Saguaros in Tucson

We’ve moved now into the Sonoran desert of southern Arizona and spent the last week around Tucson. This desert is surprisingly lush and green and has some of the wildflowers we met in Borrego, but there are many new plants here. The Saguaro cactus is the grand daddy of them all. This “classic” cactus grows very slowly and is only about 6 inches at 5 years old. It grows straight and tall and doesn’t sprout arms until it is about 70 years old. All kinds of birds drill holes and live inside these wonderful beings. Some can live to over 300 years of age.

We enjoyed a day at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum even though it was cold and rainy. They have both animal and plant interpretive displays in very natural settings. This Coati wasn’t too interested in getting his picture taken. Hiking in Saguaro National Park is terrific, especially when you can get up to a high peak and really look at the expanse of this desert. We heard coyotes howling during the day, but couldn’t see them anywhere.

We met up with some of Mary’s friends at the Colorado Rockies/Cincinnati Reds spring training baseball game and had a great time. Our trip to the Mission San Xavier del Bac was very interesting. It is the northern most of the Spanish Franciscan missions that are mostly in Mexico. This church and mission was built in the late 1700s and the interior was restored over seven years in the 1990’s. They were able to clean and touch up all the murals and statues that have been there for more than 200 years. The interior of the mission has very elaborate frescos reminiscent of Spanish and Italian churches. The church is still active and a native wedding started while we were on the grounds.

Remember the Biosphere II? It was an experiment in the 80s where 8 people lived inside a sealed structure for two years and tried to grow all their own food, recycle all their waste and water, and generate oxygen from the plant life inside the sphere. They performed scientific experiments on plants and animals in a closed system. Well, it’s still operating for research and we got to spend an afternoon there. Although it is no longer a sealed structure they still can control the weather inside and have 5 different climates and ecosystems including, desert, beach and tropical rain forest.