Look closely – that’s a pack of guanacos. Closely related to the llama and the camel, these animals lick desert cacti to survive, a needed skill as some herds roam deserts where it hasn’t rained in decades. They spit when they’re scared, can run 35 mph over rocks, and their wool is apparently some of the finest in the world.
A guanaco pelt is considered second only to that of their Peruvian cousin, the vicuña. People pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to be draped in the wool of these animals; ((Men’s jackets generally sell for around $20,000, suits start at $50,000)) in the Inca kingdom it was simply against the law for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña. For reference, cashmere - which I’d always thought of as the world’s finest wool ((It should be noted that some sources technically consider cashmere a hair, not a wool.)) - goes for about $100 per yard on average. Lower-end vicuña sells for $1,800.
