Tingling feet

Another new experience this evening: I had a pedicure, entirely conducted in Spanish, from a Nicaraguan lady called Socorro. The procedure took place in her son's and his girlfriend's back garden, my feet being soaked in a washing up bowl and then treated on Socorro's lap with a variety of equipment including something that looked just like a cheese grater as she sat on a low stool in front of me. She applied a gritty cream and a smooth cream and three layers of varnish and as she pared the nails (uños de los pies) her son handed me a hamburger to eat from his barbecue. My feet now look cleaner and smarter than they have done for years.

All this was a very kind thank you from a family of six whom Chris had taken flying in PTN last weekend, not all at once. They are planning to move to Nicaragua later this year to take up organic farming (pigs, chickens and coconuts) on a smallholding near a volcano.

My feet were tingling earlier this month as well, while we were staying at Bad Pyrmont, a spa town in Germany where there's a barefoot walk for therapeutic purposes in the Kurpark. Here's the description of its benefits in German:

Bei der Benutzung des Barfusspfades wird der Tastsinn trainiert, d.h. die taktile Wahrnehmung über die Füße. Unterschiedliche Bodenbeschaffenheiten (Rasen, unterschiedliche Stein- und Kieskörnungen, Holz, Rindenmulch, Naturmoor, Tartan) können auf dem Barfusspfad begangen werden. Dabei werden die Reflexzonen der Fußsohlen stimuliert.

Es handelt sich um eine sensomotorische Wahrnehmung, bei der das Gleichgewichtsvermögen trainiert wird. Der großzügig angelegte Barfusspfad ermöglicht neben der Massage der Reflexzonen der Füße eine Stabilisierung der Fußstatik, der Fußmuskulatur und der Gelenkstruktur.

(Translation: "Use of the barefoot path trains one's sense of touch, i.e. one's tactile perception of the feet. Different ground textures––grass, stone, pebbles, wood, bark mulch, natural mud, Tartan(?!)––can be walked upon, on the barefoot path. In this way, the reflex zones of the feet are stimulated.

It is about training one's sensory-motor perception and balance. The generously laid out Barfusspfad enables a massage of the reflex zones of the feet as well as a stabilisation of static forces on the foot, the foot muscles and joint structure."––extract from a brochure from the Health Centre at the Kurpark)

And then there's another two paragraphs about the benefits of washing off the mud under the cold tap afterwards.