I've always really liked spiky things for some reason, and i've been a fan of cactus for a long time, I even briefly joined a specialist club that would hold meetings and lectures and cacti sales where you could learn about them. The demographic of people were 50 years old plus, I guess these kind of meet ups don't attract a younger crowd especially when you can just enjoy an aesthetic photo on instagram of colourful cacti.
But the unfortunate part of that is, many of those cacti get diseases because they are being mass produced in green houses with chemicals, they are not naturally adapted to the environment around them, and often you will buy them and they die quickly, since they are susceptible to pests.
However the native cactus that grows in the wild, is very hardy and can live for hundreds of years, these cactus im standing by are at least more that 50 years old. they just thrive in this harsh arid hot and cold climate.
To be honest arriving here in the desert of central Mexico i did not know what to expect. One of the guys from the ranch came and picked me up from the bus station, and when I arrived at the ranch i was greeted by 8 friendly dogs. They are great companions who will follow you around and look out for you, they will sleep by your room and guard you from the coyotes
Everywhere you walk there are spiky things, my shoes were not entirely practical here, cowboy boots are needed for sure, because with these rubber soles i ended up with spikes poking into my foot. Many of the cactus have stones pilled around as a kind of barrier but there are many tiny cactus you can not see and even fallen dead pieces that you are unaware of. Its a very treacherous place to walk without the right shoes.
However I could not help but wonder around and i'm so glad i did because I stumbled upon this beautiful cactus, Ive forgotten the name but it is protected, this one was huge and again could be decades old. The flowers were in bloom and it was truly spectacular to watch bees and insects pollinating the bright pink flowers.
Even the spikes have a wonderful colour of peach and pink. The cactus was growing amongst many wild flowers that are all in bloom, since there have been some recent rains creating an autumn spring effect that was truly magical.
What do you think.... do you love cactus? let me know in the comments below