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| Neil and Trish, our amazing hosts have made this one of our favorite world travel experiences. For the link to this exquisite location, please click here. |
Last evening, at 6:45 we drove the short distance in the dark to Trish and Neil’s home to say goodbye and spend a little time together over a glass of wine and some thoughtfully appropriate munchies befitting my diet.
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| Our favorite of the day! Note the set of ears from an alpaca in the background. |
Upon entering their beautiful house, we hunkered down in the cozy den on comfortable furniture with the intent of only staying a short time, knowing they had to work today and may not have had dinner after returning home from work.
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| This “macho” (male) was leash wearing a for a mating ritual. The males live separately from the females and crias. |
We made a point of eating at 3 pm. As I continue with intermittent fasting, eating only once every 20 to 24 hours I knew if we stayed at their home for a while I’d be chomping at the bit to get home to eat. We didn’t want the need to eat to interfere with our anticipated great evening. Nor, did we want to have a meal after returning home.
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| Confident youngster. |
And, it was a great evening. We didn’t leave their door until after 9:30 pm. We had a blast. After spending time with them shortly before they leave on a three-week holiday to South Africa, we wished we’d somehow had more time to spend with them.
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| The face of an adoring cria as he looks up at his mom. |
We joked over the fact that the only major conversations in which we’ve engaged over these past three months (besides to one another) and a few others) has been cooing and fussing over their over 100 alpacas. No doubt, we “hogged” the conversation with excited banter.
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| This is the face of Delilah who proved not to be pregnant after all and was mated in the past few days. |
With the sadness over the recent loss of Mont Blanc, we felt especially thrilled when they told us they’ll be moving the alpacas to our backyard in the next 24 hours where they’ll stay until we depart in nine days.
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| Last night, Neil explained that the new set of lower teeth grow in prior to the old set falling out as shown in this photo. This is nature’s way of ensuring the alpacas always have a set of teeth to use for grazing. Isn’t nature amazing? |
Yesterday, I packed my clothes except for a few hanging items I’m trying to keep wrinkle-free and, a load of blue jeans yet to wash. I tossed out no less than 10 pounds of old clothing and stuff, none of which was worthy of donation.
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| Having been sheared early in the spring, their fluffy fleece has begun to grow back. |
I must admit I’ve been wearing some overly worn clothing, some with holes, whenever we stay home all day. Tom has done the same, wearing the same tee shirts over and over until they can finally be tossed. This may have been obvious in our photos.
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| A mouth full of teeth and dried grass with one ear tucked back as I took this close up. |
Luckily, we both have some newer items we’ve saved to wear after tossing the worn clothing. Soon, we’ll be digging those out. As I packed yesterday, I was pleased to see I’d have plenty of newer items to wear as we continue on, all of which fit into a single suitcase. That fact alone continues to amaze me.
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| Funny face! |
Today, we received some exciting news for future bookings we look forward to sharing in the next few posts. We prefer to wait to post information about future bookings until we have the “paperwork in hand” (figuratively speaking, since it’s always online).
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| A peaceful expression with almost a smile. |
Soon, we’re heading to town to grocery shop, visit the pharmacy for a final stop, and purchase a new SIM card for our NZ device. Once back home we’ll begin entering the newest bookings on the spreadsheet.
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| A bad hair day and missing tooth while a cria looks on wondering what we’re doing. |
Photo from one year ago today, April 6, 2015:
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| A year ago today in Kauai, we posted this orchid photo. Many flowers continue to bloom throughout the year in Hawaii’s tropical climate. For more photos, please click here. |