As I lay on the beach people watching, I was encouraged to see that everyone seemed comfortable with its unofficial 'clothing optional' status. There were plenty of naked people, a few topless women, some groups in swimwear and a few mixed groups.
Alice and I were amongst the nude ones, having set up our windbreak with two pareos stretched across the top to form a canopy in case we started to fry too much in the Canarian sun. We were down at the eastern end of the bay, about halfway back between the surf and the cliff. It was a huge stretch of beach with plenty of room for everyone to have a big space around them. According to the guide on the web, both ends of the beach were considered clothing optional, but we walked the length of the beach and there were nude bathers the whole way along. I much prefer beaches to be mixed, rather than having textiles and naturists segregated. If only we had a beach like this in Yorkshire!
I wasn't aware that I was now staring at our closest beach neighbours - two girls about 20 metres or so away, until Alice said,
"OK mister reel your tongue in, it's not gonna happen."
I laughed, unconcerned that I had been caught. Alice is the love of my life and she knows it. We also both know that looking is fine. Alice likes to know what stirs my imagination and I'm the same.
"British or Spanish?" I thought out loud.
"Why just one of those two. Why not something else?" Alice asked, now staring just like me.
"Well - they've both got bikinis on, so probably either Spanish locals, or Brits that are too shy to even go topless in front of each other," I reasoned.
Before Alice could tell me I was making stupid generalisations, they both got up and brushed sand off themselves and did a bit of bikini adjustment - running fingers around the elasticated leg holes where it has a tendency to ride up the buttock and disappear into the crack. One of the two ('blue bikini') rummaged in her bag and pulled out a smartphone and instructed her friend ('green bikini') to pose, moving her around as they laughed and took several pictures.
"That's sneaky," I said. "I think they're trying to make sure they get us in the background."
"Don't flatter yourself," said Alice, picking up her Kindle again.
"Well I don't mind - as you well know," I said, "but let's see if we can help."
I stood up and walked towards them - blue bikini glanced at me and took one more picture then rotated around green bikini to make it less obvious that I had been in the shot.
"Hello," I said, "would you like me to take some of the two of you?"
"Oh - hi - er - yes - thanks if you don't mind." So I was right - British. She handed me her phone, trying to look anywhere but at me.
"It's this button here," she said. I probably looked too old to know how to use a smartphone.
"OK - and - smile," I said, but instead of taking the picture I swiped to show the last picture she had taken.
"Oh dear," I said, "I'm not sure what I've done but there's a picture of me here just behind your friend."
"Oh shit! Sorry," said blue bikini. "I um, I mean - like, we - er..."
"Don't worry about it," I said. "First time on a nude beach?"
"It's that obvious huh? Our friends didn't believe us and said they needed evidence," she said. Green bikini was keeping quiet and looked a little embarrassed by the situation.
"Well let's do it properly then," I said, and called over to Alice,
"Sweetheart could we borrow you for a minute?"
Alice put her Kindle away, eased herself up from our rug and wandered over. How I love to see her walk around naked.
"This is Alice and I'm Sam," I said to the girls. "Would you take a picture with me and these young ladies please Alice? Their friends don't believe they're at a naturist beach."
Alice gave me 'that look' and took the phone from me.
"Thank you for being so cool about this. I'm Mel and this is Jo," said Mel of the blue bikini.
"No problem - glad to help. Well come on girls," I said, holding out my arms for them to come either side of me. I slipped an arm round each waist, touching skin and bikini fabric. Their skin was soft and hot, and as I hugged them close to me I got a strong smell of coconut oil.
Alice took the photo, though she probably took seven and three of her feet. I don't know how she manages to do that.
"OK we're not done yet," I said as we disentangled ourselves. "Mel you take one of Jo with me and Alice, then Jo can take one of you with us."
"Cool," said Jo, the first word she had spoken.
There was a fair bit of giggling, but the photos were successfully taken. I particularly liked to see my beautiful naked Alice with two bikini clad lovelies.
"Why don't you bring your things over and join us," said Alice.
They looked at each other and Jo shrugged.
"OK thanks." said Mel and when they had stuffed their things into their beach bags I took their towels and shook the sand off before we all walked over to our shelter.
Not surprisingly Mel turned out to be the chatty one, but Jo started to lose her shyness and we sat sharing our snacks and learning a little about them. We knew this was their first time on a nude beach and I was right in my assumption that despite the nudity around them, they were both too shy to even go topless.
"But why?" asked Alice. "Haven't you ever been in a changing room together or anything?"
"Yes, but that's different. You cover straight back up again."
"OK but if you took your tops off here you wouldn't have white boobs," said Alice, getting straight to the point.
"Don't you mind other people seeing your private bits though?" asked Jo.
"It's just a body Jo. We've got boobs and fannies, and Sam's got a cock and balls. There's no great mystery and we aren't ashamed of them or embarrassed for people to see us naked. Except Sam gets a bit shy and covers up if he gets an erection."