17th of july

after seeing at our school that the students get a 30% discount on the spa treatments at this one particular place it was quite obvious for marianne and me that we should pick something interesting and head off to the spa in the mountains. our final choice lay in something called temascal which is appearently a ritual that mayas performed in order to purify the body and the soul. it sounded fascinating enough and the price of 25 dollars is also manageable.

after some 30 min of an extremely bumpy road in the mountains we finally came to the spa itself. it was situated in the midst of a coffee plantation, perfectly fitting in its natural environment. the quality of the buildings and a pool was though what one could easily have at a summer house in finland and a vapor sauna did not impress us that much, but we came there after all in order to experience temascal. so temascal was what could be called an igglo in the middle of an open-air space and the idea is to enter it, sit down and enjoy the aroma therapy. the floor is covered in flower petals and plant leaves and in the middle of the floor there are hot stones where a person is constantly sprinkling some water with even more scents and the whole place is slowly being filled with fumes and vapor of different plants and flowers. the idea is to relax and mediate there for an hour in order to release the stress and leave the place in a good mood and relaxed. in our case this relaxation certainly happened, as we barely could stay awake during the classes. marianne has been complaining every day how she is so tired here in copan, well after temascal she was practically sleep walking all day :) the procedure was though totally worth the money and it was a very calming experience. extra points for the beauty and tranquility of the place.