Latino America » Arizona https://asu.news21.com Latino and Hispanic art, culture, politics, religion, education and life in America. Wed, 24 Jul 2013 19:34:43 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Arizona Heat : Experiencing the Desert on Foot https://asu.news21.com/2010/06/arizona-heat-experiencing-the-desert-on-foot/ https://asu.news21.com/2010/06/arizona-heat-experiencing-the-desert-on-foot/#comments Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:22:02 +0000 rzemansky https://asu.news21.com/?p=1610

Amid southern Arizona’s vast landscape of dry foothills, valleys and mountains it’s easy to feel very small.

The people that I’m writing about move through this land, sometimes on a daily basis — they include hikers and hunters, law enforcement and humanitarian volunteers, and the people illegally crossing Arizona’s section of the U.S.-Mexico border.

With the land playing so much of a role in the stories I’m reporting, I decided early on that I needed to see it and experience it for myself. On my first trip I was confident that I’d kept track of where we’d parked the jeep — only to be completely wrong. During the second trip I witnessed dramatic shifts in weather and vowed to be better prepared next time. Most recently, exhausted from the heat, I felt my head swimming despite all my efforts to stay fit, rested and hydrated.

There are rewards — glimpses of elusive wildlife, the fiery wildflowers, unforgettable sunsets. But people who underestimate the harshness of this area are taking a huge risk.

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