2021 Rio Camp: Day 6

Oct 30, 2021

Skipped breakfast and went straight to 10am gi class with black belt Rudson Mateus. Rudson was at the last camp and is a fierce competitor. He taught De La Riva ball and chain sweep and ball and chain to single leg. After class we parted from the camp and had a small group go to Hiper Mate for lunch. We had acai along with joelho, tapiocas recheadas, and pao de queijo. This is Ender's favorite restaurant in the world, he dreams about their acai. It was all excellent! We knew the camp was walking to Impanema beach shortly so we met up with them for a day at the beach. While we waited Endo, Ender, and Pocholo had a workout in one of the open air beach gyms. It was cloudy and windy but not too cold. Once at the beach Endo, Ender, and I immediately jumped into the ocean. It was chilly but refreshing. We were joined by our pal Nate and had fun getting pushed around by the rolling waves. A handful of campers took a surf lesson and rode some waves. I love being near the ocean and especially in it! It's fun letting it move you or trying to fight to stand still. Always bring me peace and rejuvenation. We took vans back to the hotel and had some time to shower before dinner. The hotel decorated the lobby for Halloween which is tomorrow. I wasn't sure if Halloween was celebrated in Brazil. I haven't seen anything Halloween related until now. For dinner we drove out to Barra to one of the top steak houses in Rio, Mocellin Steak. They brought all kinds of different cuts of meat. I mainly ate these amazing garlic bread rolls, salmon nigiri, and fried bananas one of my favorite Brazilian treats. Half the group went back to the hotel, while the others visited the night market not far from the hotel to get souvenirs. I went to the market on my first trip and found I've purchased less and less stuff each trip. Getting to bed early is never a bad thing on these trips!