I don’t remember exactly when, where, or how I first heard about Rancho La Puerta (RLP). Yet, that seems to be the number one question everyone is asking, “where did you hear about this place?” I can’t help but wonder if their veiled question is really, “who let you in on this secret?” It’s a funny question to me. “Who cares” is how I really want to reply. But I don’t, because that seems like a rude and unnecessary response to an innocent enough question. The fact is, I don’t want to talk about how I learned of RLP, because I would RATHER talk about the magic and wonder that exists there. Since I have been asked repeatedly, here is the back story of my personal journey to Rancho La Puerta.

If I dig deep enough into the recesses of my memory, I probably FIRST heard about RLP from a former colleague, over 12 years ago. I used to work for a “complementary” health care company, big proponents of chiropractic, acupuncture, and integrative healing, all things supported at RLP. But, much more recently, I distinctly remember searching for a Mexico spa, finding RLP, studying it, and promptly sending my husband a link to their website with a comment along these lines, “I think I’ve found my heaven on earth.”

From that point on, RLP has been on my destination bucket list. I realize it may not be for everyone. It is just South of San Diego, across the border, in Mexico. It is not inexpensive, but compared to other similar types of destinations, their prices are well within reason. And finally, the standard week-long stay may be a time investment that not everyone can or wants to commit to. I get it. Other than a cruise, I have never taken a trip where I have checked in, and remained on property for more than a few days. Even on the cruises I have been on, I have disembarked in multiple cities. A week-long stay at a single property, in a small way almost goes against my vacation better judgement. It seemed contrary to my vacation ideals of adventuring, exploring, and seeing new things. It almost felt like it wasn’t worthy of my time off. The bottom line – even though I love Mexico, have saved for vacations, and I am curious, it is still easy to come up with a long list of excuses for not going. So, my dream getaway seemed like it might forever be just that, but a dream, and a wish, on my bucket list.

I told friends about RLP, bringing it up when tossing around ideas for getaways and reunions.  When they expressed interest, I encouraged them to check it out, mostly so that they could to see for themselves the time and financial commitment I was asking of them. No one jumped at the chance, nor did I push the topic… until one day, in a late afternoon work meeting, when a female colleague asked, “have you ever heard of RLP?” Why yes, I had, and I have always wanted to go. In unison, my two peers responded, “let’s go.” I don’t think I believed them at first. Were they serious, could we all really be absent from work, at the same time? Could we “vacation” together, sharing rooms and bathrooms, for a week? More importantly, why hadn’t I thought to ask them to join me sooner!?!

From that moment on, there was no turning back.  I tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade my travel companions to consider a shorter stay (RLP sometimes offers 3 or 4-day stays, as well as “Saturdays at the Ranch”).  I reasoned that a shorter stay would be more “affordable,” and, maybe it would mean less impact at work if we weren’t gone so long. They rejected my suggestions out right.  And as it turns out, they were right, we all work hard, we’ve put the right people and processes in place, and we should allow ourselves to be rewarded for our efforts. So in the end, we indulged in a week-long stay!

We each planned for the trip in our own way. Our type-A-ness manifesting in our individual preparation. For me, it meant studying the weeks activities, to see what was available, what overlapped, and what would be repeated. I went so far as scheduling each class that I wanted to attend on my calendar, color-coded and marked as “private” of course.  I also noted meal times – god forbid I miss a meal. I booked spa treatments well in advance, and of course those went on the calendar too. The countdown to the departure date was comical and included silly group chat messages and conversations in code. We made calls to RLP every time we had a question big or small, imagining that the ever-helpful RLP staff on the other end of the phone was probably giggling at our efforts to be the BEST GUESTS EVER.

In summary, here are the takeaways:

  • RLP is in every way worthy of exploration, adventure, seeing, trying, and experiencing new things.
  • If you can go for an entire week, do it. You will be glad you did.  If you can’t go for a week, maybe there will be an option for a shorter stay.
  • An entire week spent on a single property, walking place-to-place, will make you dream about ways to “bring the ranch home” and ways to incorporate new habits into your everyday life.

And yet this was one of the greatest takeaways for me – it was an incredible getaway to share with my friend/work-sisters. We work hard individually and collectively, and we’ve worked together for a long time. These ladies are like siblings to me. At work, we occasionally quarrel or disagree, but far more often we are laughing together, and day in and day out we are solving tough problems. We support one another, help one another, sharing personal stories and experiences that overflow into our work day. We have spent personal time together and travelled on short trips for fun and longer trips for work. But for one entire week, we took a much needed break. We laughed, a lot. We adopted new healthy habits, and reignited old long forgotten habits. Our sister-peer-coworker friendship was forged even deeper.

For all of my friends, family, colleagues, readers, and future RLP guests – when people ask you how you heard about Rancho La Puerta, I hope you will tell them, “I had a feeling you would ask me that.”