Fiesta Time!

Fiesta Time!

 

adobe bricks made by the children

This past weekend was quite a bit of fun.  We went down to Tumacacori (Too-muh-KAH-ko-ri) to a Fiesta!  There were about twenty or so booths set up selling food, handicrafts and other items, and quite a few activities especially for kids as well as information about the area.  The National Park Service set up about a dozen booths for kids to do hands on activities such as making adobe bricks or creating petroglyphs.  It was quite a bit of fun to watch them.  There was a group of people from Mexico who were dressed in Aztec costume and performed a variety of dances for us.  They were very colourful and fun to watch.  After they finished their performance, another group came on and played some traditional music as well.  One fellow had an instrument that looked like a cheese grater that he rubbed a metal piece along…quite interesting.

Tumacacori is where the mission that I talked about in the last blog is located.  It is quite a beautiful old building.  There was an annex where the Jesuits/Franciscans stored grain and other foods…lovely old pots lined the room.  We took some pictures of the interior of the church but it was quite dark.

On the way back from seeing the Mission we walked past the place where kids were dressing up like Juan Bautista De Anza and having pictures taken.  This little girl was absolutely adorable.

After we left Tumacacori, we went to Tubac for the Festival of Luminaries.  The Luminaries are simply tea light candles placed in a paper bag.  They then line the streets and roof-tops with them.  The result is really quite beautiful.  There was a group singing Christmas Carols and they did a great job of it.  After we watched them we found a horse-drawn wagon and went for a ride around the town looking at all of the lights.  It was really a lot of fun.  We even managed to get a few of the other folks on the wagon to sing Christmas Carols with us!  We had a wonderful night!

Between the RV Park and Tubac there is a Border Patrol check point.  There are quite a few of them but this seems to be the biggest.  We talked with one officer who said there are about a thousand Mexicans a day who try to cross the border.  The check points are on all roads and highways in this area. 

Yesterday we took a drive out into the desert and must have seen a dozen different places where there were border patrols either on horses or in trucks…we crossed four different check points as well. 

 

We saw some awesome cactus and scenery yesterday

too.  The saguaro cactus are all over the place around Tucson.  I was reading about them and it takes between 75 and 100 years before a saguaro cactus will get its first arm.  Hard to believe they are so old.  There are a few that have some sort of deformity that creates a cock’s comb look to them.  They are fairly rare but we managed to find one.  Some of the barrel cactus are also interesting.

 

It’s a lovely warm day today and we are enjoying the weather thoroughly.  Tomorrow we are going into Tucson so I thought I’d get the blog out early.  Here’s a picture in case you forgot what I look like.  I’m dressed up like De Anza but I’m afraid I’m not as cute as that little girl on the previous page!…also, Oso and Tom relaxing in their favourite places in the fifth wheel!