Getting settled in S. Winding Trail; Sabino Canyon; events in Tucson

A complication to having hired a car was the return of the car to Tucson Airport. As I am not willing to drive, it was not possible for Jim to drive the rental, and me follow in the exchange car. However, Patty had kindly arranged for Larrie to help out which was great. We drove the rental car to the airport and Larrie collected us there in the exchange car. We were able to use the journey to pick Larrie's brains about the area and good places to eat etc.

It was exciting waking up to the yip, yip, yip, howl of the coyote and the excited chatter of birds. A bit more fear-inducing was the following pop, pop, pop, of shooting that gradually got closer. A strong reminder of the gun-related atrocities in the US! Larrie maintained that no one should be shooting so close to houses and Shanna, our next door neighbour, said the police had called to inquire about it as the shooting had been reported.

Having stocked up on Friday, when we arrived, we had discovered Bashas, a very nice supermarket with some other shops in the strip and a petrol station with the cheapest petrol in the area, according to Shanna. On Saturday, having returned our rental car, we simply relaxed and enjoyed the heat outside and the relative cool inside.

On Sunday we were ready for a bit of sightseeing. Shanna had suggested the Sabino Canyon where you can get a hop on hop off tram up the trail. Sabino Canyon is located in the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Coronado National Forest.

It was fascinating to see the cacti growing right up to the tops of the mountains.

There are lots of pools - the water is this colour because of the tannin that comes from the oak trees farther up.

                                                                      The Acropolis Wall

We gained some company along the way!

This has various names - the old man, the iron mask etc. The dark line where the head joins  the rock/dirt around it is the height of the water in the flood of 2006. It was 30 feet above the highest it had been up to that.

And we came back down the mountain again. If we go back to Sabino Canyon on a cooler day we will get off at some of the stops and walk down to the next but it was 92 degrees fahrenheit - much too much for our Irish constitution!






We had no further plans for the day but it was too early to go back home so we went into Tucson thinking the traffic would not be as bad on a Sunday as on a weekday. How wrong we were! There seemed to be events on in the city that were attracting hordes. We happened on two of them. Below is a building near where we parked.

The first event was Tucson meet Yourself, a folklife festival, which was free. This is an annual celebration of the living traditional arts of Southern Arizona's and Northern Mexico's diverse ethnic and folk communities. We watched a Tucson belly-dancing group. Some of them were minus a belly but that did not stop them wiggling what they had!

That was followed by an Aztec group who treated us to lots of incense, lots of dancing and lots and lots of aggressive drumming. I can only hope that whatever evil spirits were possessing us have left us now in peace! The feathers were very colorful but not very well attached as one of the dancers lost, not just one but two, feathers.

It's amazing how much noise these shell make!









On our way back to the car we came across  a classic car show - a bit like a vintage car rally in Ireland. Jim was much more impressed by these than by the dancers - or so he says. The cars were all decorated with Hallow'een stuff (I think) or maybe Day of the Dead stuff.

And finally the Fox Tucson Theatre.