The Alpaca Farm

There's an Alpaca farm in Mitzpe Ramon in the south of Israel. I didn't really know what an alpaca was before I went, but I've been told since it's like a Llama but from certain mountainous areas of South America.

The story goes that the owner of the farm was in South America and fell in love with the Alpacas, and decided it would be his life goal to import them into Israel. It sounds like the government made him all kinds of trouble getting them in, but when you've got a goal (as weird as that goal is) you've got to stick with it, and he eventually got them in.



I'm not sure actually how happy they are hear. I think they're pretty versatile animals, but I couldn't imagine myself spending a summer in the temperatures in the Negev, and I'm not a really hairy animal from South America (regardless of what you've heard).




After going to the farm, we drove out to the Makhtesh as it was a clear day and we wanted to see the view. A Makhtesh is a wind blown crater, and the Makhtesh Ramon (the one near Mitzpe Ramon) is the largest in Israel (even bigger than the Makhtesh Gadol, which translates as "big crater". I don't really understand their naming schemes.)
There's a big serpentine road that goes down the edge of this to the highway that goes over to Eilat, which apparently is one of the reasons you don't want to do your driving test in Mitzpe.



A panorama of about 1/2 of the Makhtesh. It really is amazing!