If there was one reason I wanted to return to Rancho la Puerta, it would have to be the hikes. Each day there is one early morning mountain hike. The hikes normally depart around 6:00 in the morning before it becomes too hot. The hikes range from a mere 3 1/2 miles to a full 7 miles. Most of them also have the hiker climb 1000 to 1500 feet as well. They are not easy, even for someone like me who is accustomed to walking long distances each day. But you feel so good when you are done and head towards a well-deserved breakfast. John is not quite as fond of the hikes as I am, but having had surgery on his knee he probably shouldn’t hike up steep slopes anyhow.
The Ranch directly adjoins Mount Kuchumaa, a site which was considered sacred to the Kumeyaay people. I am not particularly sure why these native peoples considered this particular place so sacred, but from the upper slopes you do get a panoramic vistas of northern Baja. Here we were looking toward Tijuana whose ugly sprawl was hidden in a layer of coastal fog.
This part of Mexico, like much of Southern California, was the result of the uplift of shallow ancient seas. Wind and rain have eroded much of the primeval rocks creating some stunning shapes.
Normally I am not fond of people using spray paint on rocks, but the eye and the mouth here are a wonderful bit of whimsy.
I am not sure how they dragged this 10 foot iron sculpture up to the top of this peak, but somebody did it! Anyhow, some kind lady from Atlanta offered to take my picture here.
At the end of the hike there is a touching memorial to Alex Szekely, son of the founders of Rancho la Puerta. He died in 2002 and is buried here on the property.
After my hike, I met up with John and we had breakfast. We sat and drank coffee on the patio where we had lovely views of the mountain.
We both went to a level 1 Pilates class. John then left and went to a circuit training class while I stayed and tried the level 2 Pilates class. Next we headed towards the Activity Pool where we had our water aerobics class.
It was a lot of fun to splash around in this wonderful pool. It uses some oxygen filtration system instead of either chlorine or salt and it is heated to the mid 80’s. I really am not sure that water aerobics really has all that much cardio value, but it’s fun to strap on all the flotation devices and try to jog or do cross-country skiing.
After lunch, we returned to the pool where we had a couple other hydro classes. One was called something like Aqua Pilates and the instructor tried to have us do some of the usual Pilates exercises in the water. I found it hard to concentrate, so maybe that’s why I didn’t really get that much out of the class. But I had a good time.
Tonight’s a pretty quiet night. The self-improvement lecturer (they always have one of them each week at the ranch) does not start his series on procrastination until Tuesday. There are quite a few stale jokes there!
