Trip to Brazil 2005
Our trip to Brazil was fantastic!
Thank you so much for everybody who went with us, the Mestres and the students in Brazil who made this trip
so memorable!
Click on the link below to see some of the pictures of our trip:
Thank you Xuxa, a student of Mestre Fran who joined us in Brazil, for all the pictures.
I am going to share the letter she sent with her pictures:
"Mestre Rony,
here is a CD with all of the pictures and videos I took on my camera on the trip.
I figured you could loan it out to whoever wants to copy the pictures to their computer.
Thank you again so much for having me on the trip. I appreciate you invinting me and
I was glad to be able to hang out with everyone in the VAM crew. I had an amazing time .
It really was one of the best experiences of my life. It was a great combination of training
hard, touring hard, parting hard and sleeping hard ( yet short in the time in between).
One of the best parts of the trip for me was going to that village on the surprise outing
and playing with all of the kids there. It was really amazing to see how differently people
live, but how they can find so much joy in Capoeira, in the same way that we do.
I also thought it was really cool that no matter where we went, even when everything
was different and unfamiliar to us - the language, food, customs, people, etc - we could
jump in the roda and relate to people that way, all playing by the same "rules".
Anyway, I hope you guys all enjoy the pictures, and I cannot wait to see you all again -
hopelly soon!!!
Muito Axé
Xuxa."
Xuxa, you and all the people who were in this trip will be in my heart forever.
Mestre Rony
Take a look at what some of our students had to say about their trip last year:
"My trip to Brazil with Volta Ao Mundo in 2003 was amazing! About twenty of us traveled the
country for three weeks and by the end of our trip, our capoeira, our portuguese, and our
appreciation for the warm people of Brazil had increased beyond what I had thought possible.
Mestre kept the trip organized, but loose, and together we met students and mestres from
academies all over Brazil. Our days were spent among the locals, walking and taking buses
around Salvador, Rio, Sao Paolo, Sao Jose dos Campos and Mestre's hometown of
Pirassununga. In all of these places, we were to study and learn capoeira at different academies,
where we were welcomed as friends. We did learn a lot, but we learned even more about the
friendliness and openheartedness of Brazilians. Our days were long as we trained, but our nights
were longer as we met our new friends over caipirinhas. The hard core capoeiristas never sleep,
it seems. The biggest highlights were training in Mestre Lobao's hometown and meeting his
family, and meeting Mestre Rony's family and our GrandMestre Luizao. We learned of the rich
heritage of capoeira and discovered we were now a part of it. It was a truly beautiful trip and
the axe has continued to last."
-Darcey Jordan
"Last summer, I visited Rio de Janeiro and Bahia in Brazil with Mestre Rony and the
Volta Ao Mundo group to train capoeira. Mestre Rony was a great guide, and his
knowledge about the areas that we visited made every outing a learning experience.
Mestre arranged for us to stay in wonderful hotels, where even the view at breakfast
was breathtaking. From the beginning, the entire group became a family, and we all
shared this amazing experience together. Almost every day, we visited a new academy,
took a class from the mestre there, and trained with the students. Mestre Rony had
already arranged all of our lessons, and we were warmly accepted at all of the academies
that we visited. At each academy, we saw different styles and interpretations of capoeira.
The amazing thing was that we weren't just observing these styles or reading about them,
but we were actually learning them from the mestres of the academies. We trained with
their students, heard their mestres speak of the philosophy of capoeira, and played
capoeira with the entire academy. One of the most amazing parts of the trip for me
was being able to train at Mestre Bimba's academy in Bahia . Had I not gone on the
trip with Volta Ao Mundo, I would never have been exposed to the variety of styles of
capoeira that we saw in Brazil . Mestre Rony arranged the trip so that we had enough
free time to explore the tourist parts of Brazil , and at the same time we trained capoeira
every day. We visited the islands of Bahia on a chartered boat, took a lift upto Sugarloaf,
and even hang glided over Rio . Going to Brazil with people who had been there before was
invaluable because they knew their way around the city, and we weren't held down by
tourist traps. We saw a more personal side of Brazil that we wouldn't have normally
experienced. During this trip, I saw that capoeira is much more than just a fight or a dance.
Capoeira is such an integral part of the culture, especially in Bahia , that you can't step out
your door without seeing it. One of the most amazing things was to see how people expressed
their culture in everyday life, and how well-practiced capoeira is today. This trip changed the
way that I see capoeira, and I am thankful that I was able to experience it with such a fun,
dynamic group. I learned more about capoeira just in these two weeks than I had in months
of training. To anyone who has an interest in capoeira, take the time over the summer to
travel with Volta Ao Mundo, and you will experience capoeira as an integral part of the
Brazilian culture. "
-Tom Mcbride