Posted
on March 8, 2016
This fiesta honors a Portuguese man who was a soldier for Spain.
In 1536, his troop disbanded, and he ended up becoming a shepherd,
but he had a sort of mid-life crisis, wondering what he should do
with his life. He decided to devote his life to helping people who were sick or poor or both. He established a house in Granada, Spain, to care
for such people. Because of his good deeds, many people consider Juan
the patron saint of hospitals.
Puno,
Peru, celebrates this Portuguese-born Spaniard, even though San Juan de
Dios never went to the “New World.”
The fiesta lasts two days: Yesterday llamas laden with
firewood made a sort of parade coming into town while people played
flutes and drums. Last night there were huge bonfires. Today is the
actual feast day, and the more formal procession features the saint's
image being carried all through the town as dancers and musicians
create a festival atmosphere.
A
few months ago, I wrote about Puno, Peru. This city lies between Lake
Titicaca and the Andes Mountains, and some people live on floating islands
in the lake.
Since
llamas are an important part of the fiesta celebrations, and of
Puno's economy, I thought I would talk a bit about llamas and their
relatives.
One
of the important ideas of biology is both simple and complex: all
plants and animals and other organisms are related, and they evolved
to survive in specific environments. Llamas and alpacas are
domesticated creatures native to South America; they are most closely
related to vicuñas
and guanacos, wild creatures from South America. This entire llama
animal group is most closely related to camels.
But
camels live in the Middle East and the “Horn of Africa”
(dromedaries, or 1-humped camels) and Central Asia (2-humped camels).
That's pretty far from South America – how did these animal
relatives end up so far from one another?
 |
| This early camelid is called a probrotherium. |
It
turns out that “camelids” – the animal group that includes 1-
and 2-humped camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas,
and guanacos – first evolved on the plains of North America. As
various populations of early camels wandered apart into different
parts of the continent, the populations got cut off from one another
and evolved in different ways. Eventually, the early camels had
evolved into many different species in many different locations.
Of
course, some populations migrated so far from the others, they ended
up in other continents. Some of the camelids ended up in South
America, some had crossed the land bridge into Asia, and some went as
far as the Middle East and even Africa.
About
12,000 to 10,000 years ago, the camelid species living in North
America all died out. But camelids living elsewhere continued to
thrive and, in many cases, became domesticated by people.
 |
| This little guy's mama is a llama! |
For
many centuries, lamas have been used for their meat and wool, and
most importantly as pack animals, by the various peoples living in
the Andes Mountains. Adults can be almost six feet tall and weigh between 290 and 440 pounds. They can carry a fourth to a third of
their body weight for five to eight miles.
 |
| Alpaca |
Alpacas
are much smaller and have not been used as beasts of burden. Instead,
they were specially bred for their wool, which is used to make both
knitted and woven items. It is lustrous and silky, softer and warmer
than sheep's wool. It doesn't have lanolin, which means it doesn't
repel water – but which also means that it is hypoallergenic. It is
naturally flame resistant. Peruvians classify alpaca wool into more
than 52 natural colors.
 |
| Guanaco |
 |
| Vicuña |
Did you know...?
The Incas valued vicuñas for their wool so much
that it was against the law for anyone but royalty to wear garments
made from it!
Wool was so valued by the Incas, it was used as currency (money)!
The vicuña is the national animal of Peru and is depicted on the
nation's coat of arms.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
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here are my Pinterest boards for:
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