Casablanca Hotel Natural Spa

While checking into our hotel, called La Casa Blanca (The White House), the receptionist gave us a rundown of all the amenities. “The hotel offers a fitness center, free High-Speed Internet, a spa (which includes a sauna and seven aroma therapy rooms), breakfast and dinner are included, a pool table, a ping pong table and a swimming pool. The swimming pool is not heated.” We got the feeling that the swimming pool was a hot button issue in the hotel. We figured the colder the pool, the more private it would be. This particular hotel was priced at $53USD a night. “I can’t believe we get two meals a day, my own room, swimming pool and a spa for such a low price. This same hotel would be $150USD a night per person in California,” exclaimed my mom. “Welcome to Colombia,” would have been my dream response from the receptionist. Instead she went with the standard “A la orden” (at your service). After dashing to our rooms, we quickly got ready to have dinner. The hotel had a nice restaurant upstairs and we choose the table closest to the window facing the road. It was that point that we really felt like we had settled in. During the meal we discussed our families. Kary told my mom that her father was a very hard-worker, always has supported the family, he used to drink 15 cups of coffee a day but isn’t the kind of father who would take the whole family to the park on Sundays. My mother then discussed her experience with her parents getting a divorce when she was 16 and how her stepfather was mostly angry all the time and drank too much. It was the stuff of made for TV movies but I was pleased that the three of us, despite speaking different languages were able to have interesting dinner topics. My mom also asked what the things each of us were attracted to in the other person. I made a list of 10 things. 1) I really admire the unity of Kary’s family 2) Kary is very pretty 3) She is a hard worker 4) She is in a good mood 99% of the time 5) She is interested in visiting and living in Korea 6) She went to a party for foreigners with me in Bogotá and was very nice to all the Germans and Irish there. She also had a lot of fun interacting with the different races 7) She cooks great and healthy meals 8) Her siblings all have very professional jobs 9) She thinks I am funny 10) She doesn’t mind watching movies in English with Spanish subtitles Kary then gave a list of things she liked about me. 1) Brian is very noble 2) He always pampers me 3) He is a hard worker, always wakes up at 4am, I would prefer a little later but I am glad he is working 4) He helps with the house work 5) He isn’t a machista (male chauvinist) 6) He likes hanging out and doing things 7) He is good to his mother, add she added, “My grandmother says the most important thing about knowing how a person is inside is to see how they interact with their mother.” After each of us submitted out lists we discussed our pet peeves we had with each other. The thing I do that makes Kary upset is not washing out the sink after I wash the dishes. The thing she does to make me upset is putting uncovered pasta into the refrigerator to be eaten later.Image The following morning we were all up at 7am and back in the restaurant. My mom started off the conversation. “Do you want to hear about the dream I had last night?” “Sure,” I replied. “I was visiting funeral homes for some relatives who were very sick. I finally found one I really liked but I found out that this particular funeral parlor was contaminating the river behind the property so suddenly I wanted to chose another. Then for some reason there was a Japanese funeral going on in another room and I got up on stage and took the mic.” The day was off to quite a start. My mother got served two cups of coffee and Kary and I drank hot chocolate with our eggs and beef soup. While having breakfast we were treated to a parade of cows commuting down the main street. After breakfast we went for a bike ride around the lake. The ride was a nice break from walking and driving every place. Most of the lake had a separate roads for cyclists and cars. After touring the lake we decided to bike over a hill to see if we could find any waterfalls. Since seeing a huge blowup of a photo of waterfalls in the hotel, we had become obsessed with the idea that there must be some waterfalls close by. We rode around for another hour, talking to anyone who would listen about the waterfalls. Out of five different people we talked to nobody knew anything about any waterfalls. We were all dressed in pants and sweatshirts at that point due to the cool morning, so instead of biking around during the heat of the day, we decided to return the bikes and then go back to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel it was nearly noon. We decided to all jump in the pool. Once again, there was nobody near the pool. After we jumped in we realized why. It was pretty brisk. I could only stand being in the pool for about 6 minutes. Kary on the other hand loved the temperature because for her it was great for “toning.” So, my mom and I sat at a table by the pool as Kary swam a few laps. While we were talking, my mother asked when was the last time I played ping pong. “Good question, the last time I played Ping Pong, I played the 5th ranked ping pong player under 13 in the USA.” “Did you beat him?” asked my mom. “Of course he had a broken arm at the time. I asked him how he got the broken arm. His response was, ‘My brother pushed me.’ Since the accident his brother was able to rise in the ranking to become the 3rd ranked player under 13. You want to know his name?” “The name of the brother, or the guy you played?” asked my mom trying to follow the story. “The guy I played in a ping pong tournament in Florida at Club Adriatic was named Adar Alguetti. He had a broken arm during the tournament which disabled hir right and dominant hand. He is actually from Israel and I believe he is the #1 player under 13 in Israel. And luckily for me he was using his non-dominant hand to play me, I am happy to say I beat him. Maybe you want to get a game now?” So, I went to receptionist and grabbed a few racquets and a ball. We played a few games in bare feet and wet swimsuits. A few minutes later the poor receptionist came into the ping pong area and very apologetically asked, “Is it possible to wear sandals while playing, we don’t want to have an accident.” “Everyone is so nice here,” remarked my mother as we went back to our table to put on some sandals. We played a few games until about 2pm. My mom asked to go back to her room for 2 hours to take a rest until they opened the spa at 4pm. Kary and I did the same and we agreed to meet back at my mom’s room at 4pm. At 4pm we were back with my mom heading down to the spa area. In accordance with the rules we were all wearing blue swim caps. The spa area was very relaxing, they had tea out for the guests, nice music playing and padded lounge chairs. They also had seven different aroma-therapy steam rooms and a suana. I decided to take a quick shower before we first jumped into the sauna. As soon as we got into the sauna we all threw down our towels and sat on a bench. I leaned back on the bench and touched my to the wooden back rest. It was pretty toasty. After three minutes we went to the first aroma therapy area. This one had plastic chair which were a lot more comfortable. So we sat in our chair and breathed in the “Manzanilla” (little apple) scents. “These aroma therapy scents are all natural?” explained Kary as she pulled a few twigs and leaves out of the box producing the steam. “I can’t tell you how much I object to artificial manzanilla scents when I go to a steam room,” was what I wanted to say but was too relaxed, instead I just nodded as I inhaled the steam into my lungs. The next morning we decided to get on a bus to Villa de Leyva where we were looking forward to showing my mom more livestock and more guys with no shirts on working on their tractors. So, we boarded the 9am bus to Villa de Leyva.