Tucson (119 – 137)

Our original intention was to stay in Tucson for a few days because a number of people had told us they wouldn’t consider staying there as it was too dangerous. This was due to its proximity to the Mexican border, which is only an hour away and the problem with gangs, drug lords and human trafficking that exists today. Authorities expect that this year alone more than 1 million Mexicans will try to illegally cross the border into the USA to be sent to transit houses, primarily in Arizona and picked up by “Coyotes”, the name given to the people who assist in trying to take them further into the USA to minimise their chance of capture. For this dubious and dangerous trip, they will pay between $1500 to $3000, which represents 6 months and 1 year of wages respectively for the desperate Mexicans.

Hopscotch in the local desert

As such, when we arrived at the campground we only booked to stay for 4 nights, and that would allow us time to assess the situation and security for ourselves. The campground’s name is Cactus Country and it’s located about 20 miles south of Tucson quite close to a large shopping centre, but the campground sits alone in the desert, visible from the I10. In terms of security, we initially wondered whether or not this was going to be a positive or a negative factor.

The campground had quite a few RV’s of all types staying there as well as permanent residents in demountable houses. Most of the RV’s had registration plates from northern states of the USA identifying them as “Snowbirds”, the term for those RVers who head south for winter. There was a swimming pool, spa, recreation room with a library, a children’s playground, shuffleboard courts, horseshoe rings, gym and a business centre.

The ladies at the reception desk had been very friendly and with all the amenities as well as the large number of RVs, we soon felt quite secure. Today was December 30th and the managers of the RV park had organised a New Year’s Eve party to be held in their recreation hall. This allowed us the full day on New Year’s Eve to explore the local area before going to the party.

That evening at dusk, we were treated to the most spectacular sunset, a truly memorable sight with slowly changing hues from the blue sky to yellow and blue, yellowish blue with pink, light orange becoming darker to a burnt orange and slowly fading to darkness. As we discovered, this wasn’t just tonight, it was almost every night and a sight that will remain etched for a lifetime. Frankly, I'm having a very difficult time in choosing a couple of sample photos to post on this blog - many more are within the slideshow of Tucson.

For ease of reading, I've broken the posts into individual trips we undertook while in Tucson and they are in sequential order of when we saw them. I've tried to keep the text flowing from one to another and each also has more about out our time in Tucson, in addition to the blog heading.