Within 10 minutes we reached the botanical garden. Although, I had heard about this garden being really cool, I did not know what exactly to expect. But what I saw was way beyond my expectations. There were uncountable different kinds of cactuses and other dessert plants. Many cactuses had beautiful, bright colored flowers in full bloom. For a nature lover and photography enthusiast like me, it was complete treat but even to a person not so interested in these things, the experience was quite unique.
Blue, violet, purple, yellow, white – name the color and there was representation among the flowers for that one. But actually speaking, I had fallen so much in love with the place by now that even the plane thorny cactuses without any flowers were beautiful to me. There were cactuses 4 to 5 times as tall as adult humans and birds nested in them. (What protection from snakes etc. with all the thorns!) I saw a bird hiding behind the bushes. I went closer. It was white and brown streaked with a long curved beak. It was the ‘Cactus Wren’, the state bird of Arizona. I could also spot its nest in a big tall cactus. Then as I walked ahead, some very red thing flew in and sat on a tree. It was a bright red “Northern Cardinal”. I was lucky to get a picture. There were other cactuses of various shapes and forms. Some were spherical, like a huge soccer ball, some flat while some had soft thorns that formed a mesh and reached up to the ground. I thought I had seen it all, but the best was yet to come!
I proceeded to the butterfly enclosure. This was a greenhouse like enclosure, fairly big, inside which butterflies were kept. There natural trees and flowers they could feed on. They were free to fly around but not to go outside the enclosure. People could walk straight into the enclosure and the butterflies would be flying around, sometimes even landing on us. There were at least eight different varieties of butterflies and all were very beautiful ranging from single colored bright ones to multicolored. I could get good pictures. It was a great experience.
One thing I must mention about the garden is the quality of service. The entire garden was extremely well maintained. Employees in uniform were moving around with informative brochures, distributing them and giving directions and information about various plants and flowers to interested guests, even without asking. One of us lost a cellphone. We searched but could not find it. We went to one employee and asked where the lost and found desk was. He immediately asked “ Have you lost a cellphone? We have found one”, and directed us to the desk. At the desk, the lady returned the phone but as we were about to leave, she asked “Are you from India? “, and when we said “yes”, she quickly flipped the pages of a notebook in front of her and said “Dhanyawad!” (Hindi for “Thank you”).
I could have spent the whole day at the garden if not for the time limit set by the organizers. We took a group picture and came back in the same bus. The whole trip was about 3 hours. Devil’s detour is a part of international programming and is organized once every semester. It has two parts, off campus and on campus. The above trip was the off campus part. Such events not only provide a much needed break from studies but also make international students aware of the natural surroundings in Arizona and give them chance to interact with students from other programs.
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