Friday:
We met at Daniel's at 7 which meant that I had to wake up around 5:30. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the sunrise but I still wasn't early enough. We drove past Domingos Martins and met Jiame at a store by his house. We went to a local school with 5 grades and only 2 classrooms. Then we went to a coffee association where we got to see a coffee bean "de-husker" (just made that word up- the machine takes the bean out of the pod). This was the beginning of our coffee making adventure.
After the coffee association we visited the agriculture office of the region and talked about a lot of topics. Jiame is using this office to help him re-forest a section of his land. We finally got to Jiame's sitio and went to check out the waterfall. I got some great pictures of a coral snake and of the waterfall and then proceeded to fall about 30-40 feet down the waterfall and ruined my camera. Not a good day. I was so mad at myself and I still can't believe that I wrecked my camera. Even though I was furious, I strangely felt a sense of home in the mountains. There is definitely something spiritual about being in the mountains and I felt more home today than I have since I left.
I helped Jiame make dinner and we ate outside. He has an unlimited supply of jokes and funny stories and kinda reminds me of a combination of Pap and Bill Beatty. Needless to say, I hope I get to spend more time with him.
The picture below is of Jiame and Nicole performing their improv singing
Saturday:
We woke up early to get to Pedra Azul but barely made it there on time. The breakfast that Jiame made was so good and was pretty close to a normal American breakfast.
Pedra Azul was very beautiful but I'll let the pictures describe it. I met some kids from PITT that live in Vitoria and go to UFES. This gave me someone to talk to and of course poke fun at. Little did I know that WVU had just won the Big East! (probably a good thing because the trash talk could have gotten out of hand).
Swam in this pools-fridgid.
This was pretty cool. All they had to get up a pretty steep section of rock was an anchored rope. I kept thinking how this would never be allowed in the US. It was crazy that we didn't have to be strapped in, but pretty safe at the same time.
Me and Dan solving the worlds problems. I really enjoy talking with him and he is pretty knowledgeable on a lot of topics, especially history.
Sunday:
I slept in till about 8 but the flies were horrible and woke me up. We had another awesome breakfast and Jiame is really spoiling us for when we go back to our homestays. We went to a local horticulturist and he showed us around his large property. He specializes in orchids and some were beautiful and ornate. One orchid species he had goes for about $10,000 USD in Sao Paulo.
The next few pics is our coffee making process. In the first one I am roasting the beans (you can actually see the coffee trees behind me where the beans came from. The second picture is me grinding the coffee beans after roasting- smelled awesome. The third picture is me and Jiame's wife enjoying the fruits of our labor.
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