Hammam

 

Long before we arrived in Morocco our research turned up the prevalence of “Hammams”, the Moroccan version of an American spa.  Hammams have been in existence for more than 1,000 years, though we expect their form has evolved. Today there are “public” hammams, where men and women (in separate rooms, at different times of day) sit on a floor in a steam room and sweat, scrub their own or a friends or family members backs, and rinse off.  There are also  “private” hammams where one can make an appointment in advance, sit in a private or semi-private steam room and get thoroughly scrubbed and washed. 

Today Matt, Mackenzie and Cathryn chose to check out a private Hammam.  Yesterday we made a 12:30 appointment for our introduction to the experience. 

The Hammam we visited was very fancy, and felt as nice as any American spa we’ve seen, though exotic and different in decor, and only one of the staff spoke a bit of English – as usual, French prevailed, so we felt at a bit of a loss as to where to go, what to do, how to behave.

All three of us found the experience to be delightful. Cathryn swears she lost two pounds of exfoliated skin and sweated another two pounds.  We each had a one hour massage afterwards, so came out looking like bright red, severely scrubbed people with noodles for legs, we were so relaxed. And the cost was about 1/3 of what we’d pay in the U.S.  Bob sat at a sidewalk cafe and drank coffee, engaging in his favorite past-time of people watching in foreign countries, so we de-briefed him afterwards.