Winter Wonderland + Alpaca-Style + Road-Trip = Alpaca-Winter-Magic!

By Alonzo Al Paca Official Spokespaca for Meraki Movement

It is I, Alonzo! Meraki Movement’s favourite (and only) Official Spokespaca!

Do you need a quick but beautiful winter wonderland Stay-cay?

What about a road trip to break up the snow-doom gloom?

If you nodded yes, you should take a trip to Banff for their Christmas Market Experience. It truly is a winter wonderland filled with the magic of Christmas!

No Christmas market is complete without a dose of ALPACA CHRISTMAS MAGIC, though! You can find all our Luxury Alpaca Products and us there too!

Check out the details below after I regale you with another Alonzo Adventure! Or as my Employee calls it- antics. (Insert eye roll here)

Alonzo Diary

You would think this Alpaca (me, it’s me) would learn to stay in their market booth with all the bright, beautiful, and warm Alpaca products, but Ney! I couldn’t resist the urge to go galavanting the second we set up our booth at the Banff Christmas Market last year.

I had dreams! Aspirations! Goals! I was going to learn to ski.

I slurped down my fancy hot chocolate, put my ski goggles on, layered on the Pinkest Poncho we had, with the hippest new alpaca scarves (I know! Not a festive colour! But let’s change that!) and off I skipped (I kid, I don’t skip. I jammed my skis in the back windows of my Red V-dub) to find the nearest ski hill- Mount Norquay!

The parking lot was full! Fashionably dressed people lugging skis and fashionably dressed kids in every direction! I wasn’t sure where to find the ski lift, so I found the nearest BMW and hopped up! Crinkle, crunch!

“My car!” gasped a passerby.

“Ahha!” I found the ski lift! Crinkle, crunch, hop- and off I trotted- weaving, no- Sashaying between the throngs of people.

I joined the line to get onto the lift, enthralled by how people could navigate their backsides and skis onto a chair that would hurl them up the mountain. I was starting to second-guess my choice of adventure. But as my employee always says, “Never let fear and common-sense stand in your way!”

I dropped my four skis into the snow, secured them to my hooves, and then moved ahead in the queue.

“Excuse me, pardon me, Alpaca coming through.” My four skis and fluffy butt take up a lot of space.

“What the…” The fellow helping the skiers seemed taken aback at the site of an Alpaca trying to sit on the lift and wearing skis, but I am not one to acknowledge judgemental people! Negativity has no place in the Alpaca-Soul! I will ski!

Up I went! #Blessed! Life is for Adventure! And various other encouraging white-girl sayings crossed my mind!

Vodka is kind of a hobby! – Oh wait, the last one was Betty White. RIP.

I watched the people ahead of me hop off the chairs at the top and begin their descent.

And then it was my turn! My back skis hit the snow first and slid downward without prompting. My upper body swayed backwards, threatening to topple me over. Shear willpower propelled me forward; my front skis joined the back ones, and I was skiing! I was doing it! I am a ….OMG WHAT THE HELL WHAT WAS I THINKING THIS IS TERRIFYING IM GONNA DIE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I’M TOO BEAUTIFUL TO DIE!

People, the kind with skiing experience, stopped to watch in both awe and horror at the screaming pink-coated Alpaca (me, it was me) blast down the mountain at a neck-breaking speed; throwing themselves out of the way as I careened down the hill uncontrollably.

“Is that a llama on skis?” someone yelled.

“Aaaaallllppppaaaaccccaaaaaaa,” I yelled back. Fight Fake News!

My Alpaca-dream of gracefully skiing to the bottom of a hill with a deft SWISH of hips, my beautiful poncho catching the eyes of ski bunny fashionistas everywhere, came to an end when I came to a dead stop as I smashed into the orange snow fence at the bottom of the hill. Tangled in 4 skis, scarves, a fence, a poncho and a snowdrift, people kindly dug me out and untangled me. Shaking the snow out of my poncho, still dry I might add, and fixing my scarves, I tested each limb to see if I broke any bones.

Alpaca-Magic! I was intact!

It was then I noticed a sign for a little hill, “bunny hill for new skiers”, lessons at 2 pm”.

Before I could get any bright ideas, security was kind enough to gather my skis and escort me out of the resort. The “kind” was sarcastic, FYI. My dear employee was waiting in the car for me with hot chocolate, kisses, cooos and a nice long lecture about the dangers of skiing.

But really, what else is there to do in Banff besides SHOP AND SKI?