This month’s Spa of the Month:

Opened in February 2008, The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya offers the finest facilities in a stunning location. It caters to resort guests with an extensive menu of treatments and the best fitness and wellness facilities—all combined with a blend of Mexican and oriental hospitality. Serious spa goers are pampered with longer therapeutic programs and a series of wellness and yoga retreats.
With a mixture of indoor and outdoor spaces the spa is alive with nature, delighting all of the senses. Guests can see lush verdant tropical plants and bushes and observe the local animals as they take an inquisitive look at their new neighbors. There are bananas growing alongside the Watsu pool, which are made into delicious smoothies at Café Mayana, the spa cafe. The sound of birds in the early morning sitting in the trees at the front of the spa reception sometimes drowns out the spa music coming from the reception palapa. The smell of cleansing copal incense drifts across the spa, offering a welcome to a wonderful area of wellness, relaxation and ancient Mayan philosophies and rituals.
Following the holistic path towards wellness, the three harmonized wellness facilities are perfect for assisting guests through the journey from stiffness—physical or emotional—towards relaxation and wellbeing. The top of the line cardio and strength area and the two latest sets of kinesis work stations are extremely popular and impressive for guests.

Healing methods

Visitors also receive a unique experience while practicing a selection of complimentary yoga and meditation sessions, which are conducted by resident yoga teachers. The Buddha stands casting an eye over proceedings in the yoga studio, silhouetted against the glass and illuminated by lights from the trickling water beneath, the perfect location to search for samadhi.
The treatment menu here contains a number of rituals drawn from the Mayan culture. The Mayans—much like the Aztecs of Mid Mexico and Incas of South America—established beliefs and methods of healing that are still found and used today. The spa’s very own Mandala Garden grows herbs for use in these rituals, and guests are invited to walk with their therapist to select the herbs to be used in their treatment.
The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya offers several Mayan specialties. The Tzolkin Ritual is inspired by the power and strength of the natural elements and the lunar calendar. It focuses on the balancing of the body’s energies.

The shaman leads you through four 15 minute doors, dousing the rocks with herbs and water and leading you in chants and meditation, guiding your own experience in the heat and the dark.

The Na Lu’um Massage is a traditional Mayan massage technique focusing on the abdomen, an area that stores and processes many of our emotions. The treatment is a powerful aid for alleviating digestive problems and back pain.

The ultimate Mayan experience

Of course no spa in this region would be complete without its very own temazcal. Here, we walk you through this unique experience. After a 45 minute scalp, shoulder and foot massage, you are aware of the cleansing smell of the copal incense wafting through the door of the couple’s suite. Dressed in swimwear and a robe you are invited to follow the waiting spa attendant leading you with a cloud of cleansing smoke towards the temazcal. It is a three minute walk from the spa, set in its own dedicated ground alongside the ancient natural cenote—a deep well. The iguanas fall back from the area, allowing you access to their playground just for a short time. Waiting at the end of the walk is the Mayan shaman dressed simply in white. As the shaman offers a reassuring smile, the smoke from the wood burning fire heats the already warm air and the volcanic rocks, which soon will be part of your experience.
After a brief introduction you are led to an area behind the temazcal for a thanksgiving ceremony. The shaman asks you to join him as he addresses the four cardinal points and offers thanks to nature with the blowing of a conch shell. From here you arrive at the door of the dome shaped temazcal and the shaman invites you inside. The structure is made of clay and the seating is below ground level on a wooden bench. A pit of large volcanic rocks lays in the center of the room. The door is closed behind you and is only reopened to welcome the hombre de fuego (man of fire) who arrives with hot red rocks on a special fork for the center pit, building the heat throughout the session. The shaman leads you through four 15 minute doors,
dousing the rocks with herbs and water and leading you in chants and meditation, guiding your own experience in the heat and the dark. Some people see shapes, some relax completely, some use the experience to overcome fears or to grow stronger—you will create your own journey. Everybody emerges from the ritual wide eyed and ready to refresh in the outdoor rain shower, cleansed and purified.
Rest assured that even the hardiest cynic will find himself chanting and listening intently to the words of the shaman. Your experience is completed with a phase of relaxation, listening to the shaman’s song while satisfying the body’s craving for water and the sweetness of chilled fruit coated in Mayan honey. As you leave the area along the path back to the spa, the aroma of the wood smoke drifts into the distance, the beats of the drum die away and the animals return to investigate anything you may have left behind. The area is so magical you have the sense that if you turned and looked back this place might not really exist!

Asian and Mexican blend in the spa

Oversized heat and water facilities in each changing room give guests the opportunity to enhance their treatment journey. As night falls the spa takes on an even more beautiful appearance—candles flicker by the outside pool, lights give a new richness to the landscape and the walk to the comfort of the treatment suite with your therapist is the perfect way to leave your worries behind and start your treatment experience.
The combination of the Asian and Mexican cultures is evident in the spa. From the design of the treatment menu, to the belief in health and well-being derived from ancient beliefs, practices and ceremonies, the two civilizations go hand in hand. And of course the spa also merges the genuine warmth of the Mexican people with a ritualized process of welcome and care so important to the Asian culture.
The Mexico of today is born from the ancient diverse peoples who inhabited this land and formed societies and ways of living and believing: in the west the Zapoteco, in the center the Aztecs and in the east the Mayans. The rituals that have been designed at the spa pay homage to the teachings of the ancient Maya and their beliefs—they offer a mixture of local massage techniques and a link to elements such as the Mayan lunar calendar. These sit comfortably alongside the practices of shiatsu and Thai massage, which work along with the principles of meridians and chakras. Guests can also choose from two guided water therapies that bear many similarities: Watsu, with its roots in Asian shiatsu therapy, and Janzu, meaning pacific water in Chinese and practiced in many areas of Mexico.
However, it is the temazcal that really provides a link to past cultures. Similar to many Asian countries, the temazcal represents something from a preconquered era that has now become popular among guests.

Warm heritage

The spa’s Oriental selection of treatments is also extremely popular. From the presentation tray carried by the therapist to the ingredients in the foot ritual scrub, the East is ever present. Even though local flowers and herbs replace their Asian equivalents in combination with oriental oils, the sensation of delighting the senses remains the same.
Spa staff have embraced the Oriental principles and pillars of Mandarin Oriental and combined them with a genuine warm, Mexican welcome. There is a shared responsibility here and a feeling of wanting to go further for every guest and find a way to make their experience extra special. While Asian rituals and traditions are respected, there is also space for Mexican and Latin elements to shine through. Since the spa is in Mexico, the spa team is keen to share with guests the heritage of their past and to offer an insight into Latin America and its diverse cultures.

As for the spa’s layout—there is running water, airy, bright spaces surrounded by natural vegetation, animals, birds and colors throughout. The spa has a wonderful blend of cultures in its design. Rich woods and stones combined with natural regional products have created a space of diversity and comfortable luxury. Asian touches abound: the Japanese style doors in the kinesis and wet areas, the Buddha presiding over the yoga studio, the Watsu pool, the Thai suite and of course Chairman Mao watching over your workout. In all, The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya provides for an all encompassing wellness experience designed to meet every guest’s needs.

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Km. 298.8 Carretera #307, Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico 77710, 800.526.6566, www.mandarinoriental.com/rivieramaya.

Photos provided by Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Mexico

Clive McNish is the spa director of The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya. He holds a diploma from the Fellowship of Sports Massage Therapists and numerous certifications in nutrition and weight training, people management, health and safety, food hygiene, first aid and others.