It was Love at first sight....

Instead of doing one of my typical posts, I thought I'd commemorate this glorious holiday weekend highlighting one of my favorite stories this summer, featured on Blooming Rose Musings.  Back in early August, I stumbled across this wonderful blog and what caught my eye was this fabulous post called "I went to visit the Alpacas again".  

One click, and I was hooked... and this is the face that transformed me back in time to one of the best trips in my life - when I discovered the the sweet & gentle beauty of Alpacas.  

The beautiful photographs celebrate the sweet and loving relationship between baby Alapacas (which I learned are called cria) and their mothers at Windy Hill Ranch in Somis, CA.  What touched me the most was these photographs brought back to life - of a time back in 2002 when I was hiking up in the Andes Mountains in Peru and came across a herd of Alpacas out in the open.  I was immediately captivated by them, especially their friendly gentleness and curiosity.  

Suddenly, all these long forgotten memories of an amazing trip through Peru, from Cusco to the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu to Lake Titicaca - came flooding back to me.  

What has been so wonderful for me about blogging is that I have met some terrific people whom share the same passions as I do.  So I thank Susan at Blooming Rose Musings for reminding me about one of the best times of my life... and for loving Alpacas like they should be.

View from the top of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

I fell in love with these two sisters.  I traded them candy for a photograph.
Check out Micky Mouse...he certainly makes his rounds.

A little fashion plate up in Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake in the world at 12,628 feet above sea level. It was amazing - you felt like you could almost see the whole world.

An Uros Indian girl, who lives on the Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca off the shores of Puno, Peru.  The entire island is made of reeds from the Lake.  They make everything with reeds, boats, shelter, trinkets to sell.
When you step on the island, it literally sinks down like you are in quicksand.
At first I was scared, then I said - well in Rome, do as the Romans.

Here is the Alpaca herd that I came across.  This one and his little sidekick were so curious,
they came running over to me.

Out grazing on a Sunny afternoon.  The one in the upper right hand corner was
 actually trotting to come over and see what I was up to.

Their babysitter, aka herder kept a very close watch on me.
She was doing her job -  making sure I wasn't going to steal one of the Alpacas.

They are so sweet and gentle.  The background in the upper right corner was actually a lake.
The scenery was just beautiful.

My two favorite friends - they were together.  They may have been mother and baby.

Here is an additional post on Blooming Rose Musings from July called A visit to Alpacas at Windy Hill Ranch ..... that shows some amazing shots - here is one of my favorites...A newly born cria trying to stand up:

I am linking this post up to Scenic Sunday.

Happy Labor Day 2010!