All columnar cacti like
very hot places.
Southwest of Guadalajara
there's a route that
takes desert travelers
through some of the finest
cactus country anywhere.
A special sort, thepitayo
with large fruits
calledpitayas, has its
own festival complete
with contests of many sorts.
Funding for
The Desert Speaks
was provided by
Desert Program Partners,
representing concerned viewers
making a financial commitment
to the education about and
preservation of deserts.
And by the
Stonewall Foundation.
♪ music
In southern Mexico some cacti
have taken on an importance
that few people outside of
Mexico have ever seen.
The cacti are
calledpitayos.
In early summer people
flock to a certain
neighborhood in
Guadalajara to purchase
a special cactus fruit.
It's called thepitaya.
♪ music
The fruits come from
farther south where the
climate and soil seem to
favor the biggest plants
and the best harvests.
The fruits are so revered
that a festival in their
honor is held every year.
Accompanying me on what
I callPitaya Highway
is Alberto Búrquez whose
done studies of cacti and
their pollinators along the way.
These are the ones they
call I think mamayas.
They're huge.
The colors are amazing.
I don't know, these
red ones look the best.
Here, choose one,
it's paid for.
Okay, I will try this one.
Okay, you have 10 seconds
in which to evaluate it.
This freshness that thepitaya
has is not for our pleasure.
It's because thepitayawants us
to disperse the little seeds.
Oh, they want us to eat
them and our digestion will
remove the seed coat and
enable them then to germinate.
Yes and deposit
them somewhere.
Boy, I'm
salivating, Alberto.
I can't help it.
I melt like wax in the
flame when I seepitayas.
Mm, mm.
You know, the people in
Baja California were able
to take these in the
fruiting time of thepitayas
there and they could go places
where they could not go
other times because they
could use these for water.
Como se llama este color?
Morado.
Y cuanto vale?
Tres pesos.
Color is coded genetically
in each cactus.
So every tree has a
certain color that will
never change
through their life.
That will never
change, right.
So if it's purple now
it's purple forever.
Forever.
Birds are very
partial to red color.
They pollinate red flowers
or like red fruits.
And that's why we
find most commonly.
Is the red.
.redpitayas.
Is there any method for
eating these with dignity?
They are self contained
and it has a soft skin
like bananas for example.
That's very true.
Yeah.
So they are, they
are easy to carry.
And they keep them clean.
But they mess your hands.
Well, they mess your
hands and you have about,
I think when
you pick them,
you have about 8 hours
to sell them before
they start to go bad.
Dos por tres pesos?
Tres.
Five.
So I owe him another ten.
Otros dias.
We sell between 20,000 to 25,000
pitayafruits every day.
Unfortunately the season
only lasts two months
out of the year.
This tradition has been
passed on through the
generations by our
ancestors and hopefully
our sons and our
grandchildren will
continue the same course.
Pitayas oyga!
The town from where these
pitayascome is having a
fair, apitayafair so
Alberto it strikes me that
we would be very well
advised to go look for
Techaluta, particularly
if there's a dance there.
But anyway, I've never
been to apitayafair
before so it's
the place to go.
Fortunately for us
Techalutais only a
hundred kilometers down
the road from Guadalajara.
Along thePitaya Highway
at night what I thought
were fireflies actually
turned out to be
Techalutasgathering
pitayasby lamplight.
♪ music
We harvest at night so
that the fruit
will still be ripe by
the time it gets to the market.
That's why we wake up
early in the morning to harvest.
We harvest with headlamps
which facilitates
identifying which fruits
are ready to be picked.
The majority of people
around here work
harvesting thepitayas
during most of April,
May and some of
June when it ends.
This hook here has barbs
that we try to wrap around
the fruit before we do a
quick twist detaching
the fruit from the cactus.
The ripe ones have a shine
to them that indicates
they're ready
to be harvested.
There are several
families here.
The owner of this property
hires families so that
they can be together.
There's a certain division
of labor between the families.
Some harvest, others scrape the
spines off the fruits.
If you grab the spiny
fruit from the top,
you're gonna get stuck but
if you grab it from
the bottom you're okay.
A la megiemendas.
Una persona?
Si.
So one person can harvest 1,500
of these fruits a day.
Es un poco mas fuerte
colores desde pitaya.
This particular color
this sort of purplish-rose
color is close to the wild
variety of color and
this one has been cultivated.
This is a better
seller on the market.
People like to buy this
color and these are also bigger.
These are, this is from
a cultivated plant.
They're very elongated
buds aren't they?
They're like, they're 4
inches long so that's,
that's 10 centimeters long.
So my bet is that it's
bat pollinated and
is pollinated by
long-tongue bats.
Long-tongue bats, huh?
Because of the
very long flower.
That looks more like
a pollen robber.
He's stealing.
Stealing the pollen.
Well, sometime, maybe
8,000 years ago,
somebody had to find that
either a piece fell off
and took root or they got
great fruits from one and
said, "I wonder what
happens if I throw this on
the ground" and the
cutting itself took root.
Which happened,
which one was it?
Well, and then they
started reproducing that
very good form ofpitayo, the
big one with very sweet juice.
And they got bigger and
bigger as more and
more people selected em.
Did you notice that some
of the plants have fallen
over but even when they
fall over they
still produce fruits.
That's pretty good.
Columnar cacti are
resilient plants that can
withstand a lot of damage,
natural damage and
still produce their fruit.
I guess they really
want to reproduce.
And apparently the public
cannot get enoughpitayas.
The market just seems
endless and so this,
this idea of taking
cuttings and making new
orchards is expanding
throughout this whole
valley into the south.
They sell the cuttings at
much higher price than the
pitayasthemselves and
they are really valuable things.
You are selling the
producer that strain that
is coveted by everyone
in the valley.
I can imagine, if you
plant an apple tree,
it takes generally
7 years to produce.
Here, if they
take a cutting,
put it in the
ground, 2 years.
That's great.
You know, the plants pretty well
take care of themselves.
Very much.
And they are producing
an organic product too.
So half of the work has
been done in the orchards.
There, yeah, the easy part.
Collected, bring em and
then some fruits
do not shed their spines.
There has not been
selection of that.
But they consider them so
valuable that still they
collect them and remove
the spines from them.
Cies filamucho?
La salva.
So these spines actually
have a little venom in em
and they actually,
they hurt when you,
when you get pricked by
them and you have to get
those out or man, you'd
really be in a lot of pain.
Me enseña asi uno?
Des pues.
Des pues.
Ow!
Gee, those things do hurt.
Come on Alberto, no
making fun of them.
You are better at teaching
then at removing the spines,
for sure.
Well, you know, there are some
talents that we have to develop.
A lot ofpitayas.
I see.
I came to Mexico she says
just to peel these spines
off thepitayas.
Since I just got
spined, I'm out of here.
I don't know about you.
Gracias señora.
Okay,gracias.
Muchas gracias.
A part of most festivals
in western and northern Mexico
are horse races.
They usually take place
at midday when most
other people are
taking a siesta.
There is a strong rural
culture and at the top
of that is horse racing.
You raise horses
to work in your,
in your ranch but then
you nurture them to race
against your neighbor,
against the other town
that is north
of this town,
against the other
state and so on.
So there is a.
So it's really the epitome
ofyo soy mas macho que tu.
Indeed, yes.
They have a special name
for this sort of paired racing,
just two, one
horse against another.
They are calledcarreras
parejeras.
!Carreras parejerasare these two
horses that they're racing
against each other and of course
they represent different
sides of this town or this
community and this is expressed
throughout this ritualized
encounter of horse racing.
[cheering]
It's a lot more than
just a simple horse race, right?
I mean there's a huge
background cultural scene
that we're watching
right here.
And this has been
happening for hundreds of
years after the Spaniards
came to the Americas
to start the conquest.
I'll tell you what, I'll try to
mingle in so nobody notices me.
Yes, I, I bet you will,
you will mingle easily.
Nah, they won't
even know it's me.
How much are money
you prepared to lose?
I'm prepared to
bet up to 1 peso.
I've seen a lot of similar
parties in Mexico but I've
never seen them drinking
tecatesand eating
pitayas, so it's part of the
pitayafair or festival.
[cheering]
So there are 4 races and
probably 45 minutes to
an hour between each, so.
You can make the
race in 30 seconds.
Yeah, but that would lose
the point of the whole thing.
So you have to create
expectation to eat
pitayas, to drinktecates,
to see the horses
going back and forth.
[Spanish speaking]
They will make several
fake starts so people really.
Yeah, hey, we're starting.
No, never mind.
But it's part of the,
of the whole festive occasion.
Yeah, the ambience.
So this is the end of
400 meters and look,
this is not a
low tech race.
They've got a photo finish
computer in case there's
any questions at all.
There's something
unfair about this.
Well, I would put a
bet on the white one.
I see.
The pony seems to have
a slight advantage here.
This is sort of parade
in which they display the
quality of their horses
for people to assess,
then make an educated guess on
which to put a bet on.
And this is a contender.
Twopesos,
senquento centavos.
I'll take your bet.
Okay.
So, you're gonna go with
the one on the left,
I'm gonna go with
the one on the right.
Perfect.
All right.
Oh, we have to
do a handshake?
Oh, yes.
I see, oh, okay.
So remember, in this next
race there's a mare named
La Golandrina,
the swallow,
running against a
horse with no name.
No name.
Look how powerful it is.
Well, there's something
wrong, though.
I mean, if you've got a
horse that's anything at
all you give it a name.
I mean even if
it'snombre, name.
Are you suggesting
that I'm going to lose?
I think you've put your money in
a bad place Dr. Búrquez.
Okay, here comes my bet.
This is theLa
Golandrina, she's a mare.
Boy, look at the flame
of desire in those eyes.
Right, and big noses.
And you know what
golandrinameans, swift.
I think she can
fly like a swallow.
Uh, mine will get a name.
It will be called
El Sandio de Techaluta,
meaning that this big
pitayas, red and tasty.
The red ones, look like
a watermelon, yeah, yeah.
The watermelon
pitayaofTechaluta.
[cheering]
With my 2 pesos and 25
centavos in winnings,
I can buy a small
pitayaback in town.
The heat of competition
runs high inTechalutaand
the mayor goaded me into
doing something I might
not otherwise have done.
♪ music
A la una, a la
dos, de las tres!
What speed! See how they know
how to eat pitayas.
Can't waste anything there's no
fooling the judge.
One mom has only two
left.another only one.
Excellent.
Come on mom.eat, eat! When
you're done raise your hand.
OK we have a winning mom.
David is still enjoying the
exquisite taste of pitayas.
He's following the rules. He can
do it! He can do it!
A big hand for David in the
pitaya eating contest!
Elsewhere on thePitaya
Highway!■pitayasare harvested
from wild plants that are just
as important to the native
peoples as the domesticated
plants are up north.
They grow in a place
appropriately named
Enfernio, Little Hell.
We know that columnar
cacti like dry places and
also columnar cacti like
very hot places andEl Enfernio
seems appropriate place to be
for a columnar cacti.
It's dry and hot.
One neat thing I found
about here is that a lot
of these cacti have
retained their,
their native names.
So we've got
piteres, pochones,
teponchesandtepamos.
Wow.
So let's, let's go
down and we'll get down in
the cactus forest
a little bit more.
Oh, oh, oh, oh,
stop, stop, wait.
Okay.
Everywhere where there
arepitayasyou will find
people collecting them.
These fruits will be available
for a couple of months here,
which is longer
than in some other places.
So till the end of June,
first of May to the end of
June, they'll be lucky
enough to havepitires
and I'm lucky
enough because this is the
first time I've ever
tastedpitirefruits.
It's almost like melon.
Oh, the fruit,
taste it, taste it.
It's got a perfume in it.
Mmm.
It's unlike ourpitayas,
it's not like themamayas.
It's perfumed.
It has a perfume to it.
That has never
happened before.
How can you have a cactus
fruit with a perfume?
This really makes me
think about dispersal syndromes.
Yeah.
While mammals have a
very keen sense of smell,
bats disperse
fruits ofpitaya.
Yeah.
So this, the perfume on
this fruit is telling me
that birds apparently do
not play a major role in
dispersing the fruits
ofpitireor any otherpitaya.
Y quanto hijos tienes?
Tres.
Muy hoven.
Ana Lilia has three
young children, which is
quite a responsibility in a
wild place like this.
She's able to make enough
money collecting and
selling thesepitiyasto
make it worth her while.
In total she gets 2
buckets of 20 liters each
every day through the
whole fruiting season.
♪ music
Do you ever feel like
you're eating your
way throughMichoacán?
Buenos dias.
Ay pachones.
A dos.
A dos cada uno.
So these are 2 pesos
apiece and the bigpachones
as they call em are 5, but
they're really big.
In many ways I would
say here we are far into
southern Mexico looking for the
origins of the Sonoran Desert.
If we were to look for
what the Sonoran Desert
looked like in its infancy
a million years or so ago
we could have come here
and gotten an idea.
I want to stop here and
find out where this guy
lives who makes
chairs of, of wood.
Buenos dias, señora.
Vive alla?
Bueno.
Yeah, just like I can't
imagine what a chair is
gonna look like made
out of cactus wood.
çSpanish SpeakingÑ
The basic form, it is made
out of thepitirecactus,
which also has great fruits.
These slats are made out
of a different plant they
callotateand, do you
suppose I ought to try it,
Alberto, or should I just
stand here looking at it?
It has a great smooth feel.
Feel how smooth and
hard that wood is.
Wow.
I wouldn't expect it.
And light.
Yeah.
All right.
God, I'll take 4.
It takes me about a
whole day to make chair.
You've gotta start with a
base and then build some
slats for the seat.
So it takes more or less
a day to make one chair.
You would not expect to,
to have a chair off
of cactus, cactus wood.
Yeah, absolutely not.
And here we are.
So he's, he actually,
you can plane down real,
real easily, smooth down.
La Madera, como
es la Madera.
Come see the wood that I
use to make furniture.
Only in a few places
I've seen objects made
of columnar cacti wood.
One cactus trunk will
make up to 6 chairs.
Look, this is part of the
trunk that he's cut apart.
This is, this is
cactus wood, right?
Oh, that thing is heavy.
So this whole piece must
weigh 50 pounds, 50, 60 pounds.
I would say this is
sort of hard pine wood.
Not as hard as some hard woods
but for sure strong and heavy.
Todos estos pitire.
Es pitire.
It's hard.
In this region there
are a lot ofejetos.
The majority of
individuals have their own
little piece of land and
it's their right to do
what they want with it.
Well, it's sort of sad
but more wood is available
because some of the
pitiresare dying from
a long time drought.
He says it's been going
on for several years.
I was here 2 years ago, it
hasn't rained much since then.
çSpanish speakingÑ
So we're gonna get a
bed made out of this.
Now that's smooth.
It's heavy.
Feel it.
This one is really heavy.
If I work really
hard it'll take me
about 3 days to
make this bed frame.
It's very comfortable
to sleep on these beds
because there's good air
flow coming from below.
So this bed is made out of
pachonewood andpachone
is a cactus that
grows only around, around
this area, perhaps a radius
of 40 miles and that's it.
That's the only place
they are in the world.
çSpanish speakingÑ
Oh, so this is woven
of palm and that's
the extent of the bed.
Let's, let's try it.
You are right.
It isn't, isn't
that great?
Go and get somepitires
for me, could you?
Oh, yes, well, and a fan.
I'll, I'll get somebody
to come fan you.
Isn't that great?
Well, we better
head on up the road.
This is just too much fun.
♪ music
Both cacti and agaves
are native to the Western
Hemisphere and have become
a commercial success
in their native habitats.
So far,pitayashave only
expanded into abandoned
agricultural lands and
waste places and their
planters have maintained a broad
array of genetic diversity.
Cacti are quite at home in
arid and semi-arid lands
and any commercial success
with them is a desert bonus.
So there are all sorts
of stuff that work here.
Well, the rough
topography of the region.
Michuacánin southern
Mexico is known for its
rugged coast,
varied habitats,
tropical fruits and
believe it or not a town
where the craftsmen
continue a centuries old
instrumental tradition.
Next time onThe
Desert Speaks.
çSpanish speakingÑ
FUNDING FOR THE DESERT
SPEAKS IS PROVIDED BY
DESERT PROGRAM PARTNERS.
REPRESENTING CONCERNED VIEWERS
MAKING A FINANCIAL COMMITTMENT
TO THE EDUCATION ABOUT AND
PRESERVATION OF DESERTS
AND BY THE STONEWALL FOUNDATION.