Around The Tucson Barrio

I spent a couple of days photographing one of the old Barrios in Tucson.  Lots of interesting homes that are well over a hundred and thirty years old.   Some of them go even further back in time to the old Persideo.  These homes are all made of hand formed adobe with very thick walls to keep the building cool during the hot summers.  To keep the buildings cool all the windows were opened at night to invite cool air in.  Early in the morning the windows and shutters would be closed to trap the cool air inside.   In the early days most of the floors were of dirt and later in time wooden floors were added.  Dried horse manuer was used to insulate the ceilings.  Being dried in the hot desert sun it contained no moisture and didn't smell at all unless the roof leaked.  This comes from experience as I had friends who lived in these places.  During the really hot periods of the summer people would sleep on the roof of their home.

Next week Shadow and I are off to Baja for a good week or more.  We are both looking forward to the cool sea breese.  The surf has been flat for the past week or more and it looks like that will continue for another ten days.  Also the red tide is all over the area so the surface fishing won't be good at all.  So their is always kayaking and taking out the standup paddle board out to the kelp beds to do some bottom fishing.  It's really tough but somebody has to do it.