Southwest Field Studies 2006 Field Reports

Previous Years

Big Bend/Rio Grand River Trip

Bright red dappled clouds with shots of yellow distract us from the numbing effects of frozen socks and shoes. Hilarious shocked laughter and muffled shouts of surprise erupt from tents as we emerge into the early dawn of the Chihuahuan desert.

After a three-day orientation at Earlham College we traveled for another three days through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas (home of the 72 oz. Steak and vasectomy reversals). We observed the change from temperate deciduous forests to oak scrub, grasslands, and then finally the Chihuahuan desert. We spend the first full day in Texas, at Outward Bound in Redford, gearing up for our river trip. January 12th we got on the river, learned and practiced paddling, and continued to our first campsite, where we were graced with the striking red sunrise and frozen shoes.

Nine days on the river were interspersed with a day of rock climbing at Black Rocks, and a couple of layover days at Entrance Rapids where we explored the natural history of the region. We learned about fantastically adapted desert plants such as lechuguilla, sangre de drago, and candellia and rocks such as igneous intrusive and extrusive, fossils (sand dollar!) and petrified wood. We spend a lot of time hanging out and getting to know each other better, doing "check-ins" and playing "the village" .

All of us have been awed by the desert landscape, early mornings, fully night skies, and steep canyon walls that echo with the sound of canyon wrens. We have been invigorated and touched by budding friendships, constant laughter, and "the werewolf."

The last few days we have caught up on laundry, phone calls and showers, day hikes, and academics. We will leave Terilingua tomorrow, and continue our journey to Arizona, via Huaco Tanks. This weekend we will begin exploring the Sonoran Desert, and then head of to visit the Seri people, in Punta Chueca and Desemboque, and then continue to La Mesa de Abajo, in the mountains outside of Yecora, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Submitted, Rosemary Logan (SWFS 2006 Co-Leader)

Tour De Mexico, February 2006

The tour is a 21 day race/adventure expedition from Tucson, Arizona through the busting metropolis of Nogales, Arizona and Sonora. Then off at a maddening pace south to Hermosillo for a brief but intense team challenge activity through a crowded super-center. After Hermosillo there is a short period for logistics and regrouping on the sunny, sandy beach of Kino Bay.

Stage two is an adventure segment that leads from Kino Bay to Seriland. There is the possibility for great obstacles, difficult to overcome through barriers of language; this total-immersion experience takes place in Desemboque, with the Seri Indians. Here, teams will be broken into pairs based on personal interest criteria and set to engage such interests within the parameters of their host situation. Interest groups include indigenous foods, and medicinals from native plants and herbs, map making, or oral history projects. This portion of the program is punctuated by a sea adventure of many miles to a remote and uninhabited island in the Sea of Cortes.

Upon returning to Kino Bay for more logistics, there will be celebrations for the team returning from Desemboque. After regrouping here for a number of days, the last leg of the trip begins with a second trial of the super-center activity with strict time limits for teams. This fast paced day will lead from the coast to deep in the ranges of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and just after dark, if all things go as planned will lead to the remote village of La Mesa de Abajo.

The time at La Mesa de Abajo is a mixed bag of experience from grueling labor in the fields, grinding grain, and digging latrines, to intense lessons on traditional culinary practices. However, this village experience is the most leisurely part of the tour, with heart-warming hospitality and plenty of wonderful food.

Meeting for Worship on the beach! Sunset Celebrations- Kino Bay, Mexico The Kino Marine Research Station- our home
Cholla harvesting with the Seri Indians Careful Webb- those Cholla are prickly!

Our Southwest Field Studies team successfully ran the Tour de Mexico with many smiles and only a couple beat-up vans. The experience was both grueling at times, and enriching; each member came away with a set of experiences for life, and some profoundly changed worldviews. The unique opportunity for first-hand experience and diverse perspectives on SWFS and especially on the Mexico portion is unequalled in any other program.

Cheers to SWFS 2006 for their fantastic successes in the Mexico portion of the program!

Submitted by Webb Lucas, program participant SWFS 2006

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