I have to clarify beforehand that I really like everything that happens to me when I bathe in hot springs. I could say that I have a certain facility to fill myself with stress from time to time, either due to overwork or frustrations, and that the thermal baths work as a catalyst that makes me feel better physically and spiritually.
My experience at the
Cacheuta hot springs spa occurred a few years ago when I was sent for work for a week to perform an audit in 5 hotels with vineyards in Mendoza.
On Friday night, when my last workday was over, at the farewell dinner, a colleague told me that she was going to the hot springs and asked me if I wanted to accompany her. I was tired and I doubted it but I felt that I had to accept the invitation.
On Saturday morning we went to look for a transfer that included the pick up from the hotels in the city of Mendoza. It took us forty minutes to make the journey to the thermal spa, which is located in an arid valley next to the Mendoza River. We were dropped off in the parking lot and the first thing that caught my eye was the vintage wooden construction of both the resort hotel and the thermal center.
They explained a little how the place works and accompanied us to the entrance of the hot springs to give us a toweling gown to put on our bathing suit and start the tour.
They suggested a circuit that went like this: Sauna underground in a natural cavern, Finnish bath with cold water, exit and entrance to one of the internal pools with waters between 35 and 42 degrees Celsius. Then the mud bath that one ends up cleaning in a Scottish shower. By the end of the tour I felt better. With a constant smile. Then I settled under a waterfall to enjoy how I was hitting and massaging my back and shoulders.
When I realized it was already noon and we went to lunch. The variety of food was very wide. There were to choose from at a self-service buffet. I was not staying at the hotel, had I been, after lunch I would have taken a nap in the room. To me it was the turn of the massage that I had included in my excursion.
The masseuse did a tremendous job. It was an hour that I wanted it to never end. When I came out of the massage room wrapped in a soft towel walking in the autumn sun on my way to the outdoor thermal pools overlooking the river and mountains I seriously felt that my life would make more sense if I always felt the way I was feeling in that moment.
I spent the rest of the afternoon inside the stone pools filled with warm water, talking with my coworker and with casual colleagues on a thermal afternoon looking at the nearby Andes mountain range.
When night fell we were taken back to our hotel. That night I went to bed early after a light dinner and slept as long as I couldn't. The next day I felt full of energy.