Butterflies and other animals - Southwest USA 2018 - 6
Tuesday, 2018-05-01 - Butterflies and other animals
For today and tomorrow, a significant drop in temperature is announced, even some rain is possible (highly appreciated by the locals I assume, as all fire warnings are at high risk). When I reach Madera Canyon, south of Tucson, it's in the lower 60s (~17°C) and pretty windy. I wasn't sure if I should go for a hike anyhow, so I drive directly to the Santa Rita lodge.
This is a hot spot for hummingbirds as they have placed some feeding stations for them and other animals as well. The birds like the sugar water but obviously some of the flowers around as well.
I stay for some 20 minutes and decide that I'm not in the mood to dress up for the cold. Instead, I go for the next Walmart to fill up our stock of medicine against flu and others. Freya wants to have antiallergic pills and as expected you don't find them on the shelf.
So, I go the pharmacist: Yes, they have them - a different brand, but with the same ingredients. "Just go to the lady on the counter and show her your ID". You can get a lot of medicine here without a prescription, but for some of them, you will be registered as they are considered to be a drug.
Ok, here is my ID - well, nothing the lady saw before.
"Do you have a passport?" Ok, here is my passport.
"Don't you have an American one?" "No, I'm not an American citizen"
With some help she finally found the right menus to enter my name, but then she failed with the address. "Do, you have the address of your hotel here?" That finally worked out, but it took me some 20 minutes for sure 🙁.
After leaving the Walmart, I start my drive to the North. Today it's just a short one till Phoenix. As it's still too early for check-in I go directly to my next destination: Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale.
They claim to be the biggest conservatory with more than 3000 butterflies. The space is not huge, but this means that you are surrounded by butterflies wherever you go. If you love butterflies this is definitely a place to go. I spend here more than two hours (plus a coffee break).
Next to Butterfly Wonderland is an aquarium, a mirror maze and some other locations. You can get some combi-tickets if you like but I was fine with the butterflies.
