Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Lorenia
While a desert at first glance seems a harsh and desolate place I quickly realized that it was vibrant with life. When we were in wilderness areas it was just an expanse of bushes and cacti in all directions with trees only occurring near water sources. To my surprise, I found out that the dry sandy soil there has a very good nutrient mix for the growth of plants. However this amount of plant life proved to be a problem, as it seemed at least half of the desert plants had spines, spikes, blades, or other ways of inflicting pain and wounds on me and my classmates.
Dull green colors with sharp reactions
While the immediately obvious dangers were the cacti, many bushes also had such spikes. An early problem was a rather annoying class of plant that had blade-like leaves. These slashed light wounds across many of us, one cutting a nasty wound in Joe’s hand. This was mostly an early trip problem though. Another offender was a small green plant called “Good Woman”, which had sharp leaves that, while not doing significant damage to us most of the time, were painful and became a problem in the area near Edgardo’s (our guide) home. They were, thankfully, restricted mainly to areas near water. The plant was named “Good Woman” because it can be used to aid childbirth. The joke is “If this is the good woman, I’d hate to see the bad one.”
There were other plants as well, including many native cures. I experienced one such cure, a flower I was told would relieve sore throat and coughing. What I was not told was that the thing had an extremely powerful aftertaste. It was a sensation I cannot adequately describe. While I just fell into the experience of the blast, the one other person who also had one, immediately started chugging water in an attempt to wash it down. I might have been wiser to do so myself but somehow despite how uncomfortable it was I had a feeling that I should savor it. This was, from what I could tell, nothing compared to another incident.
While we were eating lunch at the home of a woman we had just helped construct a garden for, we noticed a number of small red peppers. Most of the students tried one and were inflicted with such suffering that they shoved ice cubes in their mouths in an attempt to make it go away. Witnessing this, I decided that I had no reason to inflict needless suffering on myself and chose not to try one.
Though the desert fauna was much less central to our desert experience than the flora, there were reminders that it was there. Most were minor, like a small animal off the side of the road or a lizard in our sink. Most notable weren’t the native fauna, but those introduced by humans. Cows so thin they were almost skeletal, obviously not equipped for the desert. Dogs that were a little thin, but still friendly as ever.
One of the more striking experiences was, at one of our meals in a rural area, a pack of cats materializing out of the brush. Cats are naturally carnivorous, so it showed how desperate they were how they were willing to eat bread scraps. On the way out of the area we ran one over, but it popped back up again and ran like a polar bear was chasing it.
Joe and his new friend
A desert is a prime example of the adaptability of life. Plants and animals not only manage to survive there but thrive, and the difficulties of desert life have only made them tougher. It is difficult for our less hardened life to survive there, but it too can find a place. The trip would not have been the same without the animals we encountered, and the difficulties presented by the plants only made the destinations of our hikes better, as we had worked hard to reach them.
-Adam Braude, Age 14
Source: http://matadornetwork.com/community/expeditionjcs/ouch-desert-plants-of-baja-california-sur/
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