Maroma Hotel

Relaxing and healing, ancient temazcals are part of many spa programs at Riviera Maya hotels and resorts. 

Riviera Maya's Spas: Feel the Heat

Much of the Riviera Maya’s appeal stems from the ancient Mayan culture. Perhaps the best way to connect directly is to be immersed in it—literally—when you sweat according to tradition. Do it in a Mayan temazcal, a time-honored ritual that mirrors the extreme saunas of Finland or the sweat lodges of Native North Americans.

I take my temazcal under the guidance of Nancy Aguilar, a shaman and healer trained by her shamanic grandfather in the traditional ways of their people. Hired by Maroma, an intimate resort first conceived by a Mexican architect as a home and built into the mangrove jungle along a perfect beach, Aguilar designed the pyramid-shaped building that sits by the sea, just steps from the hotel hubbub. For many years she has led guests here in a temazcal ritual at dusk.

Just as red-belted groundskeepers light a thousand candles throughout the property, Aguilar rings a bell calling guests from play to solitude, if they so choose. I arrive tentative, but Aguilar relieves my anxiety when she tells me a funny story about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair and his wife attended the temazcal under Aguilar’s direction. So moved by the event, the couple invited her to dinner. She joined them, unaware of their identity. “All I knew,” Aguilar says, “is that he was a minister. So I said, ‘What sort of minister are you?’ ‘Oh,’ says Blair, no doubt surprised to not be recognized, ‘I am not a church minister, but the prime minister—of England.’”

Still pervasively linked to everyday life, locals use the temazcal to detox, to socialize, to clarify the mind and to pray. Many Mayan women still use it for childbirth.

Like all Mayan architecture, this temazcal is steeped in symbolism. It faces east to represent childhood and the start of the new day. Animal figures adorn the façade, each side representing a different station in life. As we enter, a scantily clothed man blows a conch shell in each direction, a nod to the journey we are about to take.

Inside, we gather around heated lava rocks from Popocatépetl. Surrounding us, rugged bowls filled with water add cool contrast to the rising fiery temperatures. Aguilar carefully explains what we should expect, and we manage a good hour in the heat, inhaling herb-infused air, chanting in Mayan and gazing into the fire.

We rub clay on our faces and arms, eat fruit for hydration and, at last, when the door opens, we follow Aguilar to the ocean and ease ourselves into the cool waves of the sea, as did the Mayans of yore.

By this time, only the star-studded sky and the flickering candles of the resort light the beach.

Many resorts in Riviera Maya feature temazcals as part of their spa packages. One of our favorites is at the Maroma Hotel (maromahotel.com), featured here.