Maria Pringle loves the border and its culture, having spent some of her formative years here and maintaining strong friendships established in Nogales long ago. She wants others to understand and appreciate the Ambos Nogales community as she does.

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On the flip side, she wants folks from the border to get to know and support Green Valley, where she now lives. She has an idea that could help build better ties among every community from Sahuarita to the border along the Santa Cruz Valley.

Pringle brought it up during an international “familiarization tour” on Sunday, Nov 1.

She proposed that businesses along the corridor exchange coupons with each other in order to readily refer customers or clients seeking items or services not offered in their own shops.

“This will encourage people to buy within our area and give them reasons to visit our various communities,” Pringle said.

Her thought process was in line with the intent of the tour, which as the brainchild of Patricia Lopez who chairs the Nogales-Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce Travel and Tourism Committee.

Nogales chamber Director Olivia Ainza-Kramer and her Green-Valley-Sahuarita counterpart Jim DiGiacomo had no trouble getting buy-in from Andres Ibarra Salgado, president of CANACO, the Nogales, Sonora Chamber of Commerce. DiGiacomo rounded up Pringle and nine other volunteers to “test drive” what is intended to become a regular activity billed as “Fam Tours,” Ainza-Kramer said. Nogales Councilwoman Melendez-Lopez lined up a motorized trolley donated to the city a few years ago by the late Cabot Sedgwick, a longtime area rancher, and Ibarra Salgado organized the Nogales, Sonora leg of the tour.

The Green Valley-Sahuarita chamber had “information about Nogales that was 15 to 20 years old and there was scant communication among our communities,” said Patricia Lopez. “These tours should help change all that. As the name implies, the tours are meant to familiarize visitors with your town so in turn they can go back home and promote the area.”

Sunday’s excursion started at the Esplendor Resort and Country Club where Lopez, who is international sales manager for the resort, greeted the guests with a margarita reception and hors d’oeuvres. They then went on to Soto’s Pete Kitchen restaurant where they learned the historic significance of the former outpost, while enjoying a second reception and live music by Lalo Chavez.

Next stop was the Pimeria Alta Historical Museum in the Old Nogales Town Hall. The group then hopped trolley and visited downtown, including a stop at the Santa Cruz County Historic 1904 Courthouse, and a drive through the old neighborhoods, to see homes built by some of the city’s original families a century ago.

The visitors then walked across to Mexico where they were escorted by CANACO members. They went to curios stores, pharmacies, bakery shops, and historic churches.

The tour included a stop at the Hotel Fray Marcos de Niza, inaugurated in 1950, a popular spot for locals and celebrities.

From there, the visitors went to another hot spot known for its culinary offerings and rustic ambiance. La Roca restaurant is carved into a rock cliff and is a stone’s throw from the border, and is a favorite of Maria Pringle when she comes to visit her friends, such as Silvia Hernandez and Ana Acuna of Nogales.

After dinner there, the group returned to Nogales, Ariz., to a tour of a Dia De Los Muertos exhibition on Bejarano Street also sponsored by the Nogales Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, and organized by the Cultural Arts Committee.

In a post-tour interview, in perfect Spanish, Pringle said, “this was very informative and educational even for me. I was very impressed with what I saw and heard. Many times we live in an area and remain unfamiliar with so many things it has to offer.”

She said the length of the tour was great. There was one instance where a tour member got winded crossing the long pedestrian bridge when walking from Fray Marcos to La Roca. “But on the way back we crossed through the railroad tracks and that wasn’t so bad,” she said.

Others participating in the tour were Dean Davis, president of the Rio Rico Chamber of Commerce and his wife, Lynn. The volunteers from Green Valley and Sahuarita were Marie Witt, Kim Beirne, Pat Prill, Cleda Holcomb, Jane Sloan, Joan Daidone, Rosalie Brinkmeyer and Carmen Kraff.