story and photos by Kayte Deioma

Santa Fe is blessed with an abundance of outstanding holistic healing and spa facilities, based on Japanese, Swedish and even Native American healing modalities. A spa experience is great when you’re traveling alone, but it’s also a wonderful bonding experience between couples or friends. It can even be a great multi-generational family experience. Many of the Santa Fe spas have facilities where couples can get a massage in the same room. Hot tubs and steam rooms accommodate groups. Spa salons allow girlfriends to gossip over a manicure or pedicure.

My friend Julie and I decide to try out the new Nidah Spa which opened December 2004 at Santa Fe’s Eldorado Hotel. Nidah is the Apache word for “your life.” Nidah’s spa treatments are based on the sacred directions of the Native American medicine wheel.

Treatments based on the North are restorative, with their roots in the restful stillness of winter. Herbal ingredients are chosen to “relax the body and encourage tense bodies to ‘cool down.'”

East treatments use stimulating spring herbs to rejuvenate and renew body and mind and include a Tomato-Maize Facial or an East Winds massage.

South treatments, like the Chili and Honey Rub, are designed to instill the energy and vitality of summer.

West treatments are designed to purify and detoxify. West massages can include essential oils designed for High Altitude Relief, Feminine Rescue or General Detoxification; or you can choose a Purification Wrap using a Blue Corn and Anasazi Bean Cleanse.

In addition to the four compass points, the Native American medicine wheel counts the Center as the fifth direction. Golden Center treatments represent the earth. They are designed to support all the other directions and bring optimum balance. As much as we both appreciate having our energies balanced, Julie and I both choose the Golden Center Chocolate Mole Mud Wrap as much for the pleasure of being wrapped in chocolate as for its balancing effect.

After a quick visit to the steam room to open our pores, Julie and I experiment with the hot and cold herbal E.lix.rs in the Elixir Lounge. Spa technician Irene Truitt comes to escort me into a treatment room where I am welcomed by the delicious aroma of cocoa.

The treatment begins with a dry body brush “to energize the lymph.” Then the warm Sedona mud mixed with cocoa, cumin, cinnamon and nutmeg is slathered over my body. Its creamy smooth texture is much more chocolaty than muddy. Irene works fast to apply the warm mole mud before it cools, then wraps me in warm layers of wool and Mylar to keep in the heat. I am feeling like a cross between a chocolate truffle and a well-wrapped mole enchilada.

While I bask in the warm mud wrap, Irene unravels my curls and begins arelaxing scalp massage. She adds a hot stone behind my neck to release the muscles. Then my feet become the subject of her attention with a decadent foot massage. Twenty minutes later I use the shower in the treatment room to shower off the mole mud, then relax on the massage table for a half-hour back massage with my selection of scented or unscented lotion to work out the remaining kinks. The final touch is a layer of the Spa’s signature “Spun Gold” body lotion which leaves a glittery golden sheen on my skin.

Back in the locker room I experiment with the spa’s variety of hair products to get my wild curls back under control before changing to head up to my room. Julie is still raving about the foot massage. A woman in the elevator asks about our treatment. “You look refreshed.” She says. She’s been considering the avocado facial. By the time we reach the fifth floor I think she’s leaning toward a Chocolate Mole Mud Wrap.

The sun came out so we ventured outside after our spa experience, but if it’s still raining, lunch at the Eldorado Court restaurant might be in order. For dinner, the hotel’s much-lauded Old House Restaurant can keep you well-fed and dry. In between you can check out the fitness center on the fifth floor, or lounge in front of the kiva fireplace in your deluxe room. Drinks in the Lobby Lounge are accompanied by live music nightly.

For more information, visit www.eldoradohotel.com