Peruvian Experience - Introduction
The home farm of Pedro Mamani Huaman. The Huaman farm was home to Kantu from the 1996 Peruvian importation and also home to several llamas from the 1997 importation.
Traveling to Peru to select llamas for importation into the United States was the opportunity of a lifetime. Searching farm after farm in some of the most remote areas of South America was awe inspiring and humbling at the same time. Many of the farms and villages I visited had never had a white man ever visit before and I was to say the least, an oddity to many, especially the children,who regularly crowded around me to get a closer look at this tall silver haired stranger arriving somewhat on schedule to buy, of all things, llamas.
I traveled to Peru 13 times over a 3 year period spending a total of 6 months in the highlands of the Andes. I usually traveled with a contingent of government officials and inspectors along with several Peruvian handlers, our Peruvian guide and Peruvian native and veterinarian Renzo Morante. Most of the selection “safaris”, as we referred to them, were in conjunction with selection safaris for Peruvian alpacas that were being selected for Camelids of Delaware Inc. by good friend of mine Bill Coburn.
There were of course many highlights on these “Selection Safaris” including finding Peruvian Maximo, Peruvian New Wave and Peruvian Keno. By far the most memorable event was that fateful afternoon in rural Nunoa when I was suffering from the debilitating side effects of Salmonella poisoning and I was introduced for the first time to Kantu, a “True Suri” male that is now a key part (some say the Godfather) of the North American suri llama phenomenon.
As I said, I was suffering what I thought was a near death experience in a dark lonely room at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Bill Coburn and two of the Peruvian handlers, Hernon and Alberto, came hurriedly into my room with excitement in their voices and literally pulled me to a standing position pleading for me to come quickly. “You’re gonna like this one”, Bill told me. I went to a small side yard by our host family’s house and there stood a tall, statuesque, conformationally correct, super hooked eared llama that was just dripping in champagne colored “True Suri” fibre, some of the nicest Suri fibre I had ever seen either on any of the Suri llamas or Suri alpacas on any farm I had ever visited.
Our host family's side yard in rural Nunoa, Peru where I was first introduced to "Kantu". This famous shot has been used extensively in our advertising program at Twin Lakes.
We still had to judge Kantu against our own grading system but let me tell you that just my initial impression was really getting the old adrenalin going. We proceeded with the grading. We measured his height at the whither, checked his dentition for an approximate age, checked his testicles of course for adequate size and symmetry, scored his overall condition and conformation, took the requested photos for the registry, tagged his ear for identification, drew blood for a series of tests required by the Peruvian government and ours and filled out the various forms and permits for each of the 3 government officials present. We were required to repeat this same protocol for each llama and alpaca selected but you can imagine the added stress that Kantu would possibly fail one of our self imposed criteria for inclusion into our importation group. Fortunately Kantu passed all of the initial tests and all of the subsequent tests and eventually made his way, over the next 6 months, to Twin lakes Llama Ranch in Monroe, MI and the rest as they say is “History”.
At home in Monroe, Michigan World Famous Kantu having recently been shorn.
I could write a book about my experiences in Peru and the great risk and expense that I took bringing in over 200 llamas in 3 successful importations over a 4 year period. The following is a snapshot of just some of the thoughts I jotted down during one of my selection safaris.
I don’t profess to be a good writer and most of this is verbatim from a diary I kept on the trip. I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane and gain some additional insight into the Peruvian experience and some appreciation for the rare Peruvian bloodlines and what they have done for and can continue to do to enhance the llama industry and more particularly your own breeding program.