Alpaca Medicine

Written by Nicole

We’re moving to the mountains, but we’re taking the public with us. 

That is what David, the owner of Paca Pride Guest Ranch, said to us as he led us around the grounds of his permaculture-style Alpaca farm. On the outside, David and his partner were living in the heart of a vibrant city, both with successful corporate jobs yet on the inside felt a sense of disconnect.

So they made a huge decision to leave the city life and head to the mountains where their hearts already lived. And it would have been easy for David and his partner to buy a small cabin in the woods and live a simple life “away from it all.” It would have been easy to try and remedy their sense of disconnect by doing their own thing entirely. 

Lucky for us they didn’t do that. Instead they followed their hearts and opened their home to the public. They healed that sense of disconnect by engaging with their surroundings, providing a home to a growing pack of rescued Alpacas, and by literally reviving the land they purchased using mindful permaculture techniques. Every square inch of the property has a purpose and function beyond its natural beauty.

Our family decided to spend one of last month’s unplugged days visiting this Alpaca farm, and I couldn’t help but notice this underlying theme: that we disconnect from our computers and devices not as a way to disconnect from life. No. We disconnect from technology so that we can connect with the living, breathing, beating pulse of life. We unplug to connect in-the-flesh with beautiful, creative souls. To learn. To grow. To flourish. That is what David did when they moved to the mountains and invited everyone else to visit them too—he unplugged from his disconnect in order to connect and engage in a deeper way with life. 

Aside from leaving Paca Pride Guest Ranch feeling refreshed by my surroundings, I felt inspired by the commitment to sustainability that the owners have there.  And beyond that, I left feeling more hopeful about the direction of our collective values for the future. 

This unplugging thing is really something.