Before I begin my story let me talk lightly on the Temazcal obviously am not an expert in history, much less in Mesoamerican traditions, etc. and tell you all what is my experience and opinion about Temazcal, for all those fans who are not from Mexico.
Well, roughly Temazcal is a kind of sauna bath house designed by ancient Mesoamerican peoples (as might be the Maya or Nahuatl), naturally with certain rituals to perform within it. In my personal experience, you go in a bathing suit and a mixed (men and women), going to a place made of mud and or other material for style, this place has no windows or other opening than the front door, is circular and there is a bench across the shore. People sit on that bench, while watching the coals and hot stones in the center. Finally, the person driving the Temazcal closes the door and everything goes dark and silent. This person pours water with some herbs to stones, creating a very pleasant aroma steam. Then they can be certain thoughts or talks within the Temazcal, I've had varied from fairly deep talks rituals, to simply the enjoyment of being in a place like this.
The heat can become intense thing, and certainly exhausting, leaving the Temazcal you feel the freshness of the environment (in my case was in Veracruz), then one must take a shower with cold water to stop the process, which leaves one with a sense of unique tranquility and inner peace.
Well, this brief and incomplete account of Temazcal comes up because in Russia have their own tradition about the sauna, I mean the banya. It is very common for people in Russia have a house of "field" or Dacha, say that is the equivalent of homes in Cuernavaca that many people in Mexico City comes to own, a place to escape the stress of city \u200b\u200band can relax, even on weekends or short periods of time.
Dacha interesting thing about is that many people take to plant things in the garden, as I came to talk, some vegetables, berries (it's quite common for them to have their own jellies and jams made from the berries in their gardens), I imagine that some fruits, etc.. everything that can be given in these latitudes before the onset of winter. And as a good place for rest, recreation and quiet, could not miss the Banya, as opposed to Cuernavaca, there would be a very suitable place to have an outdoor pool (unless you want ice skating a good part of the year .)
Well However, the Banya is a small room located outside the Dacha but within the same field that point, the room is separated into two, a dresser and the implications of the Banya itself, which is the principle very similar to the sauna.
The Banya tried it two weeks ago with the father of Masha (the girl with whom I was staying) and Bryan, another guy who was also staying with us. Both Bryan and I were first-timers in this matter, and Masha's father (Vladimir) do not speak English, and then our Russian was little more than bad, so gradually and based on gestures and how little we understood we were following indications.
We left the Dacha
garden at -20 ° C approx. and we go to Banya, entered the station, and we strip away all the clothes to be as it came to the world as a simple mass of skin and hair, then Vladimir had already prepared everything in Banya, so only we had to go. Within the Banya, it is difficult to describe, a number of seats at different heights from the ground, and a kind of oven, too hot stone, radiating in a way never experienced in my life was like taking a walk at noon Mexicali during the heatwave.
Vladimir gave us some indications and we sat on the bench three highest, leaving our heads (the thinking) about 15 ~ 20 cm from the ceiling. At first it was extremely hot but bearable, but they did not even two minutes when I started to feel an intense burning in the eyes and ears. At that time Vladimir fell from the banks and smaller banks dipped, which was almost flush with the floor, I leaned over to put his head almost to the knees, the heat was unbearable, I felt I was literally cooked alive, I can not describe the feeling, but I could swear I was about 60 ° C in that part of Banya, really was too much, you could not even focus well in sight.
Bryan and I went down and sat on the small bench near the floor, there the heat was much more tolerable, about 40 ° C I count, and began to throw us out buckets of water, warm of course, the interesting thing is that there were two faucets, one red, cold water, and blue, hot water, which I discovered in a bad way to fill one of the tubs of water and burned holy me back, finally, I should have tested the water before echármela above. We
cooled with water several times until Vladimir told me to come back up to the highest bench, that disturbed me a bit, as it came to my mind again so intense ardor. I went, but this time told me to lie down on the bench, his head as far away the oven, I did, and then Vladimir took a bunch of herbs and began to shake from my body. After a while he got off the bench and did the same with Bryan.
then told us that we left the dressing room. We went out and I was about to take my towel, but I stopped him, this had not yet. We sat in chairs that were there, and we cooled down a bit, I consider that the temperature at the station was above 10 degrees, but did not reach 20 degrees, something fresh. We relaxed a little, drink a glass of orange juice that was there, and then the unexpected happened. Vladimir
opened the front door and told us to get out in the open, and we did, if we go naked in the garden, at -20 ° C, then we come to a railing that was right up front, we took a little snow and we spread it to us in the limbs and face to chill, this time I can not describe in great detail the sensations, but I can assure you he was not too cold, the body in some way was a bit unbalanced I guess, from the extreme heat and extreme cold as that caused no major problem, however, only were a couple of minutes in the open.
re-enter the Banya, and continued to shoot water ritual while we supported the intense heat, but now also we took bunches of herbs and we los "azotábamos" en todo el cuerpo, obvio de una manera gentil, tampoco era sadomasoquismo. Después de un rato otra vez salimos al vestidor, y nuevamente a la intemperie.
Repetimos el proceso unas cuatro o cinco veces, yo estimo que en total estuvimos entre hora y media y dos horas en el Banya, lo que si, aunque suene muy extraño, al llegar a Kazan tenía una leve infección en la garganta, y me agoté los antibioticos que llevaba y no terminaba de curarme, y después del Banya, prácticamente me curé al 100%, no se si las bacterias también sean muy sensibles a los cambios extremos de temperaturas, ya que ir de +40°C (por vernos conservadores, pero se que era mucho más) a -20°C suddenly not everyone is patient.
What I, as the Temazcal, Banya after we take to the room, and I can not remember if I fell asleep or at least if extremely relaxed, no doubt it is something like a Temazcal but taken to extremes, even a friend from around here told me that in some regions of Siberia, enduring one Banya causes the local people catch you respect.
I hope you enjoyed this story, come
comments 
0 comments:
Post a Comment