Lisa’s Travels

The Tuzigoot National Monument is another site in Arizona that you have to go see. Tuzigoot mean crooked water in Apache. It is the remnants of a Sinagua village. They figure it was built between 1125 and 1400. This picture is of me looking up at the ruins The original pueblo was two stories high with 77 ground floor rooms. These next two picture will be looking down:

The above two pictures are what it looks like in pueblo houses. Except for adding a floor to it, they pretty much left it unchanged. They had to add the floor because the dead are buried underneath (and usually only about 18 inches too!). People got into the pueblo houses with ladders through openings in the roof. As you can tell, there are very few exterior openings. The village started with a small number of rooms that housed about 50 people for the first 100 years. In the 1200s, the population doubled. The population doubled again they took in refugee farmers who were fleeing the drought. No one knows why the Sinagua disappeared, but they left us a marvel to look at.

My best spring vacation ever has to be our trip last year to New York. (I would have said our recent Arizona trip, but that was done before the first day of spring. Miami was pretty fun too, but that trip was in January. I also didn’t have anytime to do anything like see the Miami Seaquarium). For those of you who don’t know, I won an all expenses paid trip to the Rachel Ray show last March. They called me on a Thursday and we flew out Monday, I think. It was also right after my birthday. We only had a limited time to do things while we were there, so I wish we would have known about Trusted Tours & Attractions. They could have directed us to what things to do in New York or even some sightseeing tours. We did end up doing pretty okay for ourselves though. We were able to visit Times Square and the World Trade Center Site. I wish we would have had time for the Statute of Liberty.

The really cool thing is that Trusted Tours & Attractions has an awesome contest going on. All you need to do is sign up for their newsletter and you could win a handheld GPS unit! This contest ends on Monday, April 30th, 2008, so what are you waiting for?

Did you know that Arizona has its own castles? This picture is of a place called Montezuma’s Castle. It is the ancient remnants of a Sinaguan Indian Village. The Sinaguans were farmers who settled in Arizona in the 600s. They grew corn, beans, squash, and cotton. They watered them using irrigation. Around 1150, they began building large pueblos in hilltops and cliffs. If I remember correctly, there were several hundred people living in here at one time. There are several different levels that you can’t see in here. In the early 1400s, the Sinagua abandoned the entire valley, and no one knows why.

This picture shows how high up in the cliffs that this really was. It is almost breathtaking just due to the work involved. I can only imagine how many hours were spent creating this. Its hard to believe that hundreds of people lived here. They figure that they had made ladders to get up in there. Could you imagine climbing up and down every single day of your life? They don’t really know why they built it up there. It could be because it was cooler in the cliffs or for protection. They showed a model of this castle there (it was behind glass, so I couldn’t get a good picture) showing about 25 rooms in this place!

This castle is also at the same site. However, this one is at ground level. As you can see, there isn’t much left to it! This castle was destroyed by fire.  I never knew that we had our own castles here, did you?  I just thought they were in Europe.

At Montezuma’s Castle, they also talk to you about the trees, flowers, and wildlife that you see.  Remember, it is always important to stay on the trails there and at the other sites due to snakes and tarantulas!  Since it was still cold, we didn’t see any.

This is a historical site you have to visit if you ever go to Arizona. Not only is it beautiful, you get a great history lesson!