Rio de Janeiro - Final Day in Brazil

by Dave Weitl

The team was safely checked through the international departure gates in Rio de Janeiro this evening for their long flight home through Atlanta. BJ, Brock, Alec and I returnd to Belo Horizonte for an additional week's stay in Brazil.

We had a fabulous day in Rio today beginning with a smooth early morning flight from Belo into Rio where we met Gelson Kawassaki of Daquiprafora, Ltd., a sports travel and academic placement company from Sao Paulo, Brazil who, along with their newest employee Tecia, served as our guides for the day. We boarded a beautiful charter bus with leather seats, air conditioning and a great sound system and cruised into Rio stopping at the Maracana stadium, past Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches before piling out at Leblon Beach.

We chilled, literally under some cloud cover, and departed around 2pm for lunch. We ate lunch at a Churrascoria in the heart of town near the Corcovado train. After stuffing ourselves with the endless supply of meats and sides, and of course, sobremesa (desert), we loaded up on the bus again for the Corcovado train station.

The trip up through the only urban rain forest in the world was very relaxing and we were teased near the top with some amazing peaks at the view. Once we climbed the last steps to the Christ the Redeemer statue we were overwhelmed by the incredibly beautiful views in all directions at this famous city and its uniqueness. We posed for some pics and then had to head back to down for our run to the airport.

Everyone should be arriving into Seattle by mid-morning after switching planes in Atlanta. It was an amazing adventure for everone and I will work hard to get the rest of the photo galleries posted soon as well as some of the journal entries we were able to coerce from some players while riding on the bus, sitting by the pool and in the airport. For now it is "boa noite" as we need to begin to normalize our sleep habits and enjoy the final week in Brazil.