  At
last! Nearly a whole week in one state!
After a 285 mile journey from Las Cruces, we arrived in Tucson. The atmosphere gets drier and drier and cactus plants become more frequent. In Tucson, the streets are lined with palm trees and cacti are everywhere. Cacti grow like weeds here and any waste ground is covered with them. There are so many different types, barrel, prickly pear, cholla, organ, saguaro and others whose names I don't know.
It is so dry here that the major rivers
are, at best, a very narrow stream, but more often than not they are dry.
When the rains do come they come hard and fast. The area is covered with
many dry stream beds that can become raging torrents very quickly. The
ground undulates, and the roads go up and down as they cross the land.
In the hollows water can build up as these dry stream bed cross the road.
It is a motoring offence to enter a dip when there is water there.
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Jumping Cholla (pronounced ""Choya") so called because it appears to jump onto you when you brush past it. The arms really have weak joints every couple of inches that easily break. The spines grip and sink into anything that they come in contact with. The hat had just been gently brushed against the branch. I am told it has a great affinity for human skin - ouch! |
Organ Pipe Cactus, named so because the many arms look like organ pipes. |
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Barrel Cactus. These are very useful for showing you direction - on open ground these always lean towards the south west - where the sun is most of the time. |
Prickly Pear. Named, I suppose by its shape.
A very common "weed".
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On the road to Yuma. It's hard to believe that these saguaros are an endangered species and protected by law. Everywhere you look there are "forests" of them. |
 After
a few days in Tucson, where orange trees grow along the roadsides, we travelled
on to Yuma, right at the most easterly edge of Arizona, another 240 mile
drive. Yuma is more fertile; canals have been dug which irrigate the land.
The major crops grown here are lettuce, broccoli and black eyed peas. There
are some dates grown, but few citrus  trees
as there are no subsidies for these now.
Water is a major problem, the tap water is not fit to drink and most people buy bottled water, or use the water vending stations, similar to petrol stations (gas stations if you are American); you drive your car in, put your money into the machine and buy by the gallon! It was quite warm while we were there,
we were walking about in T-shirt and shorts, and this is winter time. In
the It's now the middle of December and we are seeing more and more houses with lavish illuminated decorations outside. This is just one near to a house we stayed in. Their electric bill must be rather large! I would say that most houses have lights of some sort on the outside and about one quarter of them really go to town. |
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Outside
the church that we have our first concert in is a tall saguaro (the classic
big cactus with the arms that you see in the western films) and an even
taller one at the back. Saguaros grow about an inch taller each year and
the arms don't start to appear until they are seventy five years old. This
one here must be over 200 years old! They look like they would have soft
skin to the touch, but the green outer is very hard. The accordion like
pleats allow the cactus to swell when much water is about, and shrink as
it is used up. The ribs are covered with very strong and sharp spikes.
It is easier to think of saguaros as green trees. The holes are made by
woodpeckers that bore into them to make their nests.
summer I
wouldn't like to be there as the temperature can reach 115F (46C). The
sunsets are spectacular and its even warm in the evenings as well.