Temazcal

Temazcal: Aztec sauna made of stones and adobe. Hot water is poured over the stones to create the vapor.

Today I participated in the biweekly temazcal here in chilpancingo.
I went out of pure curiosity...just to see what this was all about and I didn't expect it to involve a whole ritual, I just expected a little sweating. However, upon arrival I realized it would be more than just a little calor. When I arrived everyone was covering themselves with mud...apparently part of the tradition. Someone gave all of us cinnamon tea and there was sage burning. I decided to try out the mud part, and painted it all over my body. It felt good and we added some aloe vera to the mud. I was pretty nervous about going in due to the heat and the heavy air inside but it was actually kind of nice....well, a little uncomfortable and kind of nice, it will take some getting used to. Before going in the little girl who was hanging around (and has some sort of interesting aztec name i can't remember) covered us in sage smoke Inside we greeted everyone with "ometeo"- "lord of duality" (I'll have to research this more). Once inside the leader had us all inroduce ourselves, we sang lots of songs, and clapped and made requests/wishes for another person or group of people. The leader pays respect to the four elements: earth, wind, fire, and water during the ceremony...these are the elements that give us life and also that create the temazcal. Supposedly when you exit the temazcal it's like you're being reborn...coming out of the womb or something like that. At any rate, you come out splash some water on yourself and go to another area to lie down and to get more tea.. It was kind of cool and I did feel really good afterwards. At any rate, an interesting cultural experience and I'll probably go back in two weeks for another dose.