94 ~ Goats and The City

Well not such a big city ...however it does seem strange to see a herd of goats grazing next to an elegant hotel, a shopping centre and busy asphalted streets.

It's becoming more difficult for the goat herders to find waste ground with vegetation for their flocks as more urbanizations appear, replacing the open grazing areas with concrete and landscaped gardens.


I ran into this bunch when I was leaving my gym class the other day. One of my fellow classmates said...."look a baby goat is running up the street"... as we were leaving the gym. So I ran out, pulling my little go-everywhere camera from my bag and saw the little goat was running to catch up with the rest of the herd....(or does one say 'flock' when referring to goats?).

(I checked out at this useful website....and find the collective noun can be herd or flock.)

But here they have an ample supply of wild plants and weeds, thanks to the many rains we've been having over the winter and early spring. In the background you can see a volcanic mound, part of the local landscape.

I do like their brass beaded collars with little bells. As I tried to get closeups of the goats they all seemed to turn away, giving me their rear view....but I managed to catch this one from the side.

I spoke to the goat herder, who told me he had one hundred goats and four dogs.

It's not always easy to handle such a number of animals, guiding them through the traffic to a grazing area.
I took some photos from my car one year when I found myself stopped in a 'goat jam'.

Our weather report predicts calima or warm winds from the east with Sahara dust suspended in the air for the next three days. That means some good sleeveless hot weather here. Time to wash winter blankets and hang them outside!

Thanks for your visit and ¡Hasta la vista!.