Three and half years ago I spent a week with an ex-boyfriend in Taos, New Mexico. The whole weekend was like a dream but Ojo Caliente has stayed with me. 12 different minerals gather in this place to create the most rejuvenating hot springs in North Amercia. These 12 minerals do not gather in the same place anywhere else on planet earth. They tell you here that SPA stands for Salud Per Aqua, Latin for 'health through water'. We traveled south of Taos and the Rio Grande into the middle of the dessert. My memories are faint and dream-like but I remember sitting in the pool filled from a Lithia Spring, looking to one side and seeing the expanse of desert and looking to the other and seeing the expanse of red canyon walls towering above me. Since that trip I have known that I belong in New Mexico. In Taos. Someday I will be a wild haired old woman living alone and in love with the dessert and Taos Mountain.
On Wednesday of this week my heart dropped to the floor and tears came to my eyes as I audibly gasped in the middle of my office. Emily, my dear friend and road trip companion, notified me by email that she is moving to New Mexico. I have only had this job for a month and tears started to well up in my eyes. I am loosing Emily but will get to go visit. She will get to go to amazing wonderful beauty places. Natural Spas like Ojo Calinete where you immerse your whole body in a swimming pool sized mud bath and bake dry under the dessert sun. I can go visit. But more than I am sad to loose Emily (I know she will be back and we will have more adventures together), I miss that I am not living in New Mexico, visiting various health spas and Canyon Ranch-esque places. Until that day I will sit here at my humble location in Chapel Hill and write my little heart out about new beauty products and spas. And I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I can't wait to write about my trip with Emily to Ojo Caliente.
6 comments:
Ohhhhh....and 10,000 Waves in Santa Fe! Jude
I spent a week in Ojo Caliente also. Drinking the "Arsenic Spring" water and sitting in private baths as well as the public mud baths and hot springs. Then having dinner at the fire pits and meeting other New Mexicans before going back into the springs before bed. I've never felt so at home. I also belong in Taos. I couldn't believe I saw the words Ojo Caliente in your blog. I continue to look at land there.
Have you been to Arroyo Secco?
Arroyo Seco is great too! My ex and I thought about moving to that part of town as well! I thought I sensed a small-town western-girl kindred spirit in you! I think Carrboro is the only place to find a trace of that on the East Coast.
Have you booked your plane ticket yet? I'm feeling an advance need for some hot springs action!
Me too! If my boss approves the dates for May, I'm booking on MONDAY!!!!!!
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