Superagro 2013

at the John Deere tent

As I mentioned last post, we stuck around for the Corpus Christi holiday.  My friend Maxine told me I had to take the kids to the SuperAgro 2013 that started this week at Expominas, so I did.  SuperAgro is a big agricultural exposition that happens annually in Belo Horizonte.  It's kind of like a Brazilian equivalent of the American country fair experience, minus the rides and fried food.  Minas Gerais has lots of farms, and even a "country-farm" kind of culture (even in the big city!), so I knew this kind of thing would be interesting.

We didn't want to get too close...

There were hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of cows.  Cows with humps (the popular Zebu cows, that provide the cupim cut of meat that Brazilians love), baby cows, cows with huge horns, pooping cows, cows getting milked, and mad cows that didn't want their pictures taken.  The kids didn't want to talk much to the owners, but I did get in a brief conversation with one guy who told me that his prize winner produced 42 liters of milk a day.  42 Liters!!  If you wanted to wait in line, you could milk a cow, but my children were too impatient, and Dora didn't like the smell (surprise, surprise).

There were also lots of stalls with horses, and an arena where you could ride a horse (not sure if it was free or, if you had to pay).

We saved the petting zoo for last.  The line looked huge, but it was pretty well organized, so we only really had to wait about 20 minutes for a 5 minute visit.  There were llamas, goats, pygmy goats, sheep, buffalo, calves and one foal.  The kids loved it!

It's free during the first week!  After today, it's R$20 for admission.  Parking was advertised as R$8, but it ended up being R$8 an hour (rip off!).  So in my opinion, it's worth it to go the first week.  But I wouldn't pay admission.