Spa Day Friday

I had an amazing morning at the spa today. It was the kind of pampering I needed after a very rough week.

Last year I stumbled across a site on the internet for a place called Markus Day Spa for Men. I must have signed up for some kind of e-mail updates, which I continued to get over the year and simply delete. But recently I got an e-mail with a spring promotion that included a massage, facial and some Hindu treatment called Sirodhara, all for the whopping price of $83 (249 pesos)!

I got there at 11 and was first greeted by the esthetician, Pablo, who did my facial. He started by passing this thing over my face that sucked gently on the pores - kind of a pore vacuum cleaner. It felt nice. He then put some kind of fruit gel mask on my face and left me there to rest before coming and cleaning me up and applying a moisturizer. My skin feels great. Clean and healthy.

I was worried on my way to the spa because I didn't take anything today for the vertigo. I was taking a big chance. I felt very borderline this morning and this thing often sneaks up on me, but I decided not to take anything so that I wouldn't be sleeping through the treatments. I thought I should take a pill with me just in case, but decided to see how it went. On the way to the spa I thought about stopping in a drugstore and getting something just in case, but thought if I got an attack, I would just have to tell them to leave me in a room alone with a trash can next to me. As embarrassing as that would be, I'd have no other choice (I remembered that I had an attack once in Puerto Vallarta at the gym and had to lay down on a massage table and wait for the meclizine to work and the spinning to stop).

So, while I was on the table and Pablo was working on me I was afraid of what would happen when I tried to get up after laying down.

I must have dozed off because I was having a dream and then found another guy in the room introducing himself. His name was Santiago. He was my masseuse. He told me that I also had a pedicure and manicure treatment, but the woman who was supposed to do that would not be there until 1:30. He said I could have an extra 15 minutes of massage or wait for her. I asked her what time we'd be finished, and he said around 12:15 or so. It seemed like a long time to wait for a manicure, so I told him I'd take the extra massage time.

We moved to the massage table in another room. It was chilly this morning and the rooms were all kind of cold. When Santiago started to put cream on my back I jumped because the cream was also cold. But it turned out to be one of the best massages I've ever had. He worked really deep and did a lot of work on my neck and shoulders, two areas that are really tight on me, as well as my butt and thighs, which have been sore from dancing and walking a lot (I don't know how he knew I needed him to work there). At times the massage was painful, but it feels so good now to have so many of the knots and the tightness worked out.

After the massage, I had the shirodhura treatment. He had me lay on my back and he put something under my head to raise it up a little. It was a kind of hard pillow or some rubber thing (I am not sure). He then put an eye pillow over my eyes and I felt some light tapping on my third eye (in the middle of my forehead). It was very relaxing. I wasn't really sure what it was. Maybe it was some kind of machine sending electrical pulses? Maybe it was his finger? Whatever it was, it was warm and extremely soothing. Then I felt some liquid dripping down the sides of my forehead. When we finished, I asked him what that was and he said it was fragrant oil. He must have been dripping this oil on my forehead (on my third eye).

After that I sat in the sauna a bit and left to have lunch.

The amazing thing is that my balance seems to be back to normal and I am not feeling any kind of slipperiness or spinning. My ear is still ringing, but I think the massage was really the thing I needed to help get me back on solid ground.

Walking back home and dodging people on the sidewalk, breathing the toxic gray exhaust fumes, hearing the constant beeping of angry, impatient drivers, I was thinking that I don't think I could live here. It is too crowded and too hectic. But I do have to say that being able to go to the spa and afford these wonderful treatments is a huge perk and something that I think will help me get through the 3 1/2 months that lie ahead of fumes, crowds and tango lessons.