Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Awanacancha Llama and Alpaca Farm


Today we flew from Lima to Cuzco!  We were all SO excited to see beautiful blue skies and feel the hot sun on our faces.  However, many of us felt the drastic change in elevation, Lima is at sea level while Cuzco is at 11,000 feet!  I felt extremely dizzy and like I couldn't catch my breath.  Luckily, our trip had been masterfully crafted that as soon as we landed in Cuzco, we jumped on a bus and headed down to the Sacred Valley which is at 9,000 feet so we could better adjust to higher altitude then work our way back up to Cuzco and Lake Titcaca which is even higher at 12,000 feet.

On our drive to the Sacred Valley of the Incas we made a couple of stops.  Our first stop was at the Awanacancha llama and alpaca farm.  Here we learned the difference between llamas, alpacas and vicunas.  Then we got to feed them!  I think these animals are adorable.  I love their faces and their funny personalities.  This is one place I wish we had a lot more time, I could have spent hours playing with all the llamas and alpacas!



















After our close encounters with llamas, we got to learn all about how their wool is used to make beautiful woven products.  We learned all about the different dyes and how they are made, as well as how to distinguish hand made products vs. machine made ones.













I am a GIANT in Peru










Then it was time to continue our drive down to the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  We got a great view of the entire valley right before we descended down into the valley, it is gorgeous!








2 comments:

  1. This was such a fun day...you have caught the essence of it by including all the details. You got amazing color in the weaving pictures! I copied lots of your pictures for my slide show.

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  2. Wow. Just reseaching my own trip. Am heading to Awanachana en route to the Sacred Valley. Can't wait.

    You are clearly as much of an animal person as I am it seems and I really enjoyed your photos of the cameloid animals and cat!

    Happy travels, all the best and thanks
    Fiona

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