L is for Lama

The genus Lama includes alpacas (L. pacos), guanacos (L. guanicoe), and the glamorous llamas (L. glama). While I've never seen a guanaco in person, I've been privileged to spend some time with llamas and alpacas. I always feel bad for them when I see them at fiber festivals: in unfamiliar surroundings, with lots of strange smells, they tend to be a bit skittish, and I think I would be too. At a spin-in at Alpaca Kathy's farm, though, the alpacas observed us for a while from their enclosure; since we didn't seem hostile, they eventually got curious and wandered over to get a better look at us. They're lovely critters, looking to me as though they might have been invented by Dr. Seuss.


While I've met lamas at all of the fiber festivals I've attended, the Maine Fiber Frolic, sponsored until this year by the Maine Llama Association, is where they really come into their own. There are leapin' lamas...



limbo lamas...

bewigged lamas...


and of course there is the famous Llama Drill Team.


The concept of a llama drill team is a delightful one. Llamas are not well known as team players, but they're good sports, while making it very clear who is humoring whom. They're rather like large, extra-furry cats.


I can only hope that, if ever called upon to array myself in a clown wig and rainbow-striped and polka-dotted raiment, I can carry it off with half as much panache.