A rest day!

Monday
We had already decided to take a break from hiking today, but after yesterday’s hike, Roger’s knee was playing up a bit, so that was even more reason. Our first visit was to St. Xavier del Bac mission, about 9 miles south of Tucson. A National Historic Landmark, San Xavier Mission 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. At this time, Southern Arizona was part of New Spain. Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Xavier became part of Mexico. The last resident Franciscan of the 19th Century departed in 1837. With the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, the Mission joined the United States. Constructed of low-fire clay brick, stone and lime mortar, the entire structure is roofed with masonry vaults, making it unique among Spanish Colonial buildings within U. S. borders.
The church’s interior is filled with original statuary and mural paintings. Unfortunately, at present they are only allowing visitors in to the back of the church - you enter through the main door, and exit through a side door, so I couldn’t get any close-up shots of the altar area. Also they were working on one of the towers, so it has scaffolding around it, so I chose two more detailed shots for my collage. I have put a picture of the full facade in the extras. From there we continued south to Tumacacori National Historic site. This Arizona national park preserves the ruins of three Spanish mission communities. The main one is the Mission San José de Tumacácori, see extra, which was built in the 1750s to replace the much older Mission San Cayetano de Tumacácori — the first mission in southern Arizona. The other two are normally accessible only by an organized tour from the Visitor centre, but they’re not currently running those tours. We then proceeded to the town of Tubac, at which point you are only about 25 miles from the Mexican border. Established in 1752 as a Spanish Presidio, Tubac has since transformed into an artist colony. We enjoyed lunch outside at a Mexican restaurant, then went for a wander round some of the shops and galleries - right three pictures of my collage.

Step count for today: 11,755