(ABQ) and Farmington, N.M. (FMN) . Durango/Purgatory is located in the Southwest corner of Colorado, near the intersection of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It's six to seven hours by car from DIA, a 340 mile drive via US-285, and three and a half to four and a half hours and 214 miles from ABQ using NM-44 and US-550.
In addition to its popular use for hangovers, prickly pear remedies have been used traditionally in Mexico for a wide variety of disorders. The heated cactus pads have served as poultices for rheumatism, and the fruit of the plant is consumed as treatment for diarrhea, asthma and gonorrhea.
Cactus Pads-also called: Nopalitos and Cactus Leaves. All opuntia species are edible (non-toxic) but some species are easier to use than others. Two parts of the plant are edible, the pads (nopalitos) and the pear (tuna).The pads are vegetable and the pear is fruit. The State of Texas named the prickly pear cactus as the state fruit/vegetable in 1995. Prickly pears are fruit from the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.) and may range in color from yellow-green to deep purple-red and in colour in size from that of an apricot to 6-inches long. For this reason, there is no accurate way of judging how many pears it may take to obtain a given amount.