Bom Dia! Mercer On Mission to Brazil: To the Rainforest We Go

I am picking my first orange!

A wild monkey we saw at the museum

So on Sunday we were able to tour a coffee farm that is owned my Dr. Spear's father in law that is located in the northern region of Espirto Santos, so about 1.5 hours away from Vitoria. The difference that 1.5 hours north made was incredible. The temperature was around 55 degrees and the weather was overcast, perfect weather for taking a 5 mile hike through the rainforest. Before we got to his farm, we went to a local state museum that had animals and plants that are native to the area - which was really cool because they had monkeys (Macoca in Portuguese) as well as lots of hummingbirds, for which the town is know for. The nature preserve was really interesting especially since we had locals as our tour guides as well as Dr.Spear's children. He has a little girl, Clara who is 10 and a boy Lucas who turned 8 yesterday. So at the farm we had a small birthday celebration for him with cake, bread, juices and traditional Brazilian snacks.

The view from the farm! So cute!

While on the farm we got to see how coffee is made and the whole process that goes on to make it taste so good! One of the best parts of the farm was the orange groves that were there as well. Considered to be Marina's father's pride and joy, he had over 4 different types of oranges that were all delicious. He let us pick them right off the tree and we ate our fill. Which for me was about 7 of one kind, it was so sweet and one or two of the others. He also had avocados (abocachi) growing plus other Brazilian fruits. After picking and eating our weight in oranges, the hike began. This was the longest hike of my life. It was LITERALLY up the side of a mountain and felt like it never ended. 3 miles up the rainforest however when we got to the top, it was beautiful!
After a long day out on the farm we took the 1.5 hour drive back through the wonderful traffic that is ever present in Brazil and then got ready for the week of service project work and classes.
I will continue to update you about our fun and get some pictures of the work site soon!
Alexis