Perhaps the most "Mayan" spa is located in this member of Small Leading Hotels of the World, which occupies the former estate of an Italian duchess.
Yet for all its Euro-sophistication, respect for the land and its inhabitants is palpable, right from the reception area, which duplicates a traditional Mayan home. Aroma Spa makes a fetish (in the Native American sense of a charm, that is) of utilizing all-natural, chemical-free ingredients. Perfectly round (suggesting the circle of life), in accordance with feng shui principles, no sharp corners or angles impede the flow of energy.
Nearly all the treatment ingredients - herbs, seeds, nuts, fruits, and other flora - are harvested from the surrounding garden, dedicated to Ixel, the goddess of fertility or Mother Earth. Once collected they're dried, prepared, and blended in a special room with aroma wafts through the reception area. The therapists mix them in four essential base oils as deftly as any top toque, and every morning preprare a different menu of healing waters, juices, and teas to welcome guests.
The spa uses pure indigenous aromatic plants and their extracts to "transfer the essence of the plant's soul to the human being's soul, according to Nathalie. The four elements recur throughout the treatments, as the Mayans believed each possessed unique healing powers, and in combination they instill natural balance and harmony from hot river stones loaded with minerals to detoxifying seaweed.
