Bolivia's cash camelids
The residents of Ucha Ucha harvest the vicunas' fine fur, which produces one of the world's most expensive wools.
Ucha Ucha is 14,800 feet above sea level in the Apolobamba nature reserve, 167 miles northwest of the Bolivian capital of La Paz.
These families work together to sheer the vicuna every two years and sell the wool through Bolivia's national wool organization and split the money evenly.
The families said they earned $300 dollars each during the last shearing season in 2011.
Unprocessed wool from the vicuna, the smallest of the South American camelids, fetches between $140-$230 a pound.
The fiber is highly prized by the world of fashion, and has been used to make suits for movie stars like Daniel Craig and tycoons like Donald Trump.
Ucha Ucha is 14,800 feet above sea level in the Apolobamba nature reserve, 167 miles northwest of the Bolivian capital of La Paz.
The icy wind and burning sun at this altitude slice and bake the skin of the area's indigenous residents.
Every two years, about a hundred men and women from Ucha Ucha come together for the biennial vicuna shearing, which lasts four days.
Vicunas were once hunted to near extinction but now hunting them is forbidden and the Aymara shear and release the animals. The vicuna population has rebounded.
The vicuna are an endangered species previously hunted by poachers for their fine wool.
Today Bolivia protects them in this reserve, sheering and selling the wool worldwide without killing the animal.
Two men hold each vicuna down while another shears its fur. With luck they can gather nearly 90 pounds of wool in a day.
"Before we sheared them every year, but now we do it every two years because the hairs are so small. The profits are divided among the community's members and it is a great help because at this altitude nothing grows," said Gregorio Blanco, head of the shearers.
While llamas and alpacas have been domesticated, the vicuna still lives in the wild.
