We left the ship and hopped on the bus again for a 45 min drive to visit Mateus Palace. We drove through very hilly country with all possible land planted with grape vines. The roots of these vines go down around 45 ft as the climate is very dry and the soil is mostly shale. It's amazing that they grow at all. The villages are all preparing for grape harvest which will start around the first of Sept. They need so much help as it's still done by hand. With the vi...

This flowering bush is called "Pride of India". They have them in the nicer gardens where they are watered. It's very desert like with a lot of the same plants as Az.