Since I have traveled out West, I have become much less naive. This trip specifically introduced me to real cactus. You know what... all cactus do not have two arms that are perfectly placed.
On the Sunday of our trip we decided to head down to Tuscon to visit Saguaro National Park. When I say we, it was us three girls again but we traded in our boy. Michael did not come but my father-in-law Peter joined us. He had been in the Netherlands the entire time we had been out there so we are glad he got back just in time for us to spend some time with us.
The park gets its name from the Saguaro cactus which only exists in the Southwest region of the US and some parts of Mexico.
Upon our arrival to the National Park, we checked out the visitors center where we were invited to join in the watching of a video. I SO wish I could find this video somewhere on the internet to post. I could not help but laugh during pretty much the whole thing. I tried so hard to contain my laughter, which made it even funnier.
Some may call me disrespectful for my laughter and I by no means intend to offend anyone, but I found it hard to keep a straight face as the narrator went on and on and on about how the cactus in the Saguaro Desert are our relatives. I'm pretty sure at one point it was implied that the cactus used to be humans. I was also informed that as I was walking through the desert I was not to be concerned about stepping on a rock or running across a rattlesnake. What I was to be concerned about was respecting my relatives and honoring the fact that a bobcat might have laid there.
After the video we headed over to the exhibits, where we got to spend a lot of time with our "relatives". This is our cheerleader relative.
We really learned a whole lot about the cactus. It really is a fascinating creation.
A cactus does not grow its first arm until it is 50-75 years old. That was shocking to me! Some cactus live to be over 100 years olds.
Some cactus have holes in them. What happens is a bird basically drills a whole in the cactus and then leaves. The cactus knows the hole is an injury so it creates an internal patch that prevent water from leaking out of the hole. This patch creates what is known as a boot. Once this boot is created, the bird returns and lives in the boot.
These cactus don't soak up any water during the winter rains. They all soak up water during the summer rains. That was surprising to me. You'd think living in the desert they would soak up rain anytime they could. I will vouch that it was quite hot out there in the 100 degree weather. Obviously, though, this system is working quite well for them.
After our adventures with the cactus, we headed back to Phoenix but not before stopping at In N Out.
So this is the last adventure of our Arizona trip. Sarah and I both had a blast and our so thankful for our awesome tour guides!
*Note: I looked up the plural use of cactus. According to Wikipedia, you can use cacti or cactuses but in Arizona people prefer to use cactus for both singular and plural. Since I was in Arizona I assumed I would do what the Arizonians do.
