Tucson and vicinity

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With a population of less than 1 million, Tucson is Arizona’s second largest city. Surrounded by low mountains, it offers excellent facilities for golf and many other year-round sports, as well as being an artistic, cultural, museum and academic centre, and site of the University of Arizona. Visually, it offers a welcome change from the narrow claustrophobic streets with skyscrapers that you find in so many cities of this size. While Tucson itself is laid-back and interesting, its surroundings too have much to offer, since it is located within the Sonora desert, which extends up from Mexico. The Saguaro National Monument in particular is breathtakingly beautiful.

Probably its most famous icon is the San Xavier del Bac Mission. Often referred to as the “White Dove of the Desert”, this magnificent structure on an Indian reservation south of Tucson is the oldest Spanish mission church in the USA that is still in service. While it is basically a simple church, it has been adorned gradually for more than two centuries, giving it a certain air of majesty. Its grounds extend well beyond the church, and include a small garden with various cacti and some monuments.

Almost as famous is the Pima Air Museum. Located at the south of the city, this great 80 acre privately-run museum is dedicated to military aviation, with over 300 aircraft, mostly post-1940, almost all carefully restored, and some open for visitors. When I visited these included, on loan, the DC-6 Air Force One in which President Kennedy travelled to and from his assassination in Dallas. Aviation buffs and all military people will enjoy this site: http://www.aero-web.org/museums/az/pam.htm .

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