Down on the Farm in Brazil

I consider myself an equal balance of a city girl and a country girl. I grew up around animals (pony, goats, sheep, dogs), large gardens and lots of land that I spent my summers exploring. I still enjoy all of these things as an adult. However, I can hold my own as a solo traveler in large cities like Chicago, Dublin and Vienna. I enjoy the aspects of each atmosphere.

Some of my favorite things during the summer in the US are county fairs or 4H fairs. I can certainly skip the rides, the food is okay, but what I really love are the animals. Goats, horses, cows, rabbits – I just love checking them all out and witnessing the people who make their life out of raising these interesting creatures.

The last thing I expected was a county fair experience in Brazil. Once again, there are surprises around every corner.

While my husband’s parents were visiting we decided to venture out to the Expo, as the locals were referring to it. We had heard it could be a bit shady there in the evenings so we went about 11:00am thinking we would look around and maybe grab lunch.


To say it was deserted would be an understatement. The whole cultural practice of late lunches was definitely carried out at this event.

We walked around disappointed for a while. Finally a few food stands began to open up and we stopped and got a Krepe. This is the county fair version of a crepe.

Basically the filling – cheese, ham, candy bar – is put on the stick, it is then rolled in a batter and put in a waffle-like griddle to cook. The batter forms around the filling making it the perfect fair food. Not bad for a snack and not too horrible for you, relatively speaking, since it isn’t deep fried like many fair foods.

Anyway, we walked along with our food-on-a-stick and found the barns. Considering how the first hour or so had been, I had very low expectations for the rest of the day.

Once again – surprise, surprise, surprise.

The whole back area of the grounds were filled with things to do. First we went to the agriculture area. There was an informational section on coffee so you know I was a happy camper. We saw coffee plants up close, the roasting process and got some samples, the best part I might add. Samples were given at the soy milk booth, too.



We wandered over and saw some beautiful flowers and stumbled upon one of my favorite things of the day. Pineapple plants! We had been asking around about how pineapples grow, but had never seen the plants and couldn’t get a good idea from the descriptions people were giving us. Now we understand. Very cool.

Causing me excitement equal to that of the pineapple plant were the animals. Barns were filled with zebu – the cattle that supply all the restaurants with an endless supply of Picanha. I have to say I am wanting red meat even less now after seeing these animals. I’ve always had a liking for cute cows.
They even had one with a saddle that kids could ride. He had to be the slowest moving cow I’ve ever seen. He looked absolutely humiliated.

In addition, there were pigs, goats, sheep, dogs and horses. We even got to see some of the judging for zebus (is that how you make that word plural?) and horses.

I found it interesting to compare the breeds of goats and sheep with the varieties we have in the US. Seeing the beautifully groomed, well-fed horses was a welcomed break from the starved ones I witness in Centro.

The day definitely ended well and I’m glad we went. I’m happy with big cities, shopping and art museums, but once I see all those animals I can’t hide that a part of me will always be a little bit country.