26 Southern Arizona Middle School Travel

Today — our second full day in Patagonia, Arizona — we learned about many different ecosystems that surround the area. First, we drove to a farm that specializes in growing native plants to assist in supporting biodiversity. There, we learned about Agave, a succulent native to Arizona. We learned how the Agave plant and bats rely on each other. Bats pollinate the Agave while it is blooming. However, the Agave succulent is in danger because people are cutting it down before it blooms to make Tequila — which is a very popular and highly consumed drink among many adults. This harms both the Agave succulents and the bats. In order to help preserve Agave, we worked with an organization called Borderlands Restoration Network. We divided into two stations. In the first station, we planted Agave seeds in seed trays filled with soil. We learned that Agave plants grow very slowly, and that the seeds we had planted would only start to show leaves in the following year. After our work at ...

We started the day with breakfast at 7am, eating bagels, yogurt bowls, fruits, and more! We also packed our lunches for later in the day, including sandwiches. At 8am we had our morning meeting outside and met our tour guide, German. He showed us the Patagonia museum and shared some of the historic content behind the region. He also shared about his family history and the connections to the land we were seeing. Soon after, we got into the vans and started to drive to the grasslands of the San Rafael Valley where we took an amazing view of the desert and listened to more stories behind the landscape. Then we drove to a schoolhouse near the border where we ate the lunch we made and hiked a little to the border gate. After lunch, we made our way to the Duquesne Mine where we listened to the owner, Jeff explain the history and give us a very informational tour of the mining site. We also learned important lessons about immigration and inequality. Then we headed back to the camp where we ha...

   Day 1 Today started off early with a 10am drop off, and we quickly got the show on the road. Our journey was relaxed, easy, and filled with candy, aside from some small turbulence on the plane. We quickly arrived in Tucson and met up with the kind and welcoming Where There Be Dragons guides and we were introduced to the very warm weather. After a nice and scenic drive through the high desert, seeing countless shrubs and cacti along the way, we came to the Borderlands Restoration Network at 4pm. The BRN is an amazing establishment that works to protect countless wildlife and habitat throughout Arizona and connect communities to their land. We got settled into our new home for the next few days and had an amazing dinner of delicious tamales, rice, beans and drinks. The dinner was expertly prepared by Maru, an awesome cook and native to the area who has experienced the different sides of the border throughout her life. After dinner we played games outside and learned more abou...