Arab Baths

Yesterday I went to the arab baths here in Jerez.  When the Muslims were here in Spain, specifically the southern part, they had arab baths created.  I've seen old baths in Granada and Ronda and the one in Granada was super small and not that impressive.  When my mom and sister came we found one in Ronda which was a lot bigger and there was even a short video that explained the baths.  The Muslims would generally use them before they went off to prayer since you have to clean off at least your hands and feet before entering a mosque (Muslims still do this today).  This meant that the mosque and baths were close by each other.

A picture of the old arab baths in Ronda, although it's not my picture

When I first got to the bath you received a towel and these latex slippers to put on.  I had to go into a girls locker room that had three showers and a bathroom so I could change into my bathing suit and they asked to shower off before going into the baths.  There are three different types of baths: a warm, hot, and cold one.  You rotate every so often starting with the warm and ending with the cold until you start over again.  There were only a few other people there so it wasn't awkward and it had dim lighting and Middle Eastern music playing in the background.  The warm bath was shallow and felt more like warm bath water.  My body kept wanting to float, but overall it felt pretty nice.  The next pool was the hot one, although it wasn't as hot as I thought.  I was thinking more along the lines of hot tub hot water, but it was the best feeling one and it was a little deeper.  The last one was the cold water one and this was the smallest one.  Usually only one person went in at a time since it was so small and it was so cold so not that many people stayed in it for a long time.  You kept doing this rotation until they called your name if you got a massage, which I did, but only a 15 minute one which was plenty.  It was my first massage ever and I felt kind of nervous.  It kind of weirds me out that a random person is touching you and sometimes they did little moves that made me feel even more tense when it should be in fact the opposite.  After the massage you can shower off and they had Morroccan mint tea which tasted pretty good.  I'm not a huge fan of tea, but I did like this kind.  Overall it was pretty relaxing and a good cultural experience.

What a modern Arab bath looks like