Missions around Tucson

After breakfast in our hotel in Sierra Vista we started with blue skies, but, close to frost, towards the Mexican border, to Nogales, on Hwy. 82. We encountered only one control station, and weren't stopped but had to drive slowly through heavily armed posts, patrolling with drug dogs.

 

 

On I-19 we continued on to Tumacácori, one of Arizona's church missions. While most people know about the California missions - 21 of them, established by Franciscans between 1769-1833 - the close to a dozen Arizona missions are not so well known and many of them not in such good condition. 

The Tumacácori National Historical Park, a mission established in 1691 by Jesuit padre Eusebio Kino,  sits in the Santa Cruz River valley, where O’odham, Yaqui, and Apache people originally lived. In 1691, two missions were built, Mission San Cayetano de Tumacácori and another one nearby, only a ruin nowadays. Lateron the mission was moved and under the Franciscan order a new church was built in the 1750s. 

 

The church's interior is mostly destroyed, but there are some outbuildings and a museum, which give a good idea about this mission. It was nice and quiet there, not many visitors around. A Mexican lady on the grounds was demonstrating how corn tortillas are being prepared (left). 

Tubac, our next stop (left), is a small colorful community, established in 1752 as a Spanish Presidio. Nowadays it's a popular "place for culture, history, and art", with many galleries and shops, and, a bit touristic, too. 

The historic Presidio State Park was unfortunately closed on this Monday, but the Mission Xavier del Bac (below), was open and packed with people, mostly "snowbirds" from Canada and other cold U.S. regions.

 

Xavier del Bac (photo above) is located only 9 mi. south of downtown Tucson. It was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797. This church is in good condition and filled with statuary (below, right) and paintings. Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Xavier became part of Mexico - until 1854. 

 

In the afternoon we arrived in Tucson and moved in our small, but nice Airbnb. Got us some basic provisions in a nearby Mexican supermarket before we drove out again to visit an old friend of us. She had invited us over to dinner in her beautiful house at the Santa Catalina Foothills. It was a long drive (partly in the pitchdark night) to get "home" again, but it was well worth the trip.