They struggled through the spiny desert, felt the harshness of the winter cold and saw the darkness of the night, accompanied only by the sound of their hushed steps and the howling of coyotes.
Sofia Torres, 36, her niece Sandra Torres, 20, and Aurora Angeles, 45, experienced all this and more when they attempted to cross the U.S./Mexico border illegally. They now sit disappointed in a shelter in Nogales, Sonora, after getting caught by U.S. Border Patrol and sent back.
They are not the only women who try to cross to the U.S. through the Sonoran desert. The number of women border crossers jumped 37 percent from 1994 to 1998, according to a continuing study by University of Arizona anthropologist Anna Ochoa O'Leary.
She also points to a 2006 study which shows that 48 percent of the people who move to or who try to cross the border illegally through Nogales, Sonora, are women. She cites the decline in the Mexican economy and says that it all seemed to begin with the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"With NAFTA they disrupted a lot of the economies in rural and impoverished parts of Mexico," she says.
So women increasingly cross into the United States to try to earn money to survive.
Standing next to a bunk bed inside the girl's room of San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora, the three women — all from the Mexican state of Hidalgo — say they were aware of the difficulties they might encounter crossing into the United States, but the prospect of jobs was too enticing.
"It's because in Mexico (it's) the minimum (wage), and with the minimum people can't live," Sofia Torres explains. "I wanted to earn more to give the best to my children."
Sofia Torres, made the 35-hour bus trip with her niece Sandra to Sonoita, Sonora, where they were to meet the coyote who would smuggle them into Arizona. This was their first attempt.
While traveling, they met Angeles who had the same plan. They say they were three of the five women that tried to cross with a group of about 35 men.
They do not know what happened to the other two women.
"We were in the wilderness; there were a lot of branches," Angeles says when describing her trip through the desert. "I had gloves and a hat because my son told me the desert is dangerous because the branches hit you in the face."
After walking a couple of hours in the desert, they stopped to wait for the smuggler to provide directions and that's when the Border Patrol found them.
The Torres women were planning to go to Oakland, Calif., where they were to meet with family members who would help them find jobs. Angeles was headed to Oregon, where her son lives.
They say they have seen that the people in their hometowns who had lived, or do live, in the United States, have prospered significantly.
"I see that a lot of our friends have crossed," Sofia says. "They have their houses. They have built houses for their parents. They have progressed."
Although they had seen successes, they had also heard stories about the dangers of crossing the desert.
"The ones who love us really say how things are, but the ones who don't, say amazing things," Angeles says, referring to the stories they would hear about how easy it is to cross the desert illegally.
Hilda Lourerio, founder of the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora, says that the number of women in the shelter has increased in recent years.
"A lot more women," she says. "I think since three years ago."
Her shelter has helped deported migrants for 28 years. They offer dinner and breakfast, beds to sleep in, and showers for men, women and children who find the shelter, Lourerio says.
They serve about 40 women and 100 men a day.
For women who cross the desert, the risks are enormous.
"They can get hurt. They can die. They can get attacked. They can be sexually assaulted," O'Leary says. "Even if they don't die of thirst, they can cause damage to the organs."
Women are 2.7 times more likely to die in the desert than men, she says.
Apart from the risks associated with hiking across miles of unforgiving desert, the women may be mistreated by Border Patrol agents.
Angeles says she was kicked in the stomach by one of the agents.
"He kicked me, but with those thick shoes," she says. "They took out the air from me."
The three women also accuse agents of not controlling their horses appropriately and causing them to kick and hurt a couple of the people in their group.
Jose de Jesus Gomez, an immigrant at the shelter, says he believes it is more dangerous for women to cross the desert because they are exposed to abuse that men don't have to worry about.
"It's very dangerous because they can get raped," Gomez said. "The majority of the smugglers use drugs and when someone is on drugs and they see a woman, the first thing they think about is you know what."
Despite the risks, women still attempt to cross into the United States in search of a better life. Many of them try again and again.
As for the Torres women and Angeles, they are waiting for their families to send them money so they can return home. The $400 each of them saved to make their trip, is gone.
"Thank God we are here to talk about it; not like others" Sofia said. "We are now returning to our towns."
