At the request of friends,

I must continue to tell the story of my trip which I am recounting at this point from memory.

That is partly because I could not get online when I was in Brazil on the last leg of my trip and
partly because I recently got swamped with tons of paperwork due to the purchase of this coffee plantation/farm. I didn't realize how many people are following the blog until I started getting emails with questions like "what happens next?". So continuing...

Tuesday, May 9th, 2006
We were to meet José Edmar at 8 a.m. at the Posto Chefão, a reference point for every journey going out of Belo Horizonte. We would then get into his 4x4 Range Rover to his Farm. Raimundo had done most of the kennel chores at the crack of dawn in order to make the early meeting. Most unusually for brazilian standards, we were all on time. Very little lingering.
Finally, Al and I were heading out to Moeda together. I had been to the farm twice before but, it was a specially beautiful day. Alex got to appreciate the views of endless mountainous horizon soon after the entrance to Moeda.
Raimundo and José Edmar were having one of those hippie esoteric conversations in the car, as Alex and I (both atheists) were loving the ride in the back seat of this safari car. I would sometimes translate the conversation. Like when José Edmar said something equivalent to "people concerned with the preservation of the environment are connected in some unique kind of way", to which Alex, a pragmatist, would argue that in world with the population of 7 trillion people it would be very likely many people would think the same thing at the same time! It was a very entertaining trip. Raimundo and José Edmar also took turns digging into each other about things.. As if they were an old married couple that bicker but still have a lot of things in common.
José Edmar must have stopped at least five times along the way to schmooze with the local people. He is an idealist, and still quite a hippie in a lot of ways, he has put a lot of time, energy and money into his "Sanctuary" land Development because he is also a very successful entrepreneur. This time it was lingering with a purpose.
I don't know how long it takes to get from the Moeda exit to the farm. All that stopping around made it hard to keep track of time, too. Raimundo even got me to take a look at a piece of land there. We found that it had been already sold. You gotta be quick with those opportunities over there. The road is tough, which put extra strain on the Range Rover. At one point the gears didn't kick in.
The Farm is literally where the road ends or where the road starts depending on one's point of view. According to José Edmar, it's the Beginning of the World. The name he chose for the farm.
Maria is the woman that manages the dogs and the kennel. She's the real boss over there. She is the one with enough intrinsic knowledge to understand the dogs and their body language. José Edmar is a V.I.P. visitor and to some of the dogs he is still a stranger.
When we got there 3 females were in heat and put away in kennels, the two alpha males were very affected by that. Two of the females were nursing pups and the rest came around with Maria up the hill a few minutes after we arrived.
I believe in leaving this breed of dogs loose as much as possible when in large fenced in estate. I believe it promotes psychological balance for them. Of course, the "temperament" shiites can't handle that. But thats a whole other story.. I like to read that Mr. José Gomes had his dogs loose, and posted a sign on his property that read "LOOSE DOGS". I'm gonna do the same at my farm.
It is possible for a person with some knowledge of canine behavior to come near some of these dogs in a non-threatening way when their owner (Maria or José Edmar) is around. It is also because these are not dogs bred specifically for the show circuit, or selected for a fearful personality disorder that the majority of breeders of this genre of dogs mistakes for "temperament". They do not get attack trained nor get to "practice" posturing fear reactions at those horrid temperament test events. (like those most out-dated and abusive fila brasileiro temperament tests). This is one of the very few places where you can observe how a Cão Boiadeiro farm dog behaves in a pack. One can fantasize about what could have been their original environment before the unfortunate event of being robbed of it.
This pack in particular is quite large now. I feel nature will take care of overpopulation, too bad nature's solution might involve genetic demise.
José Edmar proudly displayed his dogs to me, specially his new harvest of brindled sons and daughters of the female he found on a mystery farm in Minas Gerais. I was happy to snap away on my new camera which I'm so fond of that I rarely even used any video footage although having taken my video camera. I was also very fascinated by the breed which they called "Americano" which was now incorporated to the Boiadeiro pack. It is a scent-hound also known as the Rastreador Brasileiro.
Raimundo and Alex were bored to death with the photo session!Each of them found a special napping spot and got up only when José Edmar served up some meatballs for us.
The ongoing joke about visiting this farm is that the menu is Ramen regardless of which meal, lunch or dinner. Guess the meatballs meant we deserved a special deference.
It was about four o'clock by the time we left. We went back to the Posto Chefão to switch cars again. The service station is owned by a man who introduced José Edmar to Moeda and helped him get the farm he now owns.
Raimundo made the decision not to stay for the late lunch leaving us there to enjoy a timely meal. He had dogs to feed and an ailing mother to tend to.
The Range Rover called it quits after the trip back making its last trip to the machanic's shop after dinner. Alex and I drove back to the Gameleira kennel where another meal was waiting for us.
It might of been one of the rare times Alex had ever refused to eat meat!
Click here to the the photo album and slide show.