Monday, February 18, 2008

word of warning...

Tequila is made of one specific type of the agave plant: the Agave Tequilana Weber, blue variety. There are many different varieties of the agave plant in Mexico. But tequila is made only from the BLUE AGAVE.



why do we care?
when we were at the desert museum i was enthralled with this huge agave plant...




... it looks like a big asparagus and that's kind of neat, right? well, this is NOT a blue agave, so no tequila was available when i tripped over a rock next to this agave and broke my fall in a teddybear cholla! do you know about these evil things?



see, don't they look soft and fuzzy? not the case...



i came away with several--give or take a hundred--barbed spines in my hand! i thought i was going to DIE from the pain, and then i had to ask myself some very serious questions:

  • if it would really be necessary to pull those out?
  • was there any tequila nearby?
  • would the festering sores last long?
  • did anyone see me trip over a rock and fall into this devilish cactus?
  • was there any tequila nearby?
  • where was the nearest place to get said tequila?


well, the spines all had to be plucked out, and the forty-11 wounds cleaned (hello? STINGING!!) and my poor arthritic, libriarian's hand swelled up! i know--poor me.

but to add insult to injury, ryan says to me, "you know, you should stay on the trail." he's so wise...

these pictures are from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum site

1 comment:

Unknown said...

that is a good story. one your children will never let you forget. sounds like you had fun in az.