Llama vs Nansen

I’ve always heard that llamas were mean animals. But how can that be? They are so cute with their shaggy fur and dumb looking eyes. One Friday morning, instead of sitting in class, my Spanish teacher Ricardo, took Kate, Cara (another student), and I on a field trip to the university. The first stop was the university zoo. Now this is no ordinary zoo. In fact, this might have been the most animated zoo I’ve ever been to. It shelters wild animals while they recover from various ailments, then return them to the wild. It’s the only zoo where I’ve been handed a toucan, turtles come in wheelbarrows, and the monkeys show you their…manhood.  

 

Anyways, there were llamas roaming the premises as well. One in particular was having an especially active morning. It picked on Ricardo first, attempting to bite him. Cusquenos, apparently, have experience with fending off llamas. He even put the llama in a headlock. After a bit of a struggle the llama went away. It came back a minute later, though, this time to try to eat Cara’s hair. Again Ricardo fended him away. I was next on the target list. The llama stopped a few feet in front of me and stared at me with those silly eyes. Like a dumb gringo, I put on a fighting stance with a dumb smile. The llama was not amused. It had had it with dumb gringos. It struck. It went on its hind foot, which made it seem about 7 ft tall, and proceeded to chase me down. When I decided I couldn’t outrun the llama, I turned to fend it off. Luckily for me, the llama’s charge was more fierce than its attack. All it tried to do was to extend its silly neck and try to bite me with its flat molars. It was easy for me to fend it off with my one semester of college Jeet Kun Do (intercepting fists!). I walked away but the llama followed me. After a few more rounds of this exchange, Ricardo came to the rescue. He grabbed its lease and tied it to a garbage can. Llama maiming averted!       

In summary: Ricardo tames llama, and llama tames Nansen.

Oh yea, and when I got home, Kate thought it would be funny to surprise me with a stuffed llama. I was safe though, it was tied to a Pringles can. Hooray!