Rancho la Puerta

I bid on and won a day trip to Rancho la Puerta, a fabulous health spa in Tecate, Mexico at my kids' school's live auction last spring.

The 1-year expiration date was looming so I booked one of their February "Saturday's at the Ranch" dates. My husband was slated to accompany me, but then decided not to go. I emailed Jacquie the night before and asked her if she was free for the ENTIRE next day.

By some miracle she was.

Yay for us!

We met early the next morning in the Old Town trolley parking lot and boarded the 'luxury coach' to Mexico. They handed out our folders with the day's activities, spa treatment descriptions and various marketing materials.

We pored over the material, deciding what we'd like to do most. Turns out we wanted to do most everything.

It was drizzly and gray when we arrived, but we didn't care, because they led us straight to breakfast! Fresh fruit, home made muesli and yogurt, warm tea, fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, etc., etc. It was heavenly.

After fortifying ourselves, we were led around the property for a proper tour, which included a stop at the women's center where were received our robes and lockers, and booked our spa treatments. We were then let free to 'have at the ranch.'

Have at it we did. First off was yoga. After class we played around on the wall.

Implements of torture?

Clearly!

Oh my, is she down for the count?

I loved her, and quickly said a silent prayer regarding our next Rancho la Puerta stop....

...hula hooping class. Jacquie clearly rocks.

Me? Not so much.  I have the front to back swing going on, while Jacquie is doing the side to side. The side swing looks much cooler, doesn't it?

We had to cut our hooping short to make our massages. (I know, how unfortuante!) Here are some of the pretty sights along my way:

Pretty rock! (I love that there are giant slabs of rose quartz just laying about.)

Pretty door

Pretty fountain

Pretty mosaic

Pretty rug

But let's get ourselves to the reflexology path, shall we?

Cool, right?

Here we go.

Hey, Jacquie!

After various oohs and ouches, and re-donning our shoes, we headed to lunch, the photos of which I will leave to Jacquie, because I was too ravenous to get out my camera and record the amazing vegetable glory. I've also skipped the hot tubing (you're welcome) and stop at the mercado (thank you, Jacquie!!), but I will share with you a few photos from our apres-lunch hike.

The rosemary was in bloom and spectacular

Over the river...

And up Dove Trail...

to inspiration we climb.

See? Told you.

Oh wait, even better

The valley below was incredibly gorgeous, and left us energized to gather up our belongings and head out to our hands-on cooking class at La Cocina que Canta

Although I do have a few excellent photos of the ginormous organic garden behing the cooking school (especially one close up of a fabulous broccoli), my camera battery went dead, and I was breathing into a bag to calm my cooking performance anxiety so could not take photos anyway. That being the case, I will leave the rest of the incredible veggie porn to Jacquie.

Until tomorrow...