. You might find one or two good restaurants at the Yumbo and then there are plenty of good ones in the area. If your like me you might have an early dinner, take a, “disco nap,” and hit the Yumbo running about 10:30 or 11:00. I am not sure what time it closes, but if your there to the end you can probably go straight to breakfast. Some good stores there too, for a few sex toys, great swimsuits and jocks. It kept me happy watching Aaron try on all his new stuff.
Trust me, it doesn’t matter what you are into I am sure you will find it at the Yumbo. If you want to talk there will be a quiet bar, if you want to cruise there will be a cruisy bar, dance you will dance, leather bars, dress code sex bars, you have it all, even a few back rooms. Everyone is nice and anything goes, who could ask for more, it is all there. I am sure you can make any fantasy of yours come true. Every night we usually ended up at the Yumbo at least for a drink or two and like I said our hotel was only 2 blocks away. I have a little advice leave your leather at home. It’s too hot to wear anything besides your jock. I have to admit in the past though I was turned on by a sweaty hot guy in a harness. Now the only guy in a harness that get my blood flowing is my husband. Things have way of changing.
One thing I hate. Why is the gay beach always so fucking far away? Same thing in Maspalomas. If your staying in town you will take a cab to the beach and walk about 20 minutes through the dunes and on a hot day with no breeze you will be sweating and cursing, but it is worth it, We actually only went 2 days as we had a great pool at hotel and Aaron and I were just about the only people there.
At the beach you were able to get lounges and umbrellas. Don’t know why but when we were there the drink stand was closed. Bring everything you might need including shoes you can wear in the sand with you otherwise you might burn your feet off. Most people at the beach were pretty friendly. I know this as one time I could not find our chairs and had to jump on a strangers chair because my feet were burning. When Aaron finally found me I had made some new friends.
The whole town is cruisy so I am not quite sure why everyone likes to cruise in the dunes. If you like sand and sex go for it, but not for me. Even when I was single sand and sex was a no go for me. But we did manage to get up to our usual fun.
I am not sure how I came across our hotel, I loved it. It was called Nayra. I would actually happily go back there. I had only one complaint, pretty unusual for me and that was there were not any robes in the rooms. Don’t worry I got over it. Every room came with 2 terraces, one in the back of the room by the shower and another in front facing the pool. It would have been nice to just grab a robe and sit on your terrace by the pool without getting dressed in the morning or whenever.
I really did not know what to think at first. In the cab from the airport were speeding right along when the driver turns onto a street that seemed more like a back alley. I started to get a big nervous about the hotel. All I remembered was that were 2 buildings and not a lot of rooms and no kids, yes! I also reserved a room in the quiet building. After registering the front desk manager takes us across the street to the quiet building. Basically each building is the same except the main one, not ours has the bar, restaurant, gym and front desk. There are about 25 rooms in each building arranged around a nice size pool, not really a lap pool but you could swim laps if you wanted.
After getting our bearings and unpacking we went back across the street to the main building to sit by the pool, have a few drinks and some lunch. I never care how long my food takes but I get a little anxious about my cocktails. Finally they arrive and as the waitress bends down to serve our drinks she decides to spill them all over us instead. Not a great start.
I have never stayed at an adults only hotel before and the first thing I noticed was the absence of yelling and screaming kids at the pool and how peaceful it was. Sorry to any of you who have kids and by the way I do enjoy them. I would say the hotel was about 50 percent gay.
The whole 6 or 7 nights we were there I was trying to decide which building we would stay in if we went back. In the end I decided on the building we were in. The quiet one. Most of the time it felt like our oasis. We rarely saw people at the pool and everyone pretty much kept to themselves. If you wanted to chat, they were all friendly and no one got in your face. A few time I wish I was closer to the food. God knows why, the whole time we were there we were so stuffed we could barely move. I also was surprised that the food at the hotel was pretty good and inexpensive as were the cocktails. I usually find the food and drinks at most hotels overpriced. We ended up having quite a few lunches there.
I was really taken in by the dunes and or desert in Gran Canaria. I was not expecting them to be so beautiful. On the day we decided to take a hike in the desert it began to rain and we had to quit. Timing is not our forte. Actually maybe we were lucky, I don’t think we were ready for the heat. To make up for our partially rained out hike we decided to go on a camel ride through the dunes. In my haste to get us some camels I didn’t realize what I had reserved. We were not going to get our own camels we would be riding 2 to a camel kind of side saddle in a group with the camels tied to together. It felt like I was a kid again and my parents were taking us to ride shetland ponies for our first time. I must admit it was fun and a lot cheaper than if it had just been the 2 of us and a guide.
The desert was our only real sight seeing while we were away. Our intention was to relax and that we did a good job of. If you are looking for a vacation with plenty to do or nothing Gran Canaria is really a great combination of both, I would definitely go back for sun, sex, food, great beaches and a little more sightseeing.
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