Latin-American cuteness.

Farewell Cusco, and our journey through Latin America continued to drift away from the former capital of the Inca Empire toward the other ancient cities of this civilization, its trails, and ultimately – to the famous mountaintop structures of Machu Picchu. Along the way, we stopped off at interesting places to observe, snap, and learn something new. First up: the Manos de la Comunidad farm (literally, the “Hands of the Community”), here on the map. Here, in enclosures, live llamas, alpacas, and other animals. At first glance, these distant relatives of the camel charm with their cuteness and sociability:

But what lovely little faces! They’re somewhat dopey and dozy – but still very cute…

Time for walkies!…

Straight away – a couple of surprises…

It turned out that besides the mentioned llamas and alpacas, there are also vicuñas here in South America, about which I previously knew nothing. They’re quite similar to llamas and alpacas – only noticeably smaller in size. Also, within each species, there are many subspecies that differ significantly from each other. I didn’t know! It’s not clear how useful this information will be for me or you, but still…

Here they are – all a bit different ->

And there are also guanacos! However, they seem to be like llamas. They all vary in size, color, and fur. Some are more smooth…

…Others are positively shaggy-dreaddy! They smell, of course, but they’re still cute :)

So, how do they… taste?! Their meat has a special, specific flavor – you won’t confuse it with anything else. But to be honest, it didn’t impress me. It was served in small restaurants, and I tried different dishes – but wasn’t keen on any.

Upon entering, you’re immediately invited to feed the animals and take photos:

We duly oblige…

Behind this mighty warrior and metal mesh, some particularly rare and expensive llamas-alpacas graze, protected from tourists:

And next, in a large aviary, pair of condors – what a big bird! ->

The male actively displayed his prowess and superiority over the spectators, turning in different directions:

A scale model of Machu Picchu ->

Folk art:

And since the llamas-alpacas are all about wool, local craftspeople weave souvenirs:

For a small amount of money (~5-10 soles), you can take a photo with the weavers. Why not? ->

And this is just… food! Guinea pigs (here they are called cuy) make rather popular dishes here! The meat is soft and pleasant to taste. It felt a bit weird as we were eating one of these very guinea pigs… but (once again!), why not?

In the souvenir shop, the tapestries amazed me – not bad! If I’d needed to hang something on a wall back home, I’d have chosen something here ->

More cuteness ->

And that was that; a Peruvian alpaca-lama farm – done. Time to be moving on…

The best photos from our journey through Latin America are here.