Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 18.

Phoenix, Papago Botanical Gardens, and San Diego Harbour.

The 23-mile round trip into the Grand Canyon left my legs rather sore, so I spent the next day relaxing at the South Rim and browsing in the shops at Fred Harvey's log cabins, which make up the Village. As the evening drew in, a coach arrived to transport visitors, mainly backpackers, back to Flagstaff and Fort William, around 90 miles or 145 km south of the Rim. After alighting at Flagstaff, I found a bed at a hostel in the centre of town, despite a crowd looking for accommodation for the coming night.

I spent the next day roaming around Flagstaff before boarding a Greyhound Americruiser for a short, three-hour journey to Phoenix. Although I was aware that there was an AYH hostel in Phoenix, but not so near the bus station. Therefore, I hired a taxi to take me there, as it was already dark, and I didn't want to walk around the streets looking for it. The ride was shorter than I anticipated, an easy walking distance. However, I was sharing the cab with another passenger who was going further. The driver dropped me off in front of an insignificant-looking private house in a residential estate. I checked in and was offered a bed for the next two nights.

Papago Botanical Gardens, Phoenix, Arizona.

The next day was my 43rd birthday, and the present I received was, I guess, appropriate! Of all international hostels, HI AYH Phoenix Metcalf House was the only hostel outside the UK that had compulsory duties. The morning after checking in and having had breakfast, I had to wash down the inside of a shower cubicle. However, the job was easy and straightforward, and it was done within a few minutes. After applying the detergent, I then used the removable shower head to rinse away the soap suds. 

Maybe this was why a couple of backpackers arose and left the hostel at daybreak while the rest of us were still in bed. To them, duties were for schoolchildren of the past, not for those two.

By midmorning, two other backpackers in their twenties were hiring bicycles from the hostel, and there was one mount left. I thought it a good idea to hire it myself and ask the other two where they were heading. They knew about Papago Gardens in the Scottsdale area of the city, and they were okay with me joining them, but no real friendships developed, maybe due to our age differences. 

And so, the three of us cycled along the few miles to the gardens. Here was someone approaching middle age, unmarried, and longing for love and acceptance after the disastrous social experience in Israel just a year earlier in 1994. Despite my fulfilled dream of hiking the Grand Canyon, I still felt lonely, rejected, and in need of friendship.

My two companions stuck close to each other whilst I trailed behind them, taking in the fascinating semi-desert scene of Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea Gigantea), which could grow up to forty feet (12 m) tall. However, at Papago Gardens, the cactus growth seemed to have been limited to half their mature height. Other species include the Golden Barrel Cactus, often used for landscaping. I have also seen these on Californian private gardens and at the San Diego Zoo. Other species include the Organ Pipe Cactus, the Senita, and the Prickly Pear. Also, within the grounds, signs were lecturing us on how domestic water supply conservation was so important in this part of the world. The cacti already knew this well enough to swell in size, as rainwater is stored within them after a short spell of wet weather.

The Papago Botanical Gardens were an eye-opener to a different natural world from the one I'm used to. Even on the route from Flagstaff to Phoenix, part of the surrounding country consisted of Saguaro cacti forests. It's this otherworldly feel that makes Travel such an interesting and learning experience.

Also in this week's album are pics of my arrival in San Diego. Here, I had the best hostel experience one could wish for. No duties, no curfew, 24-hour access to the member's kitchen, and more of a twin-bed room than a dormitory. It was here in San Diego in 1995 that the idea of the 1997 Round-the-World was conceived after befriending an Australian. The secular social life was not only excellent but also therapeutic after the 1994 Stella Carmel culture clash.

In this album, I have highlighted the city harbour with ferries sailing to the Coronado, a strip of land enclosing San Diego Bay, which is more of a lagoon than a cove on the coastline. Also included is Mission Beach, a sandy strip north of the city, and the Old Town, an open-air museum of the Western Frontier conquest and settlement. It had a garden centre where a live band added joviality to the atmosphere.

Click here for the Index to the main Biography. Phoenix is covered in Week 62, and San Diego from Week 63.

Downtown Phoenix.

Downtown Phoenix from near the hostel.

Shopping Mall, Phoenix.

At the Mall.

Another view of the mall gardens.

Indian Park, Phoenix.

Papago Botanical Gardens.

Organ Pipe Cactus.

Saguaro Cactus.

Organ Pipe Cactus.

Senita, Organ Pipes, Blue Candle.

Saguaro Cacti.

A Saguaro among Prickly Pears.

Golden Barrel Cacti.

The trail passes through a desert garden.

A Sagura dominates this section.

The most common Cactus in Arizona.

A variety of miniatures.

I pose in front of some Saguaro Cacti.

San Diego, Harbour and Coronado Ferries.

Downtown as seen from Harbour Pier.

A steamboat ferry to the Coronado.

Off it goes.

A view across the harbour from near the airport.

Looking towards the Coronado.

A tramline (left) passes through a garden.

A tram to San Ysidero on the Mexican border.

Pastel colours of Downtown San Diego.

The beauty of a subtropical city.

An Amtrak train for Los Angeles prepares to leave.

Mission Beach.

Facing north along Mission Beach.

From a pier, I watched some surfers.

I love those Pacific Ocean waves!

Letting my hair down at Mission Beach.

Palm trees line the esplanade. Oh, what joy!

On this cycleway, I rode up to La Jolla.

Mission Beach town.

Sunset at Mission Beach.

Approaching San Diego Old Town.

Palm trees partly conceal a church.

Typical Old West architecture.

Among those buildings is a blacksmith workshop.

A horse-drawn wagon.

The Garden Bazaar, Old Town.

I enjoyed the live band at the Garden Bazaar.

Posing yet again! 

Relaxing at the Bazaar.

The Old Town with a serene atmosphere.

The Garden Centre or Bazaar.

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Next Week, Balboa Park, SeaWorld, and Tijuana in Mexico.