Temazcal Sweat Ceremony

This morning I tried planning out my days here, and I felt it wasn’t going well since I was still put off by the taxi situation. If the app worked better it would be much easier! I decided I wouldn’t let it bug me and in a pinch I’d just have to be patient and she’ll out for a taxi. I booked a couple of Airbnb experiences for the next couple of days, then I headed out for a coffee and to check out more of playa.

I wandered the direction of a bird sanctuary that Alanna told me about. To get there you go through the gated community of Playacar. I was on foot, and the guards spoke no English. They asked to see my ID, took a photo of it, and kept motioning for me to walk a different way. I showed them my google maps and finally he rolled his eyes and let me through.

I wandered this gated community and found the sanctuary, paid my entrance fee, and was greeted right away by these beautiful parrots. They were so serene! I’m not sure what they were doing here but they kept pulling at each other’s beaks. The one getting “bit” looked like he kept going in for more pulling so I guess he was into it.

I spent an hour or so in this serene, open air avian sanctuary. It was so peaceful to be there around the birds, listening to their calls and sounds. It was just what I needed! There were also these little rabbit type mammals, and I saw a larger sort of tan coloured raccoon/lemur type thing but it moved away very quickly. I also saw iguanas and turtles!

From here, the Mayan ruins of playacar were around the corner and they led to the beach so I walked through that way, spotting many iguanas along the way.

I found the beach, and there was hardly anyone there, plus the seaweed was minimal. This was my chance to fully swim down! I put my bag down, hyper conscious that it contained my wallet and phone and had nobody to watch it. I stripped down and swam in the bath-water-like sea. The water was so clear and blue, the sand was soft. There were white caps on the waves and I got tossed around a few times as I swam out to get past the breaks of the waves. It was amazing! Back on land, bag in tow, life was good.

I watched this very cute pup dig holes around its parents! He visited me a few times and was very, very sweet, giving me kisses.

I wandered back through Playa del Carmen, along fifth and tenth, and made my way to Plantivoros for lunch before my Temazcal ceremony. When I got there I realized I left my phone charger at home, and the server was nice enough to let me borrow theirs while I ate. I ordered guacamole, and 5 different tacos. The server seemed very shocked I ordered so much food! That was a bit judgy but I was happy with my decision haha.

The guacamole was so good, and the chips were hot, freshly fried.

Tacos were: Al pastor, two types of KFC made with oyster mushroom, a rajas made with nopales cactus, and a barbacoa. My goodness these were so tasty. The fried oyster mushrooms were so meaty, the Al pastor was so juicy. Just when I thought I’d had the best food of my trip something else amazing comes along!

My next adventure was to get from where I was around Calle 15 to Calle 92. The furthest I’d been in the city was Calle 30. So it was time to try the Colectivo, these are mini vans that pick you up at stations or with a wave, and are just 10 pesos in town. They also run to Tulum and Cancun so I wanted to try some out before I used them for bigger plans.

I left enough time to walk the 40 minutes to Calle 92 if I needed to. I flagged down a colectivo, told the driver 92, he said “si”, so I sat down. Inside the van there were benches lining the perimeter. The van door mostly stayed open and swayed as we drove.

I was watching my google maps and reminded the driver as we approached 92 that we wanted to get off. I handed him a 20, and he handed me a 10 coin back. Easy!

I was an hour early for the Temazcal ceremony, so I hit the beach and went for another swim, then laid in the sand and listened to the ocean for a while.

It was time to head to the ceremony. This was something I had wanted to do in coming to Mexico. Temazcal is an ancient spiritual cleansing ritual performed by a shaman in a steam room or sweat lodge. It is meant to represent the womb of a woman, and you’re supposed to die in there and be reborn afterwards. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures here but here is the one from the booking.

We started by chatting with the guide, Raquel, and she explained the history and purpose of the Temazcal. She explained that you must be open and vulnerable to share why you are here and what you want to get out of the experience. There were just three of us there. The person from Australia said he wanted a good sweat. The person from Montreal wanted to heal some anxiety and become a stronger person. And I said I wanted to get rid of my negative thoughts and stop being burdened from my past.

From here Raquel continued to get the space ready and we drank a really refreshing lemon and maybe aloe water to hydrate. In chatting with the group, I found out the girl from Montreal used to live in Victoria, and has a friend who used to be one of my employees at VP! Small world.

We moved to the Temazcal area of the yard. We started with an aura cleanse with smudging. I was open minded, and it smelled really good!

Next we had to pray to the different gods in the different directions: North, south, east, west, and each had a different meaning about spirituality, manifestation, our ancestors, etc. We then had to pray to enter and be received by the Temazcal, then we got in. The inside was maybe 4 feet tall and 8 feet in circumference. It was made of some tiles on the floor and concrete walls, and had a dirt floor fire pit in the middle. Raquel was inside with us and the shaman was outside, using a pitch fork to bring volcanic rocks from inside a fireplace to Raquel, who used deer antlers to place them inside the fire pit. Once they had loaded in maybe 8 rocks, the shaman brought in a pail of water, sat inside with us and closed the entrance using a blanket. Raquel used a smudging type of stone to bless each of the rocks, and that emitted an amazing herbal smell.

Raquel explained that we are going to pass through four doors inside the Temazcal. The first is the door of the air, and the mental self. She explained that we need to focus on the here and now, and to live in the past is accomplishing nothing, and to live in the future is accomplishing nothing either. She had us repeat our intentions and then she added essential oils to the rocks, then poured the water on them. The Temazcal filled with steam, it was pitch black but it somehow became cloudy. It was thick and steamy but tolerable. Raquel and the shaman were singing and drumming, and we had been told to focus on the healing music when we were feeling the steam. This lasted maybe 15 minutes. I could feel myself dripping from my chin, elbows, and sweat was pouring down my chest.

Once we went “through the door”, they opened the blanket covering and went out to reset to go to the next door, the water. This meant bringing in more volcanic rocks, a new water pail, blessing the rocks, new essential oils on the rocks, and then a new prayer to start the next door. The second one was the people or anyone our lives that we wanted to offer prayers for. I said Ryder, he’s got some anxiety issues he’s been dealing with, and Max, because I just wish he could be less anxious and have less reactions. I wish he could be more calm in more types of environments. Raquel poured the water on the rocks, did the singing and drumming, and the she came around with a branch of flowers dipped in the water and drenched our bodies in it, one at a time, while she sang to us. It was really refreshing. After this with more steam she sang in English (everything else was in Spanish). She sang, “You are safe, you are strong, you are loved.”

Next up was the physical body and the third door of the earth. Raquel prayed for the earth and she apologized to it, which I thought was really sweet. In this one we were told to share who we wanted to pray for for physical health and to make sure we included ourselves. I shared for my dad, and for myself with my various pains, my knees, and hoping to find out soon what this hernia/ulcer thing is I’ve got going on. The new hot rocks brought in were starting to pile high. We each got to bless the rocks with the smudging stone. And share our prayers. In this door, Raquel put mint on the stones and when the water hit them the air was sharper and smelled amazing, and it was the hardest to breathe but felt really cleansing to the throat and lungs.

The last door was for your ancestors or anyone passed on, or anything you wanted to give more love to. I prayed for the animals of the world to be treated better and for me to be a stronger voice for them. This one had the most intense steam and intense breathing.

After about an hour we emerged, we got to take a cold shower one at a time, under a pipe she has next to the Temazcal, and use buckets as well to cool off. My bucket had one flower in it and it seemed like the water was full of floral smells. My skin felt absolutely incredible, soft and exfoliated.

Once we cooled down they offered us fruit, guacamole, the lemon aloe water and chlorophyll water, which was bright green. We chatted a bit about how we feel and had some small talk. I had made plans to wait for the girl and walk together, but she was waiting on her friend who was MIA so I decided to walk up to the main road myself and get the colectivo.

There were plenty of street dogs out and people shopping and getting dinner. The colectivo was easy, and I got dropped off at the main grocery store near our Airbnb. I grabbed a bottle of wine and some Takis and headed for home. I didn’t feel like walking any more (I’ve been averaging 13,000 steps a day), so I tried the taxi app and it failed for probably the twentieth time in the last few days. I saw a colectivo headed for tulum so I grabbed it, thinking this is too easy. As soon as I checked my google maps we were speeding past my stop! I yelled, “aqi por favor!” And the driver said something back, the rest of the passengers said something, and he came to a screeching halt. I thanked him and got off quickly. I think he was asking the others if they cared if he stopped for me? And I’ve come to know now that this was a colectivo headed straight for Tulum, only stopping at major cities or points, not every street like the inter city ones. I got lucky here I think!

Wine tasted really nice as I enjoyed a glass before a great sleep.