Day 21, Patagonia

Waking up at gary's place was great. Jim had to get up early start working on the RAFT (Renewing America's Food Traditions) so I was able to just lay around and wait for Ian to get up. Since we'd been traveling so much and keeping strange hous he slept in and so did I. After we got up and had some breakfast, it onto entertaining ourselves while the others were working. Gary had told me about a great place to take a walk so Ian and I packed up some water, snacks, and hats and headed out.


First we checked out bustling downtown Patagonia which is really just a quaint little town with a fair amount of artists galleries. Then we headed to the preserve. Here are some pictures from the walk.

We were lucky enough to see this beautiful hawk so close to us. Apparently, this specific preserve has one of th emost diverse bird populations in the country. It serves as a common migration stop for so many acting as either the most northern point in migration or the most southern point in migration depending on where the bird is coming from. We also saw a broad billed hummingbird for the first time and so many other birds that I didn't take the time to identify.

this white flower above is a native poppy

After the work day was over, Gary took us to a really cool artists community around the mountain called Tubac. Unfortunately pretty much all of the shops were closed. However, there was so much cool art on the streets that it was fun to walk around and look at it all. We at dinner at an awesome Mexican fusion restaurant that was simply delicious.

Here's the guys haning out in front of a shop with a name that is fitting to them given all the seed work they have done together.

I fell in love with the bright pink colors of the prickly pear cactus fruits.


The Golden Eagle, a well known wrestler, joined us during dinner adn then took on a viscious T-rex while we were walking back to the car. Tamed him with a simple rub on the neck. (Ok seriously, Ian was so taken with the collection of Mexican wrestling masks on display at the restaurant that the owner giften him one.)