Ouch, ouch, ouch! Some prickly customers from las Americas.

Red flowers blooming on low barrel cactus in the mountain near Tafi in Argentina.The first spring rain in five years came down on Arizona a few days before we arrived, resulting in a burst of flowers in the desert. In the background are the very prickly Saguaro cactus in Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Another cactus that grows similar to the Saguaro is the Cardón cactus, found only in the high Puna region of Argentina. We were there in October when it is time for them to bloom.Agaves have a special place in the heart of indigenous peoples of Meso-America as they were used for refreshing slightly fermented beverages. Nowadays that beverage is known as Pulque, and further distillation provides Mezcal or Tequila depending on the type of agave used. Another Mexican favourite is the Prickly Pear cactus, this one growing at the archeological site of Tula just outside of Mexico City. In Mexico they eat both the red fruit, called ‘tunas’, and the spiky paddles they call ‘nopales’. (How to prepare cactus paddles.) 
Low growing Prickly Pear cacti and dead trees in Arches National Park’s Devil’s Garden. We were hungry but there was nowhere to sit and have a picnic without sitting on a cactus.A very prickly Prickly Pear plus a staghorn cholla along Hwy 128 in Utah.Tall cactus ‘tree’ growing up against an orange wall in Huatulco, Mexico. Cholla cactus at Green Valley, Arizona. In Costa Rica we found Playa Blanca and saw a wild jaguar on our way there. Amazing but I wouldn’t want to repeat that bone-jarring drive! An unusual climbing cactus against a terracotta orange wall in Oaxaca, Mexico. More of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Touching.