Those with more contemporary tastes can try the prickly pear margarita or local brews Marble IPA and Santa Fe Nut Brown.

BBC: A hospital turned hotel in New Mexico

Will they find it a prickly and defensive place, or an alluring one, full of mysterious surprises?

ECONOMIST: Athens

He is famously prickly with those who ask dumb questions or pester him without first boning up on the topic.

CNN: THE FEUDING MINISTERS

But things can go wrong, as with the spread of prickly pear in Australia early last century or zebra mussels in the North American Great Lakes at the moment.

ECONOMIST: The genetic starting-line

That past is often evoked in a prickly and defensive way by modern Greeks when their behaviour (individually or collectively) is at its least glorious.

ECONOMIST: Athens