After days of sea turtle wonderment and awe , we were headed back via boat to the seaport city of Limon .The Lucky River that had delivered us to Tortugero would soon reunite us with Limon. I soon found my awe and wonderment replaced with a strong desire and fixation on one thing, sitting in a bath tub full of hot water. My body was hungry to sit in a tub full of hot water. My pores and muscles ached in places that I did not know existed. After days and weeks of outdoor showers and indoor showers with hot water electric shower heaters I yearned to sit and soak and reflect on this wondrous, magical journey that was fast becoming a healing for me. Until Costa Rica, I didn’t know electric hot water showers existed until I had the experience here in Costa Rica. I yearned for the real deal water . There was only one place in Limon for that, Villas del Caribe , a Swiss built and owned luxury resort which was unheard especially in the time we were there. At the time, The Villas offered a high standard of”Swiss” cleanliness among the highest in the world which is part of their cultural discipline and comfort for $250 per night. It was one of early European-managed option in the area and the only one of its kind.I was traveling with a “rainy day fund” just for a moment like this. Listening to my body, I was hungry ,eager, excited and emotionally desperate for an experience of feeling decadent and pampered at the same time. Never did I fathom we would be turned away.

I should have seen the signs. They were right there in front of the hotel, dozens of luxury European cars, Range Rovers, Mercedes. Continuing on with one goal in mind, we disregarded all the obvious signs. Arriving at the front desk, we were anything but the “Swiss” standard of cleaniness and were most definitely not in the “league of luxury vehicles”. We were downright ” filthy jungle dirty” and in need of much pampering, clean clothes, a bath, and forget about clean underwear. Years later, I can still see the look from the front desk manager of distain and disgust . He looked us up and down and without hesitation turned us away. With his head shaking , saying in perfect English “there is no availability”. As we retreated from the lobby, we positioned ourselves just outside waiting ,praying for the right moment to return and ask again for a room. We were close enough to spy on the front desk and yet just out of view to be seen. Feeling strongly, the manager would soon leave, we would then approach the desk clerk. This time we had a plan. With eyes pleading, trembling hands, I was sliding $50 American dollars across the front desk. It was received with a welcoming smile and a key to the sought out luxury-a room with a real bed and a bathtub.

Soon I found myself joyfully sliding into the tub and submerging myself in a ritual that had been around long before the days of Cleopatra doing her famous milk baths. Legend has it that Cleopatra kept a herd of 700 lactating donkeys just for her daily milk bath. While I did not have access to donkey’s milk, I floated the blossoms of hibiscus in the bubble bath. Having been driven the last few years by high cortisol, this would bring much need relief and letting go reunited me with the joy of being in the “Now”. The Japanese would call this “shinto”-harmony with Nature.

Ritual baths had been around for centuries going way back to 1500 BC in the Indian Verdic texts.Long before John the Baptist immersed Christ in the Jordan River for a baptism, the Ganges River was the most sacred river in Hinduism, the world’s oldest living religion. According to Hindu legend, the river originally flowed in heaven. When King Bhagiratha prayed to the gods to bring the river to earth to wash away the sins of his ancestors, the goddess Ganga agreed to descend. To prevent her immense force from destroying the earth, the god Shiva caught her in his matted hair, allowing the waters to trickle gently into the Himalayas and across northern India.So began the ritual baths.

In Islam, the concept of ritual baths predates Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. By the 7th Century, the Ghusl was “codified by the Qur’an (Koran)and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ” to prepare believers for worship. The Ghusl is a full body ritual purification bath mandated by Islamic law to remove all impurities.

All the major religions had some form of ritual bathing. Judaism had the mikveh, Islam the Ghusl, Hinduism offered ritual baths in the holy river of the Ganges and Japanese ritual of Shinto. Japan a region of many volcanic regions with thousands of hot springs made it the perfect setting with Nature for the Japanese to soak for cleansing the soul.When and how the Japanese passion began for bathing is not clear. What is clear is that Shintoism, Japan’s native religion, and Zen Buddhism both associate water with spiritual purification.

As I soaked in the bath, my DNA immediately recalled this moment-my conversion ritual-the mikveh 20 years earlier. As my body and spirit melted into the water, I found myself saying a “berakhah”(a blessing in Hebrew) .Water had always provided me with healing. Once again I was being reunited with my past lives. Little did I know in that moment I would soon become immersed in “Shinto” . Within a year of this moment, I would be working at Ten Waves in Santa Fe, NM , a Japanese inspired bath house.