2021 Rio Camp: Arrival Day

Oct 24, 2021

Getting to Brazil has been smooth my last 2 trips so I feel like we were due to hit some issues. Our connection in Sao Paulo was too tight for getting through customs and rechecking our luggage. We arrived at 5:40am and it took 4 flight changes and 8 hours to actually get on a plane to Rio.

We met a couple others from the bjj camp waiting at the airport. We were the last to arrive coming in around 2:30pm. We stopped at the hotel, checked in into our rooms, and dropped off our luggage. Caio then met up with us at the hotel and took us to the group at a beautiful site overlooking the city and then we hurried to a Brazilian steak house where we got our fill of food before heading back to the hotel for the night. Many had travel issues as well, missed flights and missing luggage. Sao Paulo can be tricky because your luggage doesn't automatically get put on your Rio plane despite what the airlines tell you. You always need to get it from baggage claim and then recheck it for you flight to Rio. It's a lengthy process. Seeing several campers without luggage and given 2-3 days for an ETA made me feel good about staying with my luggage until I could ensure it was on a flight with me.

April 3, 2026

I truly hate the Sao Paulo airport and still find any reason to avoid it.