Ojo Caliente Spa and Resort

Posted by E-George on August 8, 2007

Last week Matthew took us on a well-planned first anniversary trip over a long weekend. Our first stop was the Ojo Caliente Spa and Resort, in Ojo Caliente, New Mexico. Some things to note:

Ojo Caliente is north and east of Espanola - a mere spit of a “town” that is comprised of an old church, several failed businesses, and a spa surrounding the natural hot springs which bubble up there. On one of our walks, we stopped in the near-by trinket shop which had some very beautiful jewelry and while we browsed the proprietor ordered us to eat at her new restaurant just up the road. Fearing retribution Oaxaca style, we did as we were told.

The Spa and Resort is quite nice, dates back to the50s and boasts of multiple hot spring sources, including a soda pool, an iron pool, arsenic pools, and your everyday run-of-the-mill mineral pools. Centered in the complex of these various pools is a hand-pump well that delivers nicely warmed, nearly hot, lithium water for drinking purposes. Some folks who were filling their Nalgene bottles full of it and sipping it down while neck deep in 105-degree steaming iron water. After tasting it, I concluding that if you drink enough of it you’re likely to shit a hefty mineral block before your stay is through.

The Spa portion of the resort is beautifully done, and the relaxation experience was heightened with the dueling pan flute and chimes music that wafted over the airwaves. We consented to a complimentary treatment where they stick you in a steaming hot arsenic tub for 25 minutes, and then wrap you in gauze and then wrap your gauzed ass in a wool blanket and leave you to steep for another 25 minutes. The purpose is to sweat out toxins. I sweat the HELL out of my toxins, I can say that much. They feel much improved, thank you. Later in the evening we had 50-minute massages followed by 1 hour in a private hot tub. The tub backed up to the cliff side, and in the darkness I felt mildly concerned about being attacked by pumas.

Ojo Caliente Spa and Resort, while nice, is - as are most spas - expensive to the point of stupidity, and the surroundings does not boast of sufficient outdoorsy options (such as hiking, horseback riding, biking, etc…) to make staying there more than 1 day worth while. The longest hiking trail totaled 2 miles over the least challenging terrain I’ve encountered recently. The spa eatery did not really supply spa food, but rather provided traditional NM fare in the form of much grease and much beans. Their curry couscous more closely resembled municipal-water-soaked large tapiocas tinted yellow. The service was slow, inattentive, and generally nothing to rave about.

With little to do, but plenty of chilled bottled water handy, we read. A lot. In fact, I chewed through the last Harry Potter book in the 2 days we were there.

My verdict is that if you want to go there, make it a day trip. It’s only a 2 hour drive from Albuquerque. Approximately 1 hour (or so) north are the Heron and El Vado lakes, which are quite nice, and the back-road drive there is smooth and mountainous. 2 hours north is Chama, and the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad. But that story is for another post.

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