In November of '07, my husband and I went on a llama trek with Sandy (who owns the llamas and hosts the llama treks). We had so much fun! We did a 5 hour hike, and enjoyed a great lunch halfway through our hike.

NOTE!- the llamas are REALLY friendly and contrary to popular belief, they do not spit. The 3 that we hiked with never spit, not even once! And they don't smell bad either, as some people asked me about after the hike (I enjoyed it so much, I came home and told everyone about it).
They smell a little like a horse, if anything, but they had all had baths before the hike- so they just smelled fresh and nice.

On a llama trek, you don't ride the llamas, but they haul all your stuff for you. If you're like me, you carry a camera and some water and maybe a few snacks for a hike- so you may be wondering, what's there for the llamas to carry? On our particular hike, they carried all the gear for our lunch- a small portable table, chairs, a little portable camping stove (to heat up the soup that we had for lunch), a cooler with some drinks in it, food, and also snacks for the llamas. Each of us led one llama during our hike. They can also carry your personal bottle of water and your camera, a jacket if you brought one that you've decided you don't need. Plus, the llamas are great company! They are so sweet and really have a lot of personality- they are so fun.

Sandy was a real pleasure to hike with, too. Being that it was just my husband and me, I wondered if it would seem strange to hike all day with a complete stranger. But Sandy is very warm and friendly and a few minutes into the hike, it felt like we were good old friends! Usually, there may be several small groups on the hikes, or maybe one larger group. Sandy said it was a little unusual for her to just hike wtih 2 other people, so you might get to meet and hike with other people, too.

Also Sandy brought a dog with us. I can't remember his name though... Anyway, I'm really not much of a dog person and I worried at first that the dog might get annoying or bark at everything or try to scarf up our lunch the whole time we were eating. Rest assured if the dog accompanies you on your trek, he's not annoying in the least- he's quiet and independent and might even just go do his own thing. He's a real sweetie and didn't bother us at all during lunch- he's extremely well behaved. Again, this is coming from a non-dog person.

I really enjoyed our hike with our new llama friends and if we head back to the area, I would definitely look into going on another one!