#chuparosa

“As you wish, chuparosa.” “That word-” she begins as she looks at him before staring back at her hands. Something he picks up on as discomfort before she starts again. “It means ‘hummingbird’ doesn’t it?” He’s spent enough hours in her company to sense the sadness in the crinkle at the corner of her eyes. His Bellara, who has lost as much as he has. And yet despite the scars she is still utter perfection to him. “Si. Most people use colibrí. But you remind me more of chuparosa. It describes the bird, but also the plant that attracts the bird. A sweet scent that cannot be ignored. Slowly luring me in until I was blissfully lost in you.”

I hiked in Tahquitz Canyon today, which is in Palm Springs. Tahquitz is a little secret, but more people are discovering it. Great hike today! Read on to learn why.

Here’s a landscape view of part of the canyon, followed by a photo of a hummingbird hovering over a chuparosa bloom. The red-flowering bush is chuparosa, and they are blooming crazy right now. I think “chuparosa” translated means hummingbird. Hummingbirds love the tubular, sweet red flowers. Actually, I pick and snack on the flowers. They taste like sweet cucumbers.

The waterfall was sort of strong, and Tahquitz Creek was flowing sort of strong. But I’m comparing the falls and the creek to last year, when we had strong winter snows and rains and spring rains. Photos of the waterfall and the creek.

A side blotched lizard posed for me, after I politely asked it to do so. (I actually did that, and when it jumped on top of the granite boulder, as if to pose, I had to laugh.) You can see how well-camouflaged this lizard is relative to the granite that dominates its home.

Then, the bighorn. Three male bighorns decided to come down from the plateau above the canyon, or perhaps leave one of the side canyons. February and March are birthing months, so I wonder whether the girls kicked the boys out of the nursery. An obviously dominant alpha male (large horns), a young adult male, and a teenage boy. You can tell he was a teenager, because he assumed a challenging, in-your-face pose toward me.....as in “who the fuck you looking at?”

Then the snake. A red diamond rattlesnake, a big one, probably 36 to 38 inches long. I was kind of stuck because snake was just off the trail on the left, in a little spot between boulders. If I walked by snake, I would be in his/her striking distance, because these snakes can strike at a distance equal to 1/3 to 1/2 of their body length. As I got closer, snake went into the coiled, striking mode. But lucky me......a ranger was coming up trail, and he saw the situation and persuaded snake to move into a crevice.