You think you know the island after living here for so many years but still it manages to surprise me. Heading through the country lanes from Santa Eulalia and the traffic slows down massively, this side of the island is so different to the hustle and bustle of Ibiza Town. It really is where time stands still. It is magical.
Turning into the Alpaca Farm entrance we are met by Denise who is to be our guide for the next hour. She tells us the history of why the Alpaca Farm even came to being on the island of Ibiza. She explains everything easily and even with our children with us, her explanations are the perfect length for them to keep attentive and active.
You are with the Alpacas for an hour and you go into the male enclosure first of all where you can feed the animals. The animals are incredibly gentle and there is no chance of them nibbling at your hands as they have no top teeth.
Coaxing the children into feeding hand fulls of carrots to the alpacas, we are even offering a slice of apple to the animals by holding it between our lips so they can take it from us. Known as the ‘Alpaca Kiss’. There are inevitably lots of photo opportunities with these beautiful and calm animals.
Visiting this farm is extremely popular, however the alpacas are always the farms number one priority. There can only be four slots a day at this time to meet these beauty’s. Whilst they hope to increase this number, they will do it slowly and over time. The alpacas welfare is always their concern.
Alpaca wool is known as The Fluffy Gold: softer than silk, rarer than cashmere and warmer than sheep’s wool. Alpaca wool has many unique properties: it is hypoallergenic, fire and water resistant, elastic, antibacterial and very strong. Alpaca wool is also sweat and dust repellent, does not itch and breathes naturally thanks to its hollow fibre structure.
Wishfulfilling Weaving is the brainchild of San De Wilde, who emigrated from Belgium to Ibiza at the end of 2018 together with her husband to build The Alpaca Farm. San founded Wishfulfilling Weaving in 2014 and soon made a name with her beautiful weaving creations, hand woven on a traditional wooden loom. The focus of her weaving creations is on turning centuries-old weaving patterns using mainly durable alpaca wool into exclusive scarves and luxury clothing.
The freshly shorn fibre of our alpacas is picked clean and washed by hand. The fantastic fibres are then also manually cleaned by means of the so-called carding technique, after which they are manually spun into woven-ready yarns according to the old spinning tradition. The colouring is also done completely naturally with extracts of flowers and plants, such as ibizcus and even avocado. Never by machine, always by hand. Never artificial, always pure nature.
Thank you to Es Currals Alpaca Farm in Ibiza for such a warm welcome.
