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Amid the hustle and bustle on the Indio swap meet on Arabia Avenue, a distinct awe in folks’s voices might be heard after they spot Diamond the camel.
As adults exclaim, “Look over there!” some kids shout, “I desire a experience!” referring to the dromedary that folks can experience for $5 at Maclin’s Open Air Markets in Indio most Saturday and Wednesday evenings.
Although Diamond is an Arabian camel, her roots are in Oregon, the place she was a part of a camel driving enterprise that contracted with The Residing Desert Zoo and Gardens seven months out of the 12 months to deliver camel rides to the Coachella Valley. There, she met her now-owner, Alexander Arteaga, and it was love at first sight.
“The primary time I met her, I simply fell in love along with her as a result of she has such a novel face in comparison with the opposite camels, like a really female face,” stated Arteaga, who had been employed as a camel-walker on the Residing Desert.
Diamond’s fuzzy ears and darkish eyes make her stand out, he added. “It seems like she has, what’s it referred to as? Eyeliner.”
Arteaga has at all times had a ardour for animals — rising up in Desert Scorching Springs, he would usually be out catching lizards within the desert — but up till 2013, he had solely labored in development or landscaping.
“I used to be about 19, I used to be searching for a job and a pal of mine referred to as me like, ‘Alex, I’ve a job on the Residing Desert, strolling camels. Do you need to come work with me?’ I began working with camels there, giving rides and studying every little thing about them,” he stated.
However it was Diamond that prompted his long-term profession as a cameleer.
“I informed my boss on the time, ‘One in every of nowadays, I am gonna purchase this camel off you,'” he recalled.
Diamond strikes to the valley
When the Oregon-based camel enterprise misplaced its contract with the zoo in 2019, Arteaga’s former boss referred to as to ask if he was critical about shopping for Diamond.
“I found out the place I used to be going to place her and yeah, I drove 19 hours to Oregon to go decide her up,” he stated. Diamond traveled in a personalized horse trailer to her new residence at his uncle’s 25-acre farm within the valley.
Although he didn’t want to disclose how a lot he spent on Diamond, Arteaga stated camels are inclined to promote for round $20,000.
A few of Arteaga’s pals questioned his determination to purchase a camel, telling him it was a waste of cash. Nonetheless, he is very happy with Diamond and thinks she might really feel the identical.
Arteaga stated Diamond is “residing in paradise” in the Coachella Valley since within the Arabian desert, a typical residence for a camel, the climate is extra excessive.
“They’re very adaptable animals. The Arabian desert at nighttime will get freezing chilly, so the best way they accommodate to it’s they develop out their winter fur. They get tremendous fluffy. They will most likely get about 4 or 5 inches of, principally, like wool,” he stated.
Camels additionally begin creating calluses all through their our bodies at an early age, which later permit them to put and sit on sizzling surfaces — an ideal protect from the valley’s scorching sizzling summers.
“That is principally her pure surroundings, the desert,” Arteaga stated, including that he nonetheless takes precautions to verify Diamond is wholesome by checking her stool repeatedly and having a veterinarian make certain she is freed from fleas and worms.
Working on the Indio swap meet
Arteaga needed to proceed providing camel rides within the valley with Diamond, however didn’t have a marketing strategy arrange when he bought her. It was some pals, he stated, who instructed he pitch the rides at Maclin’s Open Air Markets in Indio.
A couple of month after getting Diamond, in January 2020, Arteaga bought in contact with the supervisor of the swap meet to debate his enterprise concept. “His face was shocked. I confirmed him footage and every little thing so he’d consider me,” he stated.
As soon as he proved he had a camel, Arteaga needed to get the okay from the swap meet proprietor and file the suitable paperwork. Although the COVID-19 pandemic shut the swap meet down for a number of months in 2020, Arteaga and Diamond have been part of it ever since.
Having labored along with her even earlier than then, Arteaga stated he is realized loads about Diamond’s likes and dealing model.
She enjoys consuming grass and totally different fruits, together with watermelon rinds, cantaloupe, honeydew and — her favourite — apples.
Diamond additionally likes beards and sometimes nestles into Arteaga’s or any customer’s on the swap meet. When in shut proximity, Arteaga warns clients about her pungent breath.
Arteaga also can inform when Diamond doesn’t really feel like working and lets her dictate after they take a break from giving rides.
“When she needs to go to work, she’ll stroll proper into the trailer, however there are days she’s not having it,” he stated. “She’ll draw back or go round it, so we take the time without work.”
If he notices Diamond would not need to stroll anymore, Arteaga is just not shy about refunding the camel experience cash and asking clients to return one other day.
Nonetheless, extra usually are the times when Diamond is able to greet folks and take them for a experience on the Indio swap meet. Kids are her bravest clients, provided that some adults stated they’re intimidated by the massive animal: Diamond is 6 ft tall, or 6 ft and seven inches together with her hump, and weighs about 1,400 kilos.
She wears a harness that riders are locked into and can maintain on to when sitting in entrance or behind her hump. Arteaga stated that kids often experience in entrance of the hump as a result of they’re smaller and there’s much less area to sit down there, whereas adults can sit comfortably behind the hump.
However that hasn’t satisfied Cassandra Sanchez, a resident of Indio, to get on. “I get nervous with huge animals up shut. I attempted driving a camel at a truthful as soon as, but it surely’s not for me,” she stated. As an alternative, she likes to observe her 7-year-old son, Christian, go for a joyride.
“It is enjoyable. I’ve by no means felt scared,” he stated.
Whereas she has seen adults experience once in a while, Nidia Ramos stated she feels she is simply too previous to experience. Her granddaughter, Mila, 6, alternatively, has gone on so many rides with Diamond that Arteaga, and presumably Diamond, contemplate her a daily.
“The loopy factor is, she sees (regulars) from possibly 150 ft away and straight away, she’ll get her puppy-dog eyes, like she’s blissful to see them. She’ll actually begin pulling me in the direction of them, like, ‘C’mon, let’s go,'” Arteaga stated.
A number of dad and mom on the swap meet stated that after they ask their kids to decide on between getting a brand new toy there or driving the camel, Diamond at all times wins.
“It is how he bought to learn about camels. On Wednesdays, it is our routine to return right here as a result of he needs to experience,” Maria Villanueva, who lives in Indio, stated of her 4-year-old son, Moises.
‘The camel man’
Individuals generally seek advice from Arteaga as “the camel man,” which he takes as a praise.
“I feel I am the one man within the Coachella Valley that has a camel. The closest man that I heard has camels truly has a dairy farm over in Ramona,” Arteaga stated, referring to the Oasis Camel Dairy farm that’s residence to a “caravan” of camels — the title given to a gaggle of the animals.
It is Arteaga’s purpose to sometime have a camel dairy farm of his personal. He’d prefer to get 5 child camels in addition to undertake older ones and breed them. “I would like 20 camels in my herd,” he stated.
He additionally expects to have much more time with Diamond, provided that she is 14 years previous and camels sometimes reside for about 40 years.
This month, Arteaga is honoring one other “camel man” by touring with Diamond to Quartzsite, Arizona, to go to the tomb of a Syrian cameleer referred to as Hello Jolly.
Journey guides present that in 1856, U.S. Secretary of Warfare Jefferson Davis thought to move folks and freight throughout the Southwestern desert on camels. He had over 70 camels imported and Hadji Ali (or Hello Jolly) additionally arrived to assist deal with them.
When Davis’s time period as secretary of battle led to 1857, so did his undertaking and the camels have been left to fend for themselves in and round Quartzsite. Hello Jolly additionally stayed and was beloved by locals, who erected a monument at his tomb with a camel on the high when he died.
In Quartzsite, Arteaga and Diamond joined the Hello Jolly Daze Parade, an annual occasion attended by the camel-owning and loving neighborhood. Though he is recognized about it for years, it was Arteaga’s first time attending. He and Diamond will stick across the city to supply rides for a number of weeks.
Arteaga stated they will return to the Indio swap meet in late January or early February. Individuals can be taught extra in regards to the camel rides, in addition to feedings and pettings that Arteaga and Diamond provide, by looking Fb for “Arteaga’s Epic Camel Encounter.”
Eliana Perez covers the jap Coachella Valley, together with the cities of Indio and Coachella. Attain her at eliana.perez@thedesertsun.com or on Twitter @ElianaPress.
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