Pam's Blog

I think it was a the best birthday ever. Barbara Wilson, chocolate maker and Mindo hostal owner, and I went to Piedra de Agua, a spa in Banos a short bus ride from Cuenca. We bought a package, which allowed us to take advantage of all the things at the spa: Turkish bath, mud bath, mineral bath and all the pools. It also included a massage and dinner … with a “cupa de vino”.

A young man, Mario, was our host and time keeper for the afternoon. We started by taking a quick shower, then entering the Turkish steam room. It smelled like eucalyptus, and was so steamy I couldn’t see across the room. Mario came in after maybe 10 minutes and had us rinse and repeat, which was great because as soon as I was in the shower I thought “I’d like to go back in there”.

Our next stop was the mud bath. I’ve never done that sort of thing before so it was an experience. We covered ourselves with mud, even putting it in our hair. Mario instructed us to get out, let the mud dry, and then get back in the pool and rinse it off. The next tub was very similar except it was a mineral bath (gold and silver) where we smeared a turquoise substance on our skin.

Mario escorted us to the next station, hot and cold tubs. We got in the hot tub for 10 minutes, jumped (well, not really jumped … we sort of reluctantly went in inch by inch) into the cold tub for two minutes, went back to the hot tub for 10 minutes and then into the cold tub for another 2 minutes. He encouraged entering the cold tub “poco poco”.

The last stop was a steam box, where we sat in a chair in a box, doors closed in front and on top with just our heads sticking out. We were in there for 15 minutes. After that, we sat by the pool until it was time for our massage.

We were cooked after the massage so we got out of our bathing suits (which still have mud stains!) and had dinner with a glass of wine, batido, and a dessert. I’ve never done anything like we did today. It was very relaxing and it was just what I needed at this point in my trip. It’s a birthday I will certainly remember for a long time!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.