Before I go on my trip (I'll be gone till Monday), I wanted to share some of my fotos from Arizona with you all. I've been to AZ twice this year and I really do love the desert.
One of my best homegirls, Elena, a Chicana, lives there. I stay with her and her family when I visit. After our
Friday night event, we had plans to hang out with some of my friends who I have not seen in years. We went to the pool, got tanned (I got burnt! That sun is NO joke) and then went to have dinner and drinks with good friends.
Jump to our excursions in the desert. I told Elena I would love to see Sedona so we made plans to go there. It's a 2 hour drive away. While driving there I got to see how the desert changes. I always thought the desert was bare and dry like in the movies. Yet that's only one way the desert can look. Here's what the desert looks like from Phoenix all the way to Sedona:
On our way to Sedona we passed by signs advertising "
Montezuma's Castle." This is a structure indiegnious people created and has been preserved. Why they gave it the name Montezuma when it was NOT created by the Aztec, but by the Sinaguan is unclear to me and Elena who is an anthropologist and artist.
What we did pass was this sign that I thought read in a particular way, but alas, it was not what I had hoped for. Fortunately, with a bit of photo-shopping I was able to make the sign into what I had hoped it would say:
It's good to dream.
We knew we were getting closer to Sedona when we saw this:
We knew we were IN Sedona when we saw this:
So we stopped to take fotos. And we found a scat exhibit and I found a NYC UFO card:
Then we stopped at a little spot that Elena always goes to when she visits Sedona. It's off the main road, a little shopping area where I think we took some of the most beautiful fotos. Here are my three favorite:
The entire time I was in AZ I knew in every part of my body that I was really in Mexico. My body, my mind, my spirit knew of the space regardless of the "border." I knew I was on sacred ground with the steps I took. I saw the cactus grow in between concrete (not the cacti that were imported, but the rebel cacti). I felt my skin heat up from the sun. I craved water every day all the time. I slept in the most quiet of spaces. Chihuahuas licked my toes. I ate authentic Mexican food. I spoke English. I spoke Spanish. I watched the clouds move over the mountains.
What would it be like to have sex under the scorching sun in the desert. The preparation needed for that alone would take away the spontaneity. Yet the lathering up of suntan lotion on the back of a lover is erotic. Would our bodies get red if we were to play on the rocks in Sedona?
The desert reminded me of sex and sexuality. It can take many forms, but it is still the desert. It can be alluring but if not prepared for it's atmosphere you can get burnt, hurt, or die. I know I'll be back for more.
