No sooner had we reported on the demise of the Nekkid Monday Band, did we discover via Shane Gentry himself that another band was revving-up to fill its sandals! “Eddie and the Streakers” is a trio from central Missouri that plays country music (among others) in the buff.
Lead singer Eddie, 34, his bassist/singer brother Ben, 28, and drummer Rob, 45, play live in various nudist clubs in Missouri and Texas. We interviewed Eddie, and he confessed that he’s the only “real” nudist of the three, but the others are getting comfortable with it. Eddie had been a musician as well as a nudist for years, but it had never occurred to him to be both things simultaneously until recently. As Eddie put it: “Once you play naked at a nudist resort, you just can’t really go back to playing clothed”. Gentry, he says, has been a great help, and although the two men have never met, he considers him a dear friend.
Eddie, sees himself as an entertainer rather than a musician, because “I like putting on a show. I try my best to arrange my songs according to what the people are wanting to hear”, he says. In the textile world, Eddie and his wife run a small daycare, while Ben is a truck driver and Rob is a web site designer. His family and friends, Eddie tells us, are open-minded about his naked band, although they might snicker a little. He adds: “I just tell them that some of the most wonderful and down to earth people I have ever met were at nudist resorts. They are people just like me. We just don’t like to wear our clothes!”.
The band is planning to put out its first cd, “Clothing Optional”, which will contain all original songs related to naturism, including “Cruising Nude”, which tells the story of a hurried man driving naked, and “I Wanna Be Naked”. The disc will be available directly from their official web site (see links below). For dates and locations of future Eddie and the Streakers shows, also consult their web site.

_{Photo courtesy of Eddie and the Streakers ©.}

Related Links:

• Eddie and the Streakers official site
• Nekkid Band: Nudists Let the Music Die!

Nudist Day visited Playa Chihuahua in Uruguay during four consecutive days. Chihuahua, now legally nude for about ten years, is unlike so many other nudist beaches in the world, as you can drive right up to it: No rocks to climb! What greets you is a wide strand of white sand, perhaps a kilometer long (.6 mile). The beach is located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Punta del Este, in the direction of Montevideo. The airport is nearby, a fact that is easily noticed by the jet planes screeching overhead.
The water here can seem a little brackish in color, but we were assured that it wasn’t contamination from the coffee-brown “Plate” river that feeds this part of the South Atlantic. Said water was rather cool despite it being summer here (December through March), but this was actually a welcome relief from the intense 90 degree heat typical of this time of the year. They were a few fair-sized jellies floating around, so one had to be careful not to get stung. If you enjoy body surfing, there is normally a lot of wave action here, but do mind the rip currents that can suddenly appear. At the far end of the beach there’s a lagoon populated with large numbers of crabs.
Chihuahua beach has a little snack bar and lifeguard station, but the toilets are strictly of the port-a-potty kind. The snack bar, besides dispensing pricey food and drinks, also loans out beach umbrellas and folding chairs, though you could buy them from a local supermarket for not much more than it costs to rent. The beach is amazingly clean, as clean-up crews scour the beach every morning. Beach goers were well-behaved, and we weren’t bothered by the usual perverts that typically haunt public nude beaches. Most of the beach population consisted of gay couples, people whom we’ve generally found to be very respectful of others.
The beach regulations, posted on one side of the snack bar, stipulate that nudity is obligatory inside the limits of the nude zone, but textiles were more numerous than nudes in the nude area. However, nudes were also dispersed far beyond the nude limits. People appeared to be oblivious to this, whether textile or nudist, and there’s no enforcement of the rules.
On the negative side, we were informed by reliable sources that sexual activity, some of it procured by male prostitutes, occurs with frequency in the sand dunes and pine woods behind the beach. We didn’t actually see any of this, but we did notice the constant presence of men standing in the dunes.
As mentioned earlier, access to the beach is simple if you have a vehicle. If you don’t and you’re not lodged in one of the few hotels near the beach, there’s frequent bus service from either Punta del Este or Maldonado. Your best bet is the COT (Cotsa) bus number 1, which will drop you off and pick you up at the “Tio Tom” stop, a 30 minute ride to/from the Punta del Este bus station. From Tio Tom, find your way to the coast and walk north along the beach, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) total.
For accommodations, your best bet is the naturist bed and breakfast “La Posada Chihuahua”, a charming inn just a short walk from the beach, or Tio Tom, a not so nice textile motel right on the textile beach. We cannot recommend “El Refugio”, another nudist bed and breakfast in the area, due to the many complaints we’ve heard, not to mention the owner’s hostile reception when we tried to contact him for an interview.
Overall, as nude beaches go, Chihuahua gets a high grade from this publication. There exists one other official nudist beach in Uruguay, this one in the Rocha region, which offers no services and is harder to access.

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