In early 1995 I got a call from Greg Mecklem of Pacific Crest Alpacas. He asked if I wanted to be part of a group he was organizing to purchase alpacas from a new import of Peruvian alpacas being imported in to the US. The plan was to go down to Peru and select the animals directly from the group in quarantine. This import had the largest number of Accoyo animals of any import so far and so was very attractive to us. Don Julio Barreda, the owner of the accoyo ranch in Peru, had captivated the imagination of North American breeders with his reputation as one of the great alpaca breeders in Peru and his closed herd approach to genetic improvement. I was delighted to be able to take part. Soon after, a group of breeders and myself, flew down to Peru; first landing in Lima the capitol and then on to Tacna on the south coast where the quarantine was being operated.

Myself, Greg and Tom Booher of Timberland Alpacas worked as a team checking the animals out and grading them as to fiber and conformation. I bought two Accoyo females at the sale but did not see them again for over six months while they finished their quarantine in Peru and then again in Florida USA. After the sale a group of us planned to go and see the Accoyo ranch at Macusani in the Peruvian highlands. We stopped of at Ariquipa, the fiber center of Peru, to check out the mills and the processing centers. We then traveled to Cusco an ancient city at about 11,000 feet above sea level. Cusco is the staging area for people traveling to Machu Picchu, the great Inca city. From Cusco we traveled by Land Rover to Macusani. The roads got progressively worse as we traveled higher. Macusani sits at 15,000 feet above sea level in an area of Peru called the Altiplano, a great rolling prairie. The last part of the journey was at night in an area with no electricity. It was amazing to see towns with no lights, siliuetted by moonlight. As we drove through an army check point in one town it was like watching a Christmas scene; candles in the windows and people with oil lamps in doorways with everything else pitch black.

We stayed in a Rural Allianza co-op bunk-house for our stay in Macusani. The town itself, which we saw the next morning, was very rudimentary and the people were obviously not well off. The people we met were very friendly but seemed a little bit intimidated by our presence. The weather was quite amazing with big swings between daytime highs and nighttime lows. During the night I had to go outside; it was freezing! With snow on the ground. By noon the next day I was in a tee shirt and the sun was shining. It just illustrated to me why alpacas have been selected to give birth during daylight hours. The other challenge for us was the altitude. The air is thin and your energy seems to evaporate. The Accoyo ranch is situated at 17,000 feet above sea level and it was hard for us to get around in a normal fashion everything had to be done in slow motion.

At the Accoyo ranch we were entertained by Don Julio Barreda himself, as he fed us and showed his royal herd of alpacas, including some of the famous herdsires of accoyo such as Shere Khan. The herdsmen demonstrated hand shearing and removed a 13lb fleece from a female while holding it together in one piece --- quite impressive! The whole trip was a memorable event, not only as an opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the alpaca but also to develop friendships with people I had only got to know recently through alpacas.