That is not a serious proposition."But Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's Chief Minister, said the idea that the sovereignty of Gibraltar could be handed around between Britain and Spain was "democratically obscene". He said: "Mr Hain expects the Gibraltar government to go along to talks on the basis that we will be consulted, but that he and Spain will be free to agree whatever they choose over our heads. We don't see why we should be expected to give up our British sovereignty to buy off the Spanish blackmails and the Spanish vetoes of European business, which is really what is behind all of this."In a statement, the Gibraltar government said Mr Hain's approach seemed to be "that Gibraltar had better accept a sovereignty deal because the alternative is a pain".It said there was "no evidence" to indicate "a genuine change" in approach by Spain. "The only change by Madrid that would enable the problem to be resolved is Spain's acceptance of our right to decide our own future and that she cannot have any share of the sovereignty of any part of Gibraltar contrary to the wishes of the people of Gibraltar.". Living cheek by jowl with some 20 million Mexicans in the capital can give rise to inevitable tensions.
What better way to cope than to submit to an Aztec sauna, a brick sweat bath called a "temescal", which has become newly trendy? Living cheek by jowl with some 20 million Mexicans in the capital can give rise to inevitable tensions. What better way to cope than to submit to an Aztec sauna, a brick sweat bath called a "temescal", which has become newly trendy? Although excavations of crumbled brick ruins at Chichen Itza and Piedras Negras show that the sweat lodge has been around here for more than 1,200 years and used by both the Maya and Aztec civilisations, it is difficult to find a truly old-fashioned vapour bath built of bricks these days in Mexico City. Not so in the New Age outpost called Tepotzlan, a village an hour's drive south of the city, with its own pyramid and, some residents insist, a landing strip for UFOs.Here, resorts and private houses have revived arcane traditions and come complete with what looks like a pizza oven. Maria Laura has a temescal in her garden, and she invited me to drive down and sweat off the rigours of urban living.To enter the temescal, one climbs in on hands and knees, as if returning to a big brick womb. Some temescals can contain up to 10 people, but most are now designed for one or two bathers For this I am thankful.
I would not have wanted a crowd to witness me whimpering on my little mat in that adobe furnace. By the time I was heating up, and ready to have my skin rubbed with herbs and corn leaves before getting flushed with cold water, I was convinced that my eyeballs would melt if I dared open the lids. My problem is an overactive imagination and a slightly claustrophobic nature.I do not do well in dark confined places where the temperature rises to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50C) I kept fantasising I was being baked for someone's supper. The promise of tingling skin, free from impurities, did not do anything to ease my discomfort.A temescal is meant to heat up evil spirits and cast them out of a weakened body, and does a mean job on arthritic aches and pains as well But it is like entering the underworld. I learnt later that even the Spanish Inquisitors, who extended their campaigns to Mexico's settlers, were alarmed by the rigours of the temescal.
