We visited an alpaca farm last weekend. Still dreaming of visiting Peru one day, but in the meantime, this will be as close as I'll get to the exotic creatures. A few dozen alpacas roamed the open field, grazing, completely untroubled by the flock of camera-happy tourists on National Alpaca Day (there is such a thing... who knew!).
Alpacas are prized for their incredibly soft fleece; we had a chance to pet a cria (baby alpaca) and feel bundles of fleece that were about to be spun into yarn. Softer than Pepper! (But we won't tell her.) There are two kinds of alpacas - huacaya and suri. Huacaya alpacas have slightly coarser fleece and look like woolly camels; suri alpacas have 'dreadlocks', and the finer breeds look like creatures out of a Hayao Miyazaki fantasy. (In fact, they can be found on some farms in Australia because they scare away the foxes.)
Male alpacas start at $500, but female alpacas start at $12,000, and generally go for higher. Depending on the 'quality' of the animal (color, texture of fleece, etc.), they can fetch anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000. Because they are domesticated, valuable, and so damn cute, some are sold as pets.
Took pics of them, of course:
A mother and her baby
For a souvenir, I got a pair of rainbow-colored alpaca mittens. :D I'll save the fancier souvenirs for when I visit the alpacas that graze on the Andean range...
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