Got Alpaca?
What you may not know about Central Florida is that Alpaca farms are pretty prevalent around the area, including a few in Lake County. I was able to visit one on Saturday during the Alpaca Farm Day event at Land of Green Ginger Alpacas in Eustis.
I mainly think of alpacas as a version of a llama with many of the same behaviors and personalities. I may have even placed them in the same group as camels as I thought they were all just creatures that like to spit on you or bite you when you least expected it.
Fortunately, I was wrong in my judgement of the personality of an alpaca. They are actually very sweet, shy animals that love to roll around in the dirt and nuzzle your fingers to determine whether you are friend or foe.
The Farm Day event at the Land of Green Ginger Alpacas included a tour of the grounds, peppered with visits to each of the fields with alpacas, a free hot dog/soda and an opportunity to win items created from the coats of the alpacas. Just feeling the sweaters, socks and hats in the farm’s store were enough to encourage me to sign up.
During the tour, I learned that alpacas only spit at each other when they are playing or are mad at one another. They will instead sneeze on you. I don’t know what would be worse, spit or snot?
There also different varieties of alpacas due to the content and make of their coats. I was able to feel a few of the alpacas’ coats and were amazed at how thick some of them were. It sort of felt like I was petting a big sheep but one with much more personality and patience in letting me pet them.
Alpacas are also very curious creatures and take only a few minutes to warm up to you, probably less time if you happen to have a treat with you. One baby alpaca even tried to take a bite out of my purse and seemed determined the whole 10 minutes I was standing there to see what a leather Bueno purse tasted like.
Even if you have never had the opportunity to interact with an alpaca, I suggest going to one of the alpaca farms’ farm day events that happen annually. You get to meet sweet animals and affectionate owners that take care of these animals as though they were their own children.
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