Camelid Conference

Yesterday, we returned from the World Camelid Congress in Riobamba. Yes, it was indeed an international conference. We realized this when the student price per person was $50, an outrageous amount for Ecuador. Plus, speakers came from Ecuador, the United States, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Italy, Argentina, and more.

In case you are not certain, camelids include llamas, alpacas, and their relatives. The conference included judging of both llamas and alpacas and also had some vicunas on display. Vicunas are quite rare and exist almost solely in the wild, but their wool is one of the most prized in the world. There were also talks and workshops. I went to one of Stu’s talks about alpacas and conservation, as well as a couple of workshops on natural dying and tanning.

As far as the judging went, I only watched one full round, but Stu had two alpacas competing in it. Ramiro and Raoul were in charge of the alpacas, and it was fun to see them dressed up. In fact, we didn’t even recognize Ramiro at first. Happily, Stu won both first and second place in that category. We cheered pretty excitedly!

There was tons of food and artesian shops, too. I tried llama meat, which is fairly tough but also rather tasty. And of course, I couldn’t pass up an ice cream cone for 25 cents. (Mora (i.e. blackberry) is definitely my favorite flavor.) I also bought some alpaca wool scarves, which are amazingly warm, though also decently expensive.

I must admit that I'm rather amused that I even attended the world camelid congress.

(Also, just for reference, the top picture is an alpaca, while the lower one is a llama.)