Random Photo: God Bless the Sotol Plant

Camera: Canon 5D | Lens: EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Setting: f/16, 1/13, ISO 100
Sotol plant in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas

My friend Chris, the editorial director for Overland Journal and creator of bajataco.com, once sent me an email that surely would have landed us both in prison during Prohibition years.  Thankfully, this email came in 2006 or so.

He needed somebody at a business address in Phoenix to accept delivery of a particular box.  Inside this box was, as he put it, "A bottle of something from Mexico but even better than tequila."  His marginally believable story was that a special courier from San Francisco (as my memory filed it) only delivered to Phoenix, not Prescott where Chris lives.  So Chris needed a trustworthy pair of hands to take care of his box of "something better than tequila."

He told me, "I trust you, so you can even give it a taste test if you want."

This fine bottled drink was sotol, a little Mexican beauty that comes from this plant you see here, native to the Chihuahuan Desert.  On my solo road trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, I became so elated at the sight of finally seeing the sotol plant in its home I went shutter crazy and landed several frames featuring this spikey bush.

We desert dwelling folk like our indulgent libations to come from thorny plants. The mere thought of a strong drink seeping from the distilled heart of this plant is wonderful, isn't it?