2021 Rio Camp: Day 1

Oct 25, 2021

I slept great after a long day of travel and woke up to go to the hotel breakfast before bjj training. Lots of fresh fruit like papaya, passionfruit, oranges, and guava. Made to order omelets and pastries. Nogi started at 10:45am in one of the hotel conference rooms that had been emptied and completely covered in bjj mats. Caio taught half guard to single leg X with heel hook attacks.

After drilling we had fresh juice delivered, I had watermelon juice then we started training. I went with Endo and Ender, my husband and son. Then I went with Jessica a purple belt from Philadelphia. After nogi class we got acai at a local restaurant that is walking distance to the hotel. After getting our fill of acai and chicken/hummus sandwiches we jumped into vans and went to the Tijuca National Rainforest. Here we walked through the rainforest, saw waterfalls, and connected with the earth walking barefoot and breathing in sweet fresh air. We wrapped up the day with dinner at CT Boucherie a steak house where everyone got filet mignon and a tbone steak. I disappointed Caio by asking for fish instead since I lean pescatarian. I believe I had mung fish, which was very good. We finished the evening with gi training at the hotel then acai around the corner. During drilling we worked on pirate chokes to pirate baseball choke variation, and front rear naked choke from knee on belly. I trained with Endo, Martin from Switzerland that was at the last camp, and Randy the oldest member of the camp at 57. Randy is a purple belt from Washington DC and trains at a Caio affiliate. Martin is a blue belt, but not really due to travel he hasn't been promoted but clearly should be. My thumb had an unfortunate collision with Martin's knee when I tried to swing into xguard. It is swollen with some nerve pain and has been useless the rest of the night. Hopefully it feels better tomorrow.