Tomorrow afternoon we’re going to say goodbye to our longtime friend and companion, Belle. Belle Kitten showed up on Tony’s doorstep on Christmas Eve about 21 years ago and has been with him, and later both of us, ever since. She has lived with us now in multiple homes in two countries and survived a 4000 mile road trip, a lot of construction, a hurricane and the addition of two cats, a kitten, a dog and two puppies into her life. She has always been a tiny thing and has always loved finding the warmest spot around, usually someone’s lap. In her younger days, she would frequently come home with scratches and abscesses on her face after roaming the alley behind our house in San Francisco, due to fights, we assumed, with cats and who knows what else. For all her scrappiness on the street, she has a sweet, good natured personality and has even charmed one or two self-proclaimed cat haters over the years. And she purrs so loudly you can hear it across the room.
Having our pets in our life is one of the main things that made our move to Mexico work for us. Because of them, it didn’t seem like we were leaving our old life behind but rather just moving it to a new location. Belle, especially, loved the climate change from chilly San Francisco to balmy Playa del Carmen. She really flourished in Mexico, even though she was already a pretty old girl when we arrived here three years ago.
Sadly, it’s now her time to go. Her kidneys are failing and she is no longer eating, no matter what we tempt her with. Paco, our wonderful vet, has given her antibiotic and vitamin shots every day for the past week or so, but it hasn’t helped other than to buy us a little more time with her. He says she’s over 100 years old in people years, and we know that she has lived a long and happy life.
Tomorrow on the deck that she loves so well, in the warm breeze and in our arms, we’ll put her down. Afterwards, we’ll bury her in the back yard with Carib, her friend who passed almost two years ago at the age of 18. But today we’re just going to give her love.
We’re sure going to miss you, kitten. And so will your friends Shammy, Huggybear, Marley Buddha and Gypsy. 
When we finally made our dream come true by buying the 
We also enjoy the work of Henry Valdez Ceballos. Henry is a local Playa del Carmen artist with a growing reputation. He specializes in art of the Taino culture, a pre-Hispanic Caribbean society. Henry fuses ancient symbols with bright Caribbean colors and tactile materials of many sorts into large canvases. There is a feeling of space surrounding primitive symbols. Some creations are abstract, others more realistic, and all touch the viewer with a sense of timelessness. We have one of Henry’s pieces hanging in our house as well as several in the rooms at the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden. You can find Henry’s art at the gallery directly across the street from Hotel Lunata on Fifth Avenue between Calles 6 and 8. 
In our treetop terrace rooms we also have two wonderful large oil paintings that our guests seem to enjoy. One is of a beautiful bikini-clad woman rising out of a sea of red, and the other is of a golden haired beauty sleeping on a cloudy, star-filled night sky. Both were done by an Italian ex-pat artist, Lallian. We thought the ethereal mood created by these portraits fit perfectly with the ambiance of our rooms above the trees.
Also in our garden you will find the unique stone terrace we designed. The terrace is in the shape of a circle, the ancient symbol for the sky and the universe. It is made entirely of stone taken from the quarries near the Mayan temple in Cobá, the same source used by Mayan builders centuries ago. Within the circle are seven black stones set in the pattern of the constellation Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters. The design is an homage to the Mayan people who believed that their ancestors descended from those stars to start their people’s history back before recorded time.
Another bit of functional art at the Luna Blue are the gourd lamps that serve as the light fixtures in the reception area and outside many of the rooms. Of course, everybody has gourd lamps in Playa del Carmen. When you walk down Fifth Avenue, practically every other store offers them for sale. But we had some of ours specially made by our friend Domingo Rodriguez. Domingo is the owner of Bone Art Place, located on Calle 8 between 5th Avenue and 10th Avenue (across from Yax-che), where he sells jewelry that he designs and carves out of stone and bone. For many years, when we were visitors to Playa del Carmen, some of our favorite gifts for friends back home were jewelry pieces created by Domingo. He and his wife also design and create gourd lamps. When we decided to add some new gourd lamps to the hotel, we gave some designs and ideas to Domingo who promptly turned them into works of art. Whether he’s working carving bone or hollowing out a gourd, he is one of Playa’s premier artists. 
Finally, one of our most recent decorative additions is our own idea and work. We were thumbing through a magazine on a recent airplane flight and saw an ad for stencils of various words—peace, love, etc.—that could be painted on walls for decoration. That inspired us to paint quotations on the walls of our hotel rooms. We have always felt that our guests were a special breed of tourist…travelers who enjoyed the spirit and adventure of a journey. We wanted our hotel to reflect that feeling. We chose 18 special quotes about the love of travel from such diverse sources as Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne; Douglas Adams, the author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; nineteenth century philosopher Henry David Thoreau and many others. We had stencils created back in the US and then used them here in Playa del Carmen to paint these inspirational sayings onto the walls of our rooms. We love how they turned out and the spirit they invoke. 
Hello everybody. We’re sorry we haven’t blogged for awhile, but it has been pretty busy here in Playa. With Easter coming early this year and March being the high point of the spring break season, we really haven’t had much of a chance to sit down and blog. The hotel has been and is completely full of people. We also spent a couple of weeks doing some fundraising for our local fire department, 
Our good friend Tim Smith, who lives in snow covered (at least at this time of year) South Dakota, braved the chilly weather to hunt a copy up for us. He not only called us to let us know the exact nature of our award but sent us photographs of the magazine which we’ve included here. Since there we have gotten our hands on a couple of copies. The plan is to frame them and display them prominently. 