Threading, Road Update, Birthday Dinner....
We survived our Juice Cleanse! I was able to find enough ingredients to make it three days on liquid diets. Oddly enough, there seems to be a ginger shortage on the island currently; I subbed ginger powder and it was almost as good as fresh.
Courtesy of a photo, I realized that my eyebrows were incongruent. It's amazing how your brain sees what it wants to see in a mirror, (i.e. 15 years younger, balanced features, etc) but photos tell the real story! I tweeze them regularly, but over time, they get off-balance.
I love Alice at Polished by Capri for waxing BUT she is hesitant to do eyebrows since they make your face! Fair enough.
Turns out, apparently many estheticians on the island feel the same - I asked at 4-5 different salons, and no one does brows.
I reached out to Carrie at Sol Spa at The Phoenix, as she did list brows on her menu - but she's off-island for a bit. Thankfully, she pointed me to Jessie, who has a little salon south of town. She had an opening on Friday that I gratefully scooped up! $15BZ, even better!
Jessie's salon is new; after being in town for over a decade, she built a separate building in front of her home that is super-cute, exceptionally chilled, and spotlessly clean! She also does haircuts and colors, manis-pedis (no fake nails), waxing and......THREADING!!! I figured with all of the Lebanese women here, someone had to be a threader! It's Jessie. She's super-quick at it, so no discomfort at all. She had me make different expressions and looked at my brows from a few different angles to ensure they were as good of sisters (not twins - the best you can hope for is really, really similar!) as possible. Still only $15BZ. She's delightful - I am going to start getting my hair cut there, too!
I don't know the name of her salon, but feel free to whatsapp her at 604-7028.
Threading is commonly performed by Indian ladies (at least it was in Phoenix), where they use two threads, tensioned, to remove hair. No wax residue, so no skin reactions if you have sensitive skin. It's less painful, too, and no chance of being burned by too-hot wax.
Saturday, we stopped into The Palm Casino and were able to leave with a little more money than we arrived with, so that's always a bonus!
Sunday, we drove out to our land and floated in the water for a few hours; it was delightful. Still no sea lice, which both astounds me and makes me incredibly happy!
On the way home, we drove down the back road to check the progress, and the road a little south of us that is heading west has made noticeable progress! Fingers crossed it keeps motoring at a decent clip.
Nathan surveying the progress from up high...
On our way home, we stopped at Big Taste 2, their second location by Tipsy Lobster - and someone was there! We stopped when Ethan and Lilly were in town, and while their sign said "Open", no one ever appeared. May as well bomb our guts after 3 days of fruits and vegetables! Their birria is the best I've ever had - put it in quesadilla form. I ordered a lime juice and holy shit, it's also the best I've ever had! Like crack! I ordered a second, and considered getting one to go! My only critique is that they didn't give us a condiment-squeeze-bottle of the chimichurri, like at the OG Big Taste - but to be fair, giving us unfettered access to their most delectible condiment probably does wreak havoc on their food costs!
Yesterday was my 48th birthday - God, that sounds so old! My friend Kit brought me a delicious hunk of chocolate cake from Casa Pan Dulce! What a nice surprise!
It's so rich, I am only half-way through it!
It looks as though they are constructing a new location on the back of the same block - the identical teal-and-orchid, very-specific paint scheme - I'm unsure if this is to replace, or is in addition to, the current building. I went to the current one back in 2002, on my very first visit to San Pedro!
After Nathan finished work, we dodged some intense lightning and drove down to Palmilla, at Victoria House. VH is a very fancy resort south of town - lots of weddings, honeymoons there, but we had not visited yet.
Even in the dark, as soon as we pulled onto the grounds, we could tell we were somewhere special! Pristine landscaping, raked-sand paths, everything was perfectly manicured and luxurious!
The dining room had rich wood floors and crisp white paint; linen tablecloths and napkins - fancy for the island. Our server, Estevan, was on the ball for the entire meal, we never wanted for anything...other than Prosecco. I had my heart set on some bubbles, and their bottle price was fair, $100BZ, but they were out, so we shifted to Porto de Piedra red blend - smooth, silky, if you see it on a menu, it's well worth ordering!
We split an obscenely large Caesar salad, and each had their surf-and-turf - I subbed the Parmesan truffle oil mashed for the included bacon mash, and I could've had only those potatoes and been thrilled with dinner. Steaks were cooked to medium-rare perfection, and the split lobster tails were tender, top-notch all the way! And we felt the pricing was very fair, especially for the setting!
All-in-all, a pretty good week!