Cacti

We left Mexico City to go to Tehuacan which is a city indios,  our good friends Michela and Francois told us about a region that is a biosphere park, home to enormous cacti and just beside the salt flats in the middle of the mountains southeast of Puebla.  We hired a driver to take us there.  Above is a view of the cabana that Hernandez Cortez, the man with the hat in the picture owns.  This spring of salt water that gushes out of the ground has been in his family for three generations.  It is full of minerals and comes from a time when the atlantic and pacific oceans were joined by a sea that was pushed up and now the marine fossils and salt are at 1500 meters in altitude.

This area is also a very delicate environment where many "columnar cacti" grow but you would think that these are poles sticking out of the ground.  In April large flowers 5 or 6, bloom at the top of each cactus and they are eaten or made into creams.  The bats come from the caverns in the mountains at night to fertilize the flowers and later eat the fruit, the seeds of which they drop to cultivate more cacti.
The spring that is 70% salt.  The water is spread out on flat bassins and evaporated to get the white stuff.

These cacti resemble the Saguaro in New Mexico but are a different species.  Some grow to be 800 years old.  He showed us one that was 30 years old and it was about 1 foot tall.
The spiral spheres of cacti are also very prevelent as well as the agave for making tequila and mescal.  The difference between tequila and mescal is mescal is always made by artisans and not industrialized as well as being a higher alcoholic content.  We haven't tasted it yet.

There are other very pungent plants in this reserve like the Mal Mujeres below that is a type of poisonous plant that is an antidote to scorpion bites and snake bites.  It also treats arthritis and muscle aches.  I'll try it.

 Today was a celebration of the "cuidad des indios" which is this town of Tehuacan and there were many celebrations which will continue for 4 days.

The Jacaranda are in bloom in Tehuacan and are beautiful against the blue skies.  Clear air here as opposed to Mexico City.


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