Llama: An appetizer. In more ways than one.

To the right, I give you: Llama.

As of 2007, there were an estimated 7 million llama and alpaca in South America- most of which make their comfy, fuzzy homes in the Andes region of Peru. A member of the camel family, the exact name of this somewhat aloof looking muchacho is llama glama.(Imagine the torment of evolutionary grade school with a name like that. Short end of the binomial nomenclature stick? Hardly: L.G. was the little kid with glasses, jumping and flailing while other, bigger kids threw the stick over his head.)

Some llama fun facts:

• They can carry about 25% to 30% of their body weight (average 280-450 lbs) for several miles.

• Llama are still used as pack animals, as well as for their meat (get the appetizer joke now?) and the textile fiber of their hair.

• Llamas are very social herd animals and sometimes spit at each other as a way of disciplining lower-ranked llamas in the herd. A llama's social rank in a herd is never static. They can always move up or down in the social ladder by picking small fights characterized by bouts of spitting, kicking, and neck wrestling or by un-friending each other on Facebook.

• They will often hum to each other as a form of communication.

• One may determine how agitated the llama is by the materials in the spit. The more irritated the llama is, the further back into each of the three stomach compartments it will try to draw materials from for its spit.

I was once accosted by a llama through a car window while touring a drive-through zoo in Port Angeles, Washington. In light of all this new information, though, it would seem that I actually emerged from that experience on the *happier* side of "attacked by a llama". I was one of the lucky ones. How many people can say that?

This is a true story. Ask my grandfather.

From here on out, I'm going to attempt to be informative and -if you're lucky- even a bit entertaining. This isn't supposed to be a blog full of pictures of my food. Nobody actually likes those. Hopefully by tomorrow evening there will be a run down of my 13+ hours of travel complete with international airport observations, pictures of new friends from TSA searching through ALL of my possessions, and enthralling tales of trying to make this work while hopped up on Tylenol PM. The grammar will (*gasp*) be imperfect. I don't anticipate caring too much. Join me in that happy place of pure indifference, won't you?

Also, as we edge toward the precipice of "going" and "gone":

Thanks to everyone who's called, emailed, IM'd, FB'd, etc. etc. in the last 36 hours to send love and support. You must really think I'm never coming back...

Merci (en avance) to Kate for putting all of my stuff in your trunk and taking me to LAX on your night off.

Muchas gracias to everyone at FWM for loaning me EVERYTHING that you own, and for all the mental-prep talks and ongoing support- not to mention having the faith to put me at the head of this steamboat in the first place.

Thx to Josh and Sharn for the blog inspiration and encouragement.

Vamanos!

-A

Post-Script Assignment to my music loving amigos y amigas: I'm putting together an epic playlist to soundtrack my trip to Machu Picchu on the 23rd (as epic as an iPod shuffle playlist gets...) Send me your requests, recommendations, and/or an mp4 file to andy.renae@gmail.com and I'll add it to the list to be played during my adventures in the Lost City of the Incas!