Every six weeks or so my neighbor for 12 years Doy Cooper and I go to the beauty shop get our highlights, lowlights, cut, manicure and pedicure. Now Doy really looks forward to this, she calls it our mini-vacation; she even makes all the appointments for us.

      Doy is the owner of the Casa Del Secreto Villa Rental and is property manager/co-owner along with her parents of the vacation property Hacienda Secreto that is right next door, located between Casa del Secreto and my Secret Beach Villas. You might envision being next door neighbors in a tranquil serene place like Playa del Secreto we would pass each other in our morning strolls down the beach or meet for an afternoon glass of wine. Na... we are just as busy as all you other ladies out there, I can't remember the last time either of us had time to stroll down the beach unless it was to handle an issue one of our guest had with some sea life, so our beauty shop appointment is where we do all our catching up.

      The Beauty Salon we go to is Place Jadelle it's THE SALON to be seen at in Cancun, the staff is very innovative and professional, they do all the hair styling and makeup for the many videos shot locally. Its owners are Jacques Benchimol and his wife Adriana Altieri, Jacques is from Montreal and is the lead stylist. His wife is from Mexico City and is the make-up expert. They have owned the shop for over 12 years and have a staff of 40. To be honest, I'm not sure if I could afford to go to this high-end of a salon regularly in the states, but here its prices are what a ordinary hair salon back home would charge. If you live here and are looking for a salon that Understands your Gringa Fine Hair or just one that you can talk to your stylist in English and walk out with a hairstyle from this decade, then try this out. Or if you're here for a wedding contact them, they will take care of your wedding party, arrange everything before you arrive, you won't be disappointed. Doy turned me on to it, and it's a wonder to how many Americans and Canadians you meet in there, its good place for networking.

      Our Spa Day is not your regular Beauty Shop appointment. First Doy brings a bottle of chilled champagne and some OJ so when we get to the salon the staff starts making mimosas for us. FYI: If our appointment is before 2:00 pm then we bring our own champagne. If it is after 2:00 pm the restaurant next door opens and we order from them. We arrive at the Salon around noon; the valet parking lady comes out and parks Doy's SUV, great because we are always running late. We both book Christian Rojas as our hair stylist, he blocks out his afternoon for us, and it's not like back at home when you get squeezed between appointments. First we go to the nail salon, which is my favorite part because it's one of the only times the Iphone is not glued to Doy's ear (hard to hold it when your nails are wet!) her staff and her teenagers just have to get along without her for an hour while her nails dry! Christian rolls over his cart of coloring mixes and starts foiling my highlights while one of the nail girls is doing a manicure and the other is doing a pedicure, this is heaven to me because I like to get in and out of a salon, don't like to wait going from one station to another, I'll read my magazines at home, thank you.

      While we are getting our nails done the waiter from the restaurant next door Locanda Paolo comes over and takes our lunch order, it's always the same waiter and we always order the same thing the Lobster Carpaccio (thinly sliced lobster dressed with virgin olive oil and a bit of balsamic served with slices of toasted baguette on the side.) The lunch comes when our nails are done, they set-up a table for us next to the fountain the plating is beautiful as the food is extraordinary, even with foil in my hair!

      Then we go to the Christian's station, Christian(phone # 998-119-3933) is a great hair stylist and colorist he is also lots and lots of fun, he is originally from Uruguay and has a number of stories to tell. His cuts are precise and his highlights never bleed, he's also the Redken Rep for Cancun, best of all except for the shampoo girl he does it all; no hand offs to some assistant. One thing you take for granted in the states is the quality of water, here in Cancun and at our villas we use Potable water, clean safe water, clean because it has tons of chlorine and chlorine is not a friend to hair. The other thing about the water is it's loaded with lime from the limestone the runs underground throughout the Yucatan, not to mention it's not the softest water going. Put that together with fine color treated hair and years of daily shampooing and you're talking a recipe for faded straw. Hair Products become your friend, and Christian is always on top of what treatments will keep my hair healthier under these conditions. The joke is that both Doy and I have really fine hair, mine is naturally curly so there's not much styling it, some product and a diffuser and it's done, Doy's hair on the other hand is bone straight so I always get the extra glass of champagne while I watch Christian fuss with hers to get the look she likes to stay in place. While we are at the salon Christian's wife Ana always comes by to say Hello and catch up on what's new with us, she is a licensed insurance agent with GNP so if you're looking for an agent she's a good pick and her English is perfect, email her.

      Our Five hour Mini-Vacation/Spa Day is winding down, and it is time to pay the bill, I had highlights, lowlights, cut, style and manicure and pedicure and the charge was around $140 + tips, not bad not bad at all! Now Doy and I are off to chauffeur her teenage daughter from school back home, we might be in paradise, but even here a gal needs a mini-vacation.

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            I was so happy to see the group of ViDAS vets again this pass August. ViDAS is a volunteer group of vets and veterinarian students based out of Colorado, whom travel to the state Quintana Roo, Mexico where they set up week long clinics offering Free Spaying and Neutering of Cats and Dogs in the poorer areas some as far south as Bacalar near the Belize border. To date they have sterilized 4629 dogs and cats in an effort to flight the overpopulation making a real impact that affects not only the animals, but the people and community as a whole.

         The Playa del Carmen/Puerto Morelos Clinic Group lead by Ruth Parkin stays at our Secret Beach Villas each summer. It's like having a group of friends come each year to the villas. This last Clinic they fixed 595 cats and dogs, not to mention the number of animals they removed ticks and fleas from. The one of the youngest vets put all her attention on this poor tiny puppy, that someone had played with it like a toy, cutting it's whiskers off and part of its tail, then they just forgot to feed it. She came back to the villas with the puppy in her arms and IV bag pinned to her tee shirt, I don't think she ever left that poor puppy's side the whole week, it was real touch and go, and at the end of the week the puppy got a plane trip back to the states to find a good home.

         Theses vets really put in a lot of effort; it's so very hot and humid in August when they are here, it's not like they are spending all day in the pool or have the breeze off the ocean, they work a long day, usually in a local school without A/C, when they get back to the villas they are beat, a margarita or two, some food, a dip in the pool and they do it all over the next day. It's a lot of hard draining work; they are exceptional people to give such a gift to this community.

The Cats of Playa del Secreto

          The Playa del Carmen ViDAS group helps me out with my own efforts to get the JUNGLE CATS of Playa del Secreto sterilized. I am not sure exactly how I inherited this job, when I first moved here we had a matriarch of Playa del Secreto named Pat Link. Pat was feisty lady, a great cook, and an animal lover whom lived here by herself and her four Jack Russell terriers. She always fed the jungle cats and had a vet come to her villa to have them sprayed and neutered, she had maybe five Jungle Cats she looked after. It wasn't till a few years after she moved back to Canada did I notice that we had a WHOLE LOT of Jungle Cats. The ball definitely got dropped! Being the 1st person to admit that I'm a cat person, I have four of my own house cats, I took this Jungle Cat situation over.

          Mind you these Jungle Cats are feral; they hang out all day in the jungle across the road from the beach side villas and only come in to eat when I feed them in the evening. Having a FEW sterilizedJungle Cats does have its advantage they keep the iguanas at bay. For the 1st time in years I actually see some flowers on my plants, before the iguanas stripped them completely. Once I had bought twenty-five new Hibiscus plants and before we could get them out of the plastic pots and planted there was nothing left but twigs, it was an "All You Can Eat Buffet" for the iguanas.

        So far over the last 3 years the ViDAS group has sterilized 19 of the Jungle Cats here in Playa del Secreto, when I can catch them and get them fixed when they are still kittens they usually become somewhat tame yard cats. I'm still on the hunt for the 2 or 3 that have eluded my many tricks and treats to get them into the cages. 

The Next Playa del Carmen Clinic is July 17-22, 2010

        If you're interested you can sponsor a veterinary student or donate funds for the needed supplies. If you live in the area you can help out donating lunch for the crew, gas, telcel cards, grocery shopping gift certificate or spend a day at the clinic and lend a helping hand.

Ruth and the gals ... see you next July!!! Keep warm up there in Colorado!!