Nudity

When you travel, needless to say, you learn alot about yourself. What you can handle, what you can't. What you think you can handle, and also what you think you can't handle.

Formentera was my first-time proper exposure to nudist beaches. Seeing topless girls on a beach here and there is quite different to being on a beach where everyone is naked. And as open minded and I think (well, thought) I am...it did bother me.

People of many countries, all ages, all sexualities, all types, all sizes, all shapes, all shades, all shaves were most happily (bless them) struting their stuff. And the rest I will leave to your imagination. Because you know what? sometimes it is really better that things are left to ones imagination. Healthier.

Please remember that people in general, in real life, on the beach, do not look like people in Baywatch. 60 year olds, 300 pounders,transvestites - do I need to elaborate? And yes, guys still scratch their balls.

What was interesting, was that it is so normal in Formentera to be naked. When we arrived, our host J took us straight to the beach (since there wasn't much we could do in his garage!) - and before we could even get our bikini's out, midst conversation, all of a sudden he was standing with us, stark naked. And talking.

I didn't know where to look, or rather, where not to look. I had known this guy a whole 10 minutes and already crossed boundaries that I have not crossed (and will probably never cross) with people I have known for years!

My friend M who went with me had a slightly different attitude towards it all. 'The human body is beautiful and how liberating it is to be able to just be in our natural forms' types. However, it took her 4 years to get comfortable with the idea. I truly thought I'd get used to it in 5 days, but nope. It was too odd.

It was interesting to note certain things on these nudist beaches. Like, you could tell if people had been there for ages - if they had a tan, but didn't have bikini lines. You could tell that some probably were apprehensive of stripping when they first arrived, but now they are into the groove of it - again because they had swim suit marks.

All in all, yes the human body is beautiful. But too many naked human bodies at one time, is a whole different story.

Yeah...ok, I bet you are asking - so did you get naked?

What do you think.