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Last weekend I had an adventure day to Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico.  I had never been before, but having heard great things, I was excited to get the opportunity.

I went down with a group of women for the day as part of a new program offered by Rancho La Puerta on Saturdays.  We were picked up by a bus at 7:30am and reached the border about 8:45am.  We walked across the border and got in two vans which transported us to the ranch.  The next six hours involved yoga, water aerobics, healthy, delicious food and beautiful scenery.  I walked around the grounds after lunch taking pictures, even after it started raining.   The landscaping was beautiful.  Spectacular, really.  And the smells were heavenly.  Sage, lavender, rosemary, rain, earth – a feast for the senses!

At 3:30pm we loaded up into the vans and were driven to La Cocina que Canta aka The Kitchen That Sings, the farm where most of the ranch’s food is grown.  It was pouring rain, so our farm tour was washed out.  BUMMER!  I was REALLY looking forward to that part of our trip, but all was not lost.  Under the direction of Executive Chef Denise Roa and her kitchen staff, we cooked a Mexican feast in the state-of-the-art kitchen/great dining room using ingredients from the garden.   All of us prepped food at different stations around the kitchen which included making tortillas and preparing tamales.

The rain let up for a short period of time so I ran outside to look at the garden surrounding the kitchen.  The farm is organic and produces about 70% of the food for the ranch, but they are hoping to be fully sustainable in a year or so.  I was so impressed with the health of all the plants, and I couldn’t see any evidence of pest damage on anything.  It was a real pleasure to wander for a few minutes before the skies opened up again.

We ate our feast, headed for the border and were back home by 9:00pm.  It was a wonderful day and a real treat for me.  Thanks Danell and Terry for organizing a great event!

Here’s a gallery of pictures from my day at Rancho La Puerta and the gardens. Click on each picture for more information about the image.

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