Post 14 (11/16/25) SUNDAY (FUN DAY) - LAST DAY OF PRIDE WEEK

Housekeeping: To make things easier to follow, I started numbering and dating the posts. Hopefully this will help finding them, and knowing whether you've read a post or not.

I had intended to go to the beach early on Sunday so I had a chance to get a lounge chair. But I didn't awaken until 10:10! Oh well. I hustled myself to get ready and left within about 10 minutes. 

Leaving for beach:

There was one taxi waiting at the taxi stand, so I jumped in. The driver's name was Alberto, and he was actually born on this island. My first true local! He is big into surfing and was a really cool guy to talk to en route to the beach area. Rather than go to the traditional taxi stand by the lighthouse, as I did the last time, I decided to try to get a bit closer to the actual beach where I would still have a long walk to the area I like. He got me right to the little pedestrian alley, and I was off. I timed everything on this trip and it was 15 minutes from hotel to taxi drop off and 15 minutes from there to my spot on the beach.

I had originally hoped to get there just a bit before they started renting the chairs, but (due to oversleeping) rather than 10:15 as intended, I arrived at 11:15, at which point of course all were taken. Mind you this was Sunday as well as the last official day of Winter Pride week and was still quite crowded. I found the lounge chair attendant, and was able to ask him what time one needs to be there to snag a chair. He jokingly said 7:30, to which I replied that was too early for me. Then he said 9:30, which is still an hour before rental begins, and also before it really gets warm on the beach. So I guess bring a sweatshirt and plan to hang around. Next time I'll know. Although I must admit it is discouraging for me to go the beach for a few reasons, and I've always had sort of a love/hate relationship with the beach and mixed feelings about it. Since I am not doing tan lines, a place to sun that is clothing optional is essential. So here my options are this beach or one of the many clothing optional resorts (more on those on another day's blog entry).

This beach day wasn't quite as social for me. A guy on the next blanket over came over at one point and asked me to rub some sunscreen on his back, which would have seemed rude to decline. His name was Sifa and was from Paris. I later asked where he was from originally, and he shared that he was from Madagascar. My first one! I told him I loved their vanilla, which is the only kind I use. At one point I was lying on my belly and heard a guy with what sounded like an Italian accent hawking cold drinks. He would announce repeatedly, "Cava, cava, ice cold beer, ice cold beer, coca cola, coca cola." Later I noticed what seemed like a fairly attractive older guy meandering through the beach blankets heading my way. What a crack up when I realized the only cute guy I had seen was the one selling cold drinks! lol

Once saturated with sun, I packed it in and headed back out the way I had come in. Almost immediately I noticed Alex's date John from the parade. Of course I had the impulse to say hi, but retreated from that quickly when I remembered that Alex had backed off from him later that evening. I figure any friend of Alex is a friend of mine, but if he soured on the guy, then I had nothing to say to him. To make things extra crazy, when I got to the shoreline and was walking back toward the lighthouse, I saw the American older/younger couple with whom Alex had spent his first 5 days on the island, but later fell out with. I had never met them, so didn't need to avoid them, rather just ignore them. It just struck me as funny the only familiar people I noticed at the beach on that day were Alex's former partners. haha

Here is a little video I shot while leaving the beach:

When I got back to the lighthouse area where all the shops, restaurants and hotels are I searched for what looked like fine dining. The most elegant I found was a place called El Senador. Walking in, I noticed a rather large lobster tank with some rather large, blue lobsters. My order was set! I ordered some jamón croquettes to start as well. But first, Ana came to show me the lobster she selected for me:

And the lobster close-up:

My perfectly crispy jamón croquettes:

And some evidence of El Senador right on Maspalomas Beach:

Then lobster was served:

And Ana insisted on taking a picture with me in it:

After lunch I stopped at the lighthouse for a quick pic on way to the taxi stand (still with necessary lobster-picking toothpick in mouth):

I didn't have any dessert with lunch, and planned to skip dinner that night, so thought about some kind of snack. So far the ice cream I had eaten on the island had been mediocre at best. I searched for a good one online and this place came up near Playa del Ingles, which became an excuse to walk down there to that area that was new to me. The server was really fun and sweet, and told me she also did massage, but I never did get her card for that. The sundae I ordered was entirely too much, and I left over half of it behind, which actually made me feel good to have skipped a good part of it. Look at this thing!

After ice cream, I walked along Playa del Ingles and captured this overview from above:

After the long walk back to my hotel I rested up for the evenings festivities on this final night of Pride. I walked around Yumbo to some new corners and found this lit sign, which seemed video-worthy:

Alex texted me to meet up, and he was with his travel buddy Christian, so I finally got to meet him, and liked him very much. We only chatted for a few, and Christian headed off on his own. So Alex and I went to the Hummel Hummel bar for my first time. Before we descended the stairs I noticed that his American (former) friends were just getting up and joked about taking their table. However, someone sat at it right away before we even got down the stairs, so we walked into the bar and got a table in the back. This place was full of older guys as well. We compared notes about who liked which ones, and there was some overlap and some divergence. We have a great time together. After one drink and a bit of flirting, we went to the big bar Na Und, which was fairly crowded by then. The crowd really spills out onto the (pedestrian) street in front, and we worked the crowd all over, in and out. We were talking with another guy upon whom Alex had given up when we noticed a guy about whom we had spoken the previous night and both liked. We went right over to him and introduced ourselves. He turned out to be a French guy named Andre from Lyon. I did manage to get his number and sent two messages, but to date have still not heard back. Too bad, cause he was really nice, fun, spoke perfect English, was majorly attractive to me, and used to write about American films, a subject in which I have a university degree! I also ran into others with whom I had socialized on previous evenings including Acacio and the man whom I thought was a friend but later found out was his partner Enrique. So we flirted, kissed, danced, etc., but all interaction was limited to the bar and was all simply in good fun. At one point Christian came to see us there, and we had a nice visit. Ultimately, I had to say my goodbyes to those guys as their departure day was Monday. 

As I left, I walked out right through the middle of the big Pride closing event dance floor and tried to capture the action:

On the other (west) side of the Yumbo, I caught the dancing in the shopping center walkway outside of what they call "the 6-pack" of bars:

Alex and I forged a nice friendship, and have kept in touch since he left. I did a little mentoring with him, being 20 years his senior, which he seemed to appreciate and soak up. He was a little sad the way things had deteriorated between him and John. John told him it was just a holiday romance, and this hurt Alex, so in retaliation he broke things off prematurely when they could have had another nice evening and day together, which then made John feel hurt and rejected. I wanted to convey what a dichotomy us men are, and sent this:

Ya know, we're a funny creature us human men. We are embued with chemicals and emotions that influence our choices and direct our behavior. We have oxytocin, which compels us to connect, bond, care, and be loyal. But we also have a predominance of testosterone, which compels us to mate as much as possible in order to increase our likelihood of procreation and thereby carry on the DNA that was passed on to us. It creates these interesting dilemmas. And it's why in his amazing book The Third Chimpanzee (about us homo sapiens), the brilliant author and professor Jared Diamond labels us a "nominally monogamous" creature. Interesting stuff to be sure...