The Where You Are

Encuentro, Guadalupe, Mexico

Encuentro means 'to meet.'

And here, that feels literal.

Not meeting an itinerary.
Not meeting expectations.

𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲.

You arrive, set your bag down, pour a glass of local wine, and sit for a moment longer than planned. The vineyards stretch out below. The air moves easily. Nothing feels urgent.

Later, you walk the dirt paths without deciding how far you’re going. You stop when the light shifts. You turn back when it feels right. You find yourself by the fire, unhurried.

The rooms sit lightly above the valley, not quite on the land, not quite apart from it. You’re not fully inside. You’re not fully outside.

You’re somewhere 𝗶𝗻-𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻.

There’s no pressure to arrive with intention or leave with clarity. No sense that the stay needs to 'deliver' something specific or transformational.

You wake up, make coffee, then pause.
You read a few pages.
You don’t finish the chapter.

In the afternoon, you lounge by the pool without calling it a break. In the evening, you watch the sky change colors without thinking about what comes next.

You don’t feel disconnected.
You just feel 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱.

Free to linger.
Free to drift.
Free to meet the day as it is.

That’s what makes Encuentro what it is.
That’s why I think of it as a place that meets you 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦.

Not a stay that grounds you.
𝗔 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲, 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲.

And that’s why it belongs in my Hotel Storytelling Series.
Fifth of 25.

Because I’m interested in places that don’t just 'host' people,
they change the way we relate to being somewhere at all.

More to come.