2026 Southern Arizona Day 5






Wasssupppp! Today - The 5th day and final full day - we started the day early at 7am to go visit Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. There, we meet our first ranger Blaine who showed us part of the border wall in-between the U.S. and Mexico. Then we took a hike around the park in Quitoboquito, where we saw a spring with water in the middle of the desert. Lorriane of the O'odham Nation talked to us of her ancestors and how they lived around the spring and performed their ceremonies. Afterwards, we went up to the Ranger Station and had lunch there, while ranger Oliver talked to us about the park and what we thought of the wall. He let us all share our thoughts so we could see other's perspectives. Later we went to the gift shop and we all got Junior Ranger Badges! After that we went back to our hotel and some of us chose to go down into town and look around. We went into a coffee shop and played games and drank cool drinks! We went back to the hotel afterwards and played games. After that we went back into town to look at Tom the photographer's photos of migrant belongings he found in the trash that were thrown away when the immigrants were detained. He also told us that some of his pictures are in the Stanford Art Museum. We went next door to a pizza place to enjoy dinner and laughs! After dinner we got to look at all of these paintings that people drew on the walls. We took some photos and viewed the artwork. THEN Stella got a big surprise for her birthday with a piñata. It was a pineapple with a pink bow and Stella got very dizzy and missed the piñata. And then, she got into a rhythm and started to hit the piñata very well. Then some random lady came and joined and took half the candy! We all celebrated with cake and candy! Then we settled down and will have an amazing day tomorrow (Stella's actual bday!!).

See you tomorrow!

-Kaitlyn and Stella!!!😎☀️🥳
 

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