2025 Southern Arizona - Menlo Middle School

Hello Blog! Today was our last whole day in Southern Arizona and it did not disappoint us! We started with a 5AM wake up to gather our belongings fill the water bottles and take care of some hygiene. Then we gathered up by the vans where we met a geographer named Scott. Scott took us outside the known realm of Ajo and  into the desert where we went on  a 2ish mile hike up and around the plants and landscapes of Arizona that included Organ Pipe Cactus and Cholla Buds. Our treacherous adventure included the classic hero trials such as the wall of loose gravel and the Voldemort like heat. Our escape from this desert heat was the safety of Scotts office, where he took its through his first hand experience of working with the regions  humanitarian aid. One story included Scott providing food and water for two young boarder migrants who had crossed illegally into the United States. These migrants and Scott were eventually found out by the boarder patrol and were ultimately arre...

 Today we all woke up around 5-5:30 AM to get ready for the day ahead of us. We then drove around an hour to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where we met our tour guides, Park Rangers Blaine and Oliver. We then drove to the border where Loraine taught us about the history of her ancestors and the national monument. Quitobaquito was the natural spring that we saw there. There used to be three natural springs, but now there are only one or two on a good day. Whilst looking at the spring the Park Rangers told us about the endangered species such as the pup fish and specific types of snails and mud toads.  After that we went back to the visitor center and ate our packed lunch. We went and looked around the gift shop before listening to Loraine talk about her ancestors in the Tohono O'odham Nation and how they lived with the limited resources they had. We also learned that it is illegal to chop down a Saguaro Cactus. After our adventure to the National Monument, we went bac...

Today, we went to the Bordertown of Nogales, and met a tour guide named Alex from Borderlandia. He told us many things including the history of the border, and how it is important to the economy. He shared stories about Kory's, how they started shops to protest against the war. We then went to a restaurant with best tacos in America according to Alex (he was right). Then we went to the Food Rescue program, and were informed by Mohamed about the non-profit organization that saves slightly blemished food from being sent to the dump. They take the food that is not sellable in supermarkets and share it with people that need it. Then afterwards, we took a three and half hour drive to Ajo (pronounced: AH-HOE). During the ride, we played some cards, listened to music, sang, and took a quick stop at Quiktrip to stock up on food that we soon stole from each other and one more stop along the road to see the huge cacti. We also crashed out a lot over the game of war (cards). After the long ri...