Cactaceae fruits

I was looking through some of my old photos the other day and I found some of a couple cactus fruits that Carlos and I had a few months ago. The first fruit is a pitahaya (or red dragon fruit, Hylocereus undatus). We found this growing in the arboretum and I was surprised that no one else had found it first. I was a little let down by the taste, it wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be -- especially compared to pitahaya ice cream that I've eaten in Costa Rica (made from another species of pitahaya: Hylocereus costaricensis)!

The other cactus fruit is a prickly pear from genus Opuntia. These are sweet fruits and I especially like prickly pear syrup in lemonade! When you eat these, they really are a bit prickly so watch out for little minuscule spines on the outside.