Guigui

White light/white heat

Do not adjust your monitor. The sun really was that retina-burning bright on our recent visit to Guigui, Gran Canaria’s mythical beach. A tan genuinely is a more popular Christmas accompaniment on this island than turkey.

Lost in translation

Guigui, or more correctly Güigüi, owes its name to the mispronunciation of a French visitor. Prior to this tourist’s trip of the tongue, it had been known as the admittedly not dissimilar Guguy. A title which stretches all the way back to the days before Spain conquered the island’s original inhabitants, the canarii.

Go Guigui

This was our second visit to this isolated playa in the west of the island. That’s more than twice the number of times your average local, let alone tourist, has been. Mr Gran Canaria Local’s first followed a commission by Condé Nast Traveller who made him rewrite my article because they found my original too much of a Boys’ Own adventure.

Our blog, our rules

An old work colleague of Mr GCL (Hi, Ed) tells a great tale about staying over at an American workmate’s flat along with a female friend. He’s somewhat distracted to awaken and find said workmate prancing around the room nude. Pointing this out, he’s hit with an immediate rebuff, “Hey, buddy, my room, my rules”. So, CNT, this blog post is kinda a retort.

Putting in the kilometres

We’d previously travelled to Guigui from Tasartico. However, as we were spending the festive period in nearby La Aldea de Nicolás, we decided to start trekking from nearer our base. So, we followed the signpost to this elusive beach. Only to discover a signpost the other end which read: “La Aldea 12.5km”. It’s 4.5km to Tasartico. The path we chose for our return journey. Conscious of the dying light, we then hiked the main road back to La Aldea. Adding a further 5.4km.

Happy nude year

Guguy is actually two adjoining beaches: Guguy Chico and Guguy Grande. There were a grand total of 10 people, including Mr Gran Canaria Local, on both of them by the time I got there (4.00pm). Half of us were naked. I’ll leave it to your imaginations as to which state of undress you would have found Mr GCL.