Hydrotherapy or Peruvian Water Torture?

This post is for my sister who might better understand the benefits of hydrotherapy.   So after a night of room service, relaxation and sleeping in past 7am, all I needed was a relaxing massage.   I decided on one of the spa’s “luxury therapies”, the Yucamani Stones.   It was a 2 hour treatment for the bargain price of $125 US dollars.  It was a combination of hydrotherapy followed by an hour massage with hot and cold stones. 

The treatment started out nicely with some time spent in the dry sauna (10 minutes).   After that I had a choice of the cold shower or the ice tower.  Neither sounded relaxing.   I had just come from having lots of cold showers in the Amazon and now I was paying to take a cold shower?!   The ice tower didn’t sound like a great option either.  However, I decided on the ice tower after I was informed all I had to do was place some shaved ice on any places that ached or were tense.  That was followed by  10-15 minutes in the steam room.   As I settled into the steam room, they actually brought in fresh eucalyptus leaves!  Aaahhh, what a nice touch.    Now, back to the ice tower, ugggh!

It was time to head to the pool.  They actually had these metal chairs, kind of like lounge chairs at one end of the pool.  I was told to pick a chair and relax.   I thought this will be nice.   Then they turned on these jets and water jetted out everywhere, including in my face, in my eyes and in my ears.  Plus as we all know, we tend to float in the water so I had to hold on tightly to the chair to keep from being pushed off!  Not as relaxing as I initially thought.  This was followed by a few minutes standing in this small circular wall in the middle of the pool as water shot up at all angles.  I honestly thought it was going to blow my bathing suit off.   Then at the other end of the pool, I stood under a water fall that pounded on my neck and shoulders.  Finally time to get out of this crazy pool, only to discover I now had to walk down a few steps into ICE WATER.   Finally, time to get into the hot Jacuzzi.    Ahhhhh this is more like it. 

After the Jacuzzi, it was time to go back down the steps into the ICE WATER.  It must be time for my massage by now.   Oh, but a quick shower first.  I was told to step into the shower and push button 1.  I stepped in, pushed button 1 and cold water starting pouring down!   After a few minutes it shut off automatically.  Now I was told to step into the next shower and push button 1 again.  There were four separate showers in all, primarily cold water, each focusing on pouring, shooting or pounding cold water on certain areas (legs, arms, neck and shoulders).   I was really starting to feel like this was some form of Peruvian water torture and I paid for this!  Finally, a walk across some cold stones as water shot out pounding on my legs.

Finally it was time for my massage.   The massage was absolutely amazing!   I was instantly relaxed.  Those hot stones felt so nice after all that hot/cold/hot cold treatment.   My massage was over an hour and I still didn’t want it to end.   After the massage I was led to a wooden lounge like chair to sit and relax.  As I sat down, the therapist plugged something in and suddenly the chair began to heat up.  I was ready to take a nap!