Denmark, thanks to its Scandinavian roots, has a very casual attitude toward social nudity. To wit, there’s no such thing as a nude beach in that country. You can be nude on any beach! Since Denmark is a country with countless islands and coastlines, this means there are abundant opportunities to enjoy being au naturel, the only limitation being the weather, which tends to be rather chilly except during the short summer! Despite beach nudity being legal and tolerated, Nudist Day recommends avoiding being the only person nude on a given beach. It’s best to look for a “strand” (the Danish word for beach) where nudity is common.

MEXICO CITY - A nudist group based in Mexico City claims to have organized a nude visit to the city’s University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUCA), in conjunction with a Spencer Tunick exhibit taking place there. Saturday, November 27, from 7:30 pm through 9 pm, anyone visiting the display of photos Tunick took earlier this year in the city’s renown Zocalo square, will be required to remove all items of clothing except for footwear. One might suspect that this would be used as a publicity stunt, but organizers insist that no media will be present, even though visitors will be allowed to take photos, as long as anyone included in a shot gives his or her consent.

The famous American photographer of nude multitudes has said that he hopes to do further artistic installations in both Mexico and Venezuela, two Latin-American countries that were particularly receptive to his ongoing project. Mexico City was the scene of his record photo shoot, involving 18,000 naked volunteers, a number which he doubts he can surpass in the future. On another note, according to statistics compiled after the Mexico event, 65 percent of participants were male, 40 percent were between the ages of 26 and 36, and the vast majority were from the capital region itself.

Tunick has long wanted to do an installation on the massive pyramids of the Teotihuacán ruins near Mexico City, something local authorities have so far resisted. Tunick is still trying hard to convince the country’s National Institute of History and Archeology (INAH) to grant him permission. He believes this could become a reality within three years. A retrospective of Tunick’s body of work, in both photos and short films is currently exhibited in Mexico City’s “Museo de Ciudad” (City Museum), where it will remain until February 28, 2008. Murals of photos as well as videos from his Mexico City photo shoot can also be seen in a gallery of a city university.

Recently, Tunick was also in Caracas for the inauguration of another exhibit of his work in the Museum of Contemporary Art in that city. He told local reporters that he intended to return to Venezuela in the first three months of 2008 for another shoot, this time using the 5 mile (8.6 km) long suspension bridge that spans Lake Maracaibo in the northeast of the country as the backdrop.

As many nudists already know, Mexico offers an abundance of resorts where you can get naked anytime of the year. Surprisingly, Mexico has only one beach where nude bathing is approved: Zipolite, on the picturesque Pacific coast of Oaxaca state, far from any big tourist resorts.

December is the best time to visit this still largely wild area of the country, when nudi-tourists fill Zipolite. Most fly down from California, landing at Puerto Escondido , a small city renown for its surfing, or Huatulco, then renting a vehicle to make their way east. At Zipolite, there are several restaurants, shacks really, right on the beach, as well as El Solstice, a yoga school that also offers simple “palapa” lodging. To enjoy the excellent snorkeling and diving in the area, look for a reputable company that will take you to the best and safest diving spots.

While Zipolite is the ideal place to make a naked escape from the rat race, be weary of leaving anything valuable unattended and also be mindful of the dangerous currents that have reaped their share of souls — Zipolite actually means “beach of the dead” in the Mayan language! There’s also a bit of a drug problem that lingers from the hippie days. September is the low season, even if the weather is still hot, and the beach is virtually empty during this period.

Since Woodstock, nudity seems to be part and parcel of just about any big rock music and/or alternative arts festivals. Most of you have surely heard of The Burning Man festival which takes place every year in the scorching Nevada desert, but few of you are likely to have heard of the Roskilde festival. The hugely popular annual music event is held the first week of July in the town of Roskilde, just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. Since it started in 1971, Roskilde has seen music fans set-up a camp city on the festival grounds. Spontaneous nudity in the camp is quite the norm, and one of the most anticipated events is the naked race, which gets ample coverage by the press.