Life Is Cheap!

Today was Sheila’s haircut day. These are always exciting because of the unknown quality. We went to a stylist recommended by our property manager, Angela. When we arrived at the salon, Jazmin, the stylist, was not there. Instead a young man performed a luxurious shampoo on Sheila. When Jazmin arrived she began to snip, and I do mean snip. Watching it appeared she never cut more than 3/8″ at a time. I was worried it was going to look no different post cutting.

Then Jazmin proceeded to straighten the hair, an elaborate time consuming process. Sheila called it styling. When finished Sheila’s hair looked sleek and elegant, and shorter. Sheila ran her hands through her hair and announced it felt as though a lot of it had disappeared. I looked on the floor and there didn’t appear to be much hair there. We happily paid the $22 dollars and a tip.

When we left Sheila was thrilled at the price. Back home she said what was done would have cost her at least $85 and probably more. I had not seen her with straight hair since we left home 5 months ago. I should have taken a picture right away, but all I have now is one of her on the windswept beach which features some of the nicest sand an old volleyball beach bum has ever seen or felt underfoot.. It does no justice to the artful job that was done earlier. I will try to get a good picture tomorrow if the humidity has yet to change her hair.

By the way, the water is bathwater warm. The hairdresser was not the only bargain. On our way home we stopped at a small stall and bought 24 0unce juices for $3.00. She had some healthy concoction with beets and carrots and spinach and I don’t remember what else. I had a pineapple, mango, plum concoction. both were incredible and so filling we skipped our plan for lunch tacos. Instead we headed for Ah Cacao, the homebred coffee and chocolate shop. They have 100% cacao bars which means no dairy, no sugar. That means Sheila gets to eat them. A 75 gram bar is a little over $4 which is nearly 50% less than other similar bars we had found in Mexico. We have already eaten our way through one of them and wanted a couple more. I noticed a bigger bar, did some quick math , and realized it would be foolish not to buy the 270 gram bar for a bit more than $11. That’s a lot of 100% cacao, that’s good! It’s true, life can be cheap down here.