Last night, we went to a favela near by to visit a Muay Thai gym. Eduardo Pachu has been running “Tropa” for ten years, offering free training to all the kids in the area, who else wise don’t have many options in life.

There was a lot of kids in the class, and it was really inspiring to watch. Having trained with kids many places in the world, it is obvious to me, that the fire and enthusiasm they put into the training, is the same, no matter their social status or financial capabilities. This gym had less than 15 pairs of boxing gloves and only four pairs of thai mitts, and still, they managed to do a high intensity class for two hours. I spotted a lot of talent in the group, some really, really impressive young people with crisp technique and impressive power. I wished I had brought some training clothes, so I could jump in, but with my body being really tired after walking up that hill/mountain, it was probably for the best that I just rested.

This visit really made me think. Having the opportunity to help kids I have met around the world, through my blog, is something I will work more on and do more organized. I have an idea for how to do it and will hopefully realize it when I get home or maybe earlier, if I have the time. In the meantime, if you have some old equipment for BJJ or Muay Thai, that you don’t use, do not throw it out, I might need it soon ;)

After visiting the Muay Thai training, we went across the road to the smallest and simplest BJJ gym I have seen in my life. I talked to the guys and agreed to go train with them tomorrow night, which I am looking very much forward to. Photos and stories to come! :)

I just discovered that this was online on YouTube. I was in India back in march, with much shorter hair and less of a tan than now :D

One of the stories from my trip, that I haven’t written much about here on the blog, was my experiences with the team in the Dominican Republic. It was a very interesting story, that I promised Jiu Jitsu Style to save for their magazine, and it was just published today.

You can buy the magazine on www.bjjstyle.com or if you have an iPad then in the app store. Alternatively, you can wait for the BJJ globetrotter book to come out ;)

If you have followed my blog for a while, you might remember, that in Hawaii, I was persuaded into climbing 1000+ steps up a “hill”, which was a little harder than I had anticipated.

I arrived in Connection Rio at five in the morning and got some sleep. Hywel Teague, and old friend I trained with in Manchester UK back in 2004, is currently working here, and asked if I wanted to go up the hill near by. I thought why not, and five hours later I am now back in the house LOL. Once again, it was a little harder and longer than I had imagined and my legs and knees took quite a beating. So much for a rest day! :D

Tomorrow, I am planning to go training somewhere. I have stayed away from training since Friday to rest my knee injury, so I really hope it will be fine tomorrow. Climbing a mountain didn’t help much though :)

Anyways, I am excited to finally be in Brazil and to see what experiences and adventures I will find here!

Location:Estr. Sorimã,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

This blog post have been a long time under way. I am finally reaching Brazil, the birthplace of the sport I have traveled the world on for four months, trained for more than ten years and has been making a living of for six.

I don’t really have any plans for Brazil yet. I don’t know where to go or where to train, so I need your help! :)

I have a few options already, but I want to keep all possibilities open, so if anyone of you readers have connections or recommendations for where to go, train or what to do in Brazil, please email me or leave a comment on this post.

I would love to train as many places as possible, but I am also quite limited financially. This is the end of my trip and I am pretty much running out of money, so I can’t afford to pay a lot of money for training each place (just had to buy a $2000 one way ticket from Brazil to Europe today, oh shit that hurt :D). I prefer to wash the mats or perform a magic show or something for training, but I know things work differently in Brazil. Of course, every place I go will also get some exposure on my 2000-gringo-readers-a-day amazing BJJ blog if that helps anything.

Besides that, if anyone is in Brazil and want to meet up for training, surfing or maybe one (1) beer, feel free to contact me, I am up for anything.

I will be staying with my friends in Connection Rio, which is a really cool house for foreigners who are going to Rio for training. I don’t know for how long yet, maybe I will move around in Brazil a bit, maybe I will stay in Rio for two weeks before I head to Europe. Will look into that when I get there and have an overview of my options :)

I am now in the airport, waiting for my flight to Panama, from where I fly to Rio de Janeiro. My original plan was to go from Colombia directly to Brazil, but I heard good things about Ecuador and that was exactly what I found. Once again, I made some really good friends in a place, I knew nothing about. Another world, that I would never have found or experienced, if I just lived my life at home all the time.

I stayed one night in Juan’s place, where I feel very much at home. The level of BJJ here is extremely high, and I would recommend anyone to come here for training.

Thanks to all my new friends in Ecuador, hope to see you again soon :)

What a good time I had in the Galapagos. This was a specially interesting visit, because it was the first time, I went somewhere without using the internet to arrange things first. Mario, who I stayed with, doesn’t have internet in his house and didn’t know about my blog. I don’t think he has even seen it yet to this day. The connection to him was through people I met here in Ecuador, who recommended me to go visit him. I called him on the phone and asked if I could come two days later, and now I just returned to the mainland with so many experiences and new friendships in my backpack. All from a remote place somewhere far, far away, that I had never before thought I would go.

I realized something in Galapagos. I actually knew it already, but it was one of these things, you have to say out loud to really understand it. Yesterday, we met one of Mario’s friend on the street. We talked a little bit about my trip and I told him I was only on the island for three days. Most places I have travelled on this trip, I have visited 2-4 days, and each and every place, people always tell me I should have stayed longer, this guy included. He seemed so sad, that I didn’t stay long enough to see all the things there. I wish I could, but then I would have to skip other destinations with other adventure and people to meet. Galapagos is a very unique and historical place, far, far away from my home, with a lot of wildlife and nature to see. A place, you could easily spend weeks traveling around to explore. However, that didn’t really appeal to me. I was in one of the most amazing and beautiful places on the earth, and I didn’t care about seeing it, but only wanted to train and hang out with people there?

In Galapagos, I did not go on any boat trips around the islands, looking at birds and iguanas with hundreds of tourists, wearing hats, practical backpacks, binoculars and “save the turtles” t-shirts. I am sure they saw some beautiful things, but what I saw, was – in my opinion – much more interesting and valuable. I stayed in a small apartment with three other people, many blocks away from the main road with all the souvenir shops and daytour organizers. An area, where the people of the island live and the average tourists never get to see or experience. I got to know the real locals, experienced a little bit of their every day lives and met many people, who inspired me, changed me a little bit and who I now call my friends.

This is what happens to me everywhere I go. It was just so obvious in the Galapagos, since I had all this highly sought after tourist stuff right around the corner, and I didn’t bother go see it. I’ll check out the BBC documentary in full HD when I get home instead. Having to leaving beautiful places or giant turtles doesn’t bother me a bit. However, having to leave new friends, I don’t know if or when I will see again, is really difficult and it makes me very sad. And thinking about that yesterday, made me realize very clearly, why I travel: To experience people, not places.

Last night, Mario was playing some nice reggae/bossa with his band in a local bar. It was a nice night and I was pretty tired today, but really wanted to go surfing, since I am leaving tomorrow.

Like Jiu Jitsu, there are some days, where things just don’t really work, and today was like that for me in the water. I had a smaller board than I have tried before and the current was brutal, pushing me back to shore in no time, so it was difficult to get out to the big waves.

Anyways, I caught one good wave on the small board and it was a really beautiful place. Lots of iguanas on the beach and big albatrosses flying right over my head while I was in the water. Sharks and giant sea turtles are keeping the surfers company, when they are sitting on the boards, waiting for the waves. The locals say, that the sharks don’t eat before 6 pm, which must be why the beach closes there. I didn’t know that sharks had watches, but I made sure to be out of the water by four, just to be safe ;)

Tomorrow morning, I am flying back to Guayaquil in the mainland and Monday, I (finally!) go to Brazil!

My knee, and the rest of my body actually, needed a rest yesterday. After sleeping a good 11 hours in the hammock (bailed on the air mattress and turned out to be awesome to sleep in the hammock instead), I was keen to go surfing. The surf shop had lunch break until 3:00. At four they still hadn’t opened though, so I decided to postpone it till today.

Instead, I took a walk in the national park and looked at a pair of really big turtles.

I am now officially a member of the very exclusive club of people who have taught BJJ in the Galapagos Islands. Member benefits includes things such as, but not limited to, paying $100 in entrance fee to an island, eating raw tuna and stumbling over ancient dinosaur-like creatures on the street daily.

Mario has a very little gym here, that he has been running for only four months. About ten students train there at the moment, many of them work as tour guides for the tourists in the national park. It is a very big job to start BJJ up from scratch in such a remote and isolated place like this, so I really take my hat off for Mario and what he is doing.

We had a small group tonight and I taught my secret sidemount escape, that I have been trying on every sparring partner I have had around the world :) I managed to roll a little bit despite my knee feeling a bit sore still. Unfortunately, I did a sweep on Mario and he landed on his arm, dislocating his elbow. It popped back in and I hope he will be fine again soon. He is drummer in a band that is playing tomorrow night, so that is a pretty bad injury actually.

Tomorrow, I’m going surfing. I can’t wait to get out there again, it haunts my mind 24/7 just like when I started with BJJ and wanted to learn something new all the time. Totally addicted.

I had never thought of going to the Galapagos. Despite being quite a map geek (I own a Google Earth 3D joystick), I actually wasn’t really sure where these islands were or what country they belong to. But anyways, today I found myself in the Galapagos islands, checking out the amazing nature. Walked a little trail to a cool cave thing and there are lots of interesting places to go see. I basically live right next to the national park with giant turtles, cacti and iguanas just waiting for me to come and hang out with them.

Time to explore the jungle, Darwin style!

Yesterday, Juan took me to another gym in the area called Predador. Pretty sweet name actually.

The people there were really nice and friendly. It was a big group of white and blue belts with two purple belts teaching. My knee didn’t feel too good, but I offered to teach a little bit and I managed to go some rounds of positional sparring with the guys before I had to stop.

There were a lot of kids in the class and I remembered, that when I have been injured at home, I just roll with the kids instead, so that’s what I did. Five rounds with awesome kids. Really good and fun rounds and it didn’t really affect my knee. Thanks to Predador for the hospitality :)

After class, I went over to Juan’s gym. Him and some of the students own an Irish pub on the second floor right above the gym. It is kind of strange to be in an Irish pub in Ecuador, but nevertheless that was were I found myself last night. It was a fun night with the guys from the gym and I didn’t get a lot of sleep before I had to go the airport to fly to Galapagos.

A judo gym back in Denmark decided to do something to help out the kids I visited in Moldova and gathered two big boxes of gi’s to ship down there.

If you haven’t yet read the story of my visit to teach BJJ in a small village in the snowy Moldovan countryside, you can read it here. We have already had some gi’s shipped down there from a guy in the US and I did a fundraiser seminar in New York, that collected enough money to get some seminars and tournaments set up in the village.

If YOU want to help some fellow BJJ practitioners out, let me know. There are many people around the world, who loves this sport just as much as we do, but don’t have the financial possibilities to even buy a gi or a belt. Should you have anything lying around that you don’t use, please email me and I’ll let you know how you can help out. It is a very small effort, that can make a very big difference in someone else’s life.

We are all one!

I went to Juan’s gym tonight (the guy I am staying with), even though I was pretty tired from getting up early to train this morning. I wanted to roll a little bit but in the first round, I felt some pain I my meniscus injury. I knew I shouldn’t have talked about not getting injured here on the blog today, it was totally jinxed.

I was asked to teach a little bit. It was a nice gym with lots of people. Forgot to take group picture of the first class with 30-40 people in it unfortunately.

I also got in touch with a guy who is running a gym in the Galapagos islands and he told me I was more than welcome at any time, so tomorrow morning, I will buy a ticket to go there – really excited about that!

Today, I reached quite a milestone on the trip, as I trained in gym number 50 since I left home february 21st.

I arrived here in Guayaquil last night and Juan picked me up in the airport. I went straight to bed, tired after a long day of traveling. Got up early this morning (that would be 8:30) and went to the gym. Juan’s car broke down on the way, so we were a little late.

I was really, really tired for training and didn’t have much energy for high pace rolls. It was a small gym with a handful of really high level guys, that sparred very hard with each other. I managed to survive a few rounds before I had to stop and rest. Didn’t have much in me this morning, but it was nice to get to the gym and do some work.

For some reason, I have been extremely lucky with injuries on this trip. I had expected to get a lot of them, but looking back I really haven’t had anything other than the knee problems, which were already there from home. I sprained a few fingers at the Worlds, which are hurting a lot, but doesn’t really count as fingers are always sprained when you train Jiu Jitsu. I did however get one party-injury the other day at a rooftop pool party in Colombia, where I managed to do a full cartoon style fall on the slippery floor by the pool (in front of tons of hot girls of course). Legs all the way in the air, landing right on my tailbone on a tile floor. Don’t remember if I did a correct breakfall. Playing guard really hurts, hope it will heal soon.

I am staying here in Ecuador until sunday. Now, I just need to figure out what to do and where to go here. I would really like to go surfing, hadn’t done it since Costa Rica and is eager to get in the water again soon, pulling off some impressive crashes in the waves.

This burger had a very interesting game consisting of such different styles as beef topgame, chicken bottomgame and an interesting fries guard. It was playing a lot of different cheese sweeps, but I felt it lacked a bit of vegetable fundamentals. A very solid and impressive game nonetheless. I promoted it to blue belt three stripes.

The burger in Panama was a heavyweight. Not all lean and athletic, there was some laziness involved in the choice of that weight class too.

It had a strong base, but a few weird techniques in it’s game. Some of it was a little old school and too easy to defend.

Blue belt one stripe.

…and because I am really bored, waiting in Quito airport for my flight to Guayaquil, I have just made all the destinations in my little itinerary here to the right on the front page, clickable.

Go ahead and click any destination to bring up all the posts from that place. In case you are also bored in an airport and have nothing to do :)

Once again, I find myself sitting in an airport with a strange feeling of being happy and sad at the same time. Medellín here in Colombia was such a good experience. What an amazingly beautiful place, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. I made so many friends here in just four days, and I am sad to leave them already.

In an hour, I fly to Ecuador. I didn’t really ever think about going there until I talked to some guys in Panama who recommended it. I have gotten a few emails from people who invited me to some very interesting places, so I made a quick decision to skip a weekend in Rio de Janeiro, and spend a full week in Ecuador instead. I don’t know what to expect from it, but statistically it can only turn out to be absolutely amazing, like every other place I have visited.

It will also be visit to gym number 50 on the trip!

Location:Carrera 36 7,Medellín,Colombia

I got this super sweet phone in the supermarket for $25 and I don’t think anyone wants to steal it. I pimped it a little bit the other day, when we had an epic night out with super glue.