Friday – January 27 – Today we went to the Mission St. Xavier del Bac which is over 200 years old and has twin towers. Unfortunately, they are doing restoration on one of the towers so it was all tarped over and only one tower is capped with a dome of the Moorish-influenced style. The façade surrounding the entrance is ornately carved sandstone and this mission church is the finest example of Spanish colonial architecture in the U.S. The exterior of the whitewashed church, surrounded by Sonoran Desert vegetation, inspired its nickname “White Dove of the Desert”. The inside of the church is amazing, the brilliant blues and greens employed in the ornate decoration seems to pop off the walls. There are niches filled with statues of saints and the painted dome and ceiling are amazing. It was definitely a trip worth doing.

We stopped at a stall in the churchyard for lunch and had an Indian Taco which neither of us really liked. The taco was good but one of the filling ingredients was red pinto beans refried and mashed, quite awful, very bland and a god awful consistency. Won’t be ordering another one of those!!!

We again took the Sahurita (pronounced Swarita) road when going to the mission and enjoyed the drive as much as the other day when we took it. What a wonderful variety of cacti and so many saguaros, they have so many varied shapes and sizes, depending on their age, and I find them totally fascinating. We drove through a new subdivision in the middle of nowhere and there were absolutely gorgeous homes, I shudder to think what the price of one would be. It was interesting that all the servicing was underground and each house had a large solar panel, we think probably for hot water heating.

We stopped at a pecan plantation store which we had noticed the other day but found their prices quite high and some of the items quite weird – like jalapeno flavoured pecans, so didn’t buy anything. It was interesting to see a pecan plantation in the middle of the desert.