Kindness of Strangers

5 Comments so far

1. Daddo February 5th, 2009 5:37 pm

   About 3-weeks ago you photographed some interesting farm animals in southern Patagonia. Photos 66-71 and 79-81 seem to be of a rather young alpaca. Do you recall if your photos were of an alpaca or a llama?

2. Elizabeth February 6th, 2009 2:31 pm

   It’s neither: it’s a guanaco, a very common animal in this part of the world!

3. Daddo February 6th, 2009 5:57 pm

   Thanks for the info! I’d never heard of a guanaco yet they are very common in the region of the world that you just visited. Here’s a couple of things I discovered about guanacos AND I aldo uncovered a little known song, “The llama song,” which you just HAVE to hear!

   http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Guanaco

   http://www.llama.co.uk/guanaco.htm

   The guanaco is native to the arid, mountainous regions of South America. Guanaco are found in the altiplano of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina. In Chile and Argentina they are more numerous in Patagonian regions, in places like the Torres del Paine National Park, and Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in fact has an overpopulation of guanacos. Bolivian Indians have been known to raise guanacos to help them regain their population stability. A guanaco’s average life span is 20-25 years. Current estimates place their numbers at 500,000

   The llama song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbPDKHXWlLQ

4. Anton Turk February 10th, 2009 5:53 am

   i am hooked now. We lost all our papers from Lisbon and I tried to google you out, and finally made it. Nice photos. I should be jealous.

5. elizabeth February 10th, 2009 11:35 am

   It’s great to hear from you guys! Glad you finally found us. We so enjoyed the time we spent together in Lisbon, and really hope to have a chance to visit you in Croatia sometime soon. Can you believe we met the first week of our trip, and now it’s almost over? Congrats to you and Monica with your new baby on the way!

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