Tumacacori Mission

We returned to Tumacacori Mission on Thursday with friends, Norma and Joe.  We followed the self tour that explains the incredible history of this site beginning in 1691 with Jesuit priest missionaries.  I borrowed a summary from the web site.

Always Changing - Forever the Same

More than just adobe, plaster, and wood, these ruins evoke tales of life and land transformed by cultures meeting and mixing. Father Kino’s 1691 landmark visit to an O’odham village when he established Mission Tumacácori was just one event among many. Wave after wave of change has swept or crept across this realm - this land and its people are not static. Come visit and experience this heritage. 

This must have been a very busy place.  The building on the right was a storehouse for grain, dried fruit from the orchards and other food stuffs that would sustain the village when the growing season was over.

What must the Indians thought about the "white" man who brought worshiping the One God in a building like this.

This is a miniature replica of the inside of the church.  Very little of the decorative painting is left now.  The sense of history is very strong.

Every Weds, Thurs, and Fri this volunteer makes free tortillas with refried beans and salsa on an open wood fire.  They were delicious.

This is just one of the life like displays in the museum, a priest working in the mission library.  We always take note of libraries wherever we are!

The required gift shop.  Lots of books, so much history...

Very strange cloud formation.  We stopped in Tubac which is only 10 minutes from the mission.  No rain and no noticeable wind at ground level, but the wind sculpted those clouds.

Back to Green Valley for supper at the Arizona Family Restaurant.  Norma can't handle Mexican food, so we opted for the generic fare.  A great day visiting with friends from Kenosha who now live in Mesa. AZ