Owls in Brazil
6/4/2023 11:02:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The Rice Owls Volleyball team is in Brazil June 1-11 in advance of the 2023 season. The trip includes four matches against various club/national teams. Sophomore Darby Harris shares her experiences during its journey.
June 7 | Rio
This morning we had some free time to explore the beach! We strolled along the water for a bit watching the waves crash, and then some of us swam before we headed back to the hotel to grab some breakfast and get ready to shop.
There were a ton of different shops with bathing suits, bags, clothes, and other souvenirs, so all our wallets got a little bit lighter this morning. After browsing every shop we could find, we loaded the bus to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain.
We boarded the gondola and took in the view as we traveled up the mountain (those of us afraid of heights closed their eyes). Then a second gondola took us even higher and we were faced with even more souvenir shops ready to take advantage of the American tourists. We also befriended some monkeys and spent some time taking in the AMAZING view of the whole city that we had from so high up.
June 8 | Travel Day!
This morning we grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to the beach for some beach volleyball and wave jumping. After a bit, the coaches joined us in volleyball too (Trey had a bit of an advantage since he used to coach beach volleyball).
The waves were definitely bigger than I was expecting, and I was a little too ambitious…..I fought a wave and the wave won. After being tossed around underwater like I was in a washing machine, I finally made it to the surface with everything intact except my pride. Besides my little tumble, it was SO nice to be on the beach in the sun all morning!!
Afterwards, we headed to Saquarema to tour the Brazil national team's training facility. The whole outdoor area was so peaceful and their gym was incredible. We were lucky enough to be there while some teams practiced too, so we got a peek into their training.
Then we were back on the bus for another couple hours until we got to Arraial do Cabo where we unpacked and had some dinner before crashing from the long day.
June 9 | Arraial do Cabo!
We woke up this morning and had some quick breakfast before walking to our boat tour. We were in AWE by how beautiful the ocean and the beaches were through the whole tour.
We started by getting off at a beach by a military base to snorkel and hang out where the water was super clear. Afterwards we headed to a more touristy beach and treated ourselves to some açaí, and then turned Kaitlyn and Taylor into sand mermaids.
Our last stop was another snorkel destination, but at this one we got to jump off the top deck of the boat into the water. We were able to convince the coaches to jump, and then Tanner did a flip, inspiring some other people to flip too.
After soaking up every last bit of the scenery and the water, we headed back to shore for some delicious lunch. When we were full we shopped and then shopped some more. It was so beautiful walking around while the sun was setting. Once we decided we had spent enough money for one night, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
June 10 | Last day
We started this morning early to head to surfing lessons!! The water was SO clear and we all had a blast soaking up the Brazilian sun for the last time. We had a ton of fun and a ton of wipeouts.
After our lesson, we walked back to the hotel for one last meal (and one last açaí) before driving back to Rio and flying back to Houston to conclude what was an AMAZING trip all around!! We are all so grateful for this once in a lifetime experience and all the memories we made, tchau Brasil:)
June 6 | Rio de Janeiro
This morning began with another great hotel breakfast before we headed to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. After a train ride to the top of the mountain, we were among hundreds of other people eager to see the giant statue, several gift shops offering shirts, magnets, key chains and more, and the statue itself, in all 30 meters of its glory.
We played a military team (which included players that have been playing volleyball longer than I've been on Earth) and we battled hard in a heartbreaker of a four-set match.
Yet another all-you-can-eat buffet was in our schedule for dinner, so we enjoyed a variety of meats, sushi, fruit, vegetables, quiches, and pizza before taking a stroll next to the beach to end the day. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before our next game day!
June 4 | Sao Paulo Final Day
We started this morning off with another breakfast buffet to fuel us up for our second match vs the Sao Paulo state team, then we were off to the gym. After another four sets, we exchanged t-shirts and got to know the other team as best we could with the language barrier. Thankfully some of them spoke English really well which helped make up for our team's collective three words of Portuguese. One of the girls I was talking to invited me into their huddle to lead their team cheer, which I definitely did not pronounce correctly.
The team we met on the first day had invited us to watch them play a match later that day, so after showering and having some lunch, we headed to cheer them on. Intense would be an understatement for the game which featured several digs off of players' heads and a kick-save.
Afterwards, we headed to a family owned Italian restaurant and we were served several different pizzas. Between the margherita, four cheese, pepperoni, and chicken-with-cream-cheese pizzas, we were stuffed! But we obviously saved some room for dessert. When we got back to the hotel we walked to a market and got ice cream, cookies, and snacks for the long bus ride tomorrow to Rio. I chose some chocolate wafer cookies that were delicious!
June 5 | Travel to Rio de Janiero
I started this morning with Lola and Emilia doing some light yoga to loosen up before the six-hour bus ride we had ahead of us. Then we enjoyed our last breakfast at this hotel, and hit the road. Right as I finished watching 21 Jump Street, we were ready to stop for lunch.
We got to enjoy another buffet with assorted meats, burgers, salads, and pastries to fill up. We also browsed some snacks and desserts that they had in a gift shop portion of the market, including jars of doce de leite, and entire ropes full of honey. After we had enough, we were back on the road, and before we knew it, we were in Rio!
We unpacked our bags and headed to watch the teams we'd be playing later compete against one another: the u21 national team, and the military team.
After a long 10 hour flight, we made it to Sao Paulo early on June 2 just in time to head into practice. We trained at Club Paineiras Do Morumby after some coffee and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. The club also had other sports, including what seemed like a mix between pickleball and sand volleyball.
We trained for about an hour and got to meet a Brazilian team for a quick photo. Afterwards, we were treated to a lunch buffet featuring dishes such as a variety of pastas and sauces, a special juice from the fruit graviola, quiche, veal parmesan, and various other meats. Little did we know the unique cultural foods would not end there!
After making it back to the hotel and taking some much needed showers and naps after the long night of travel, we went to explore Ibirapuera Park, one of the largest parks in the city. There was a winding path filled with bikers, roller bladers, walkers, and runners, as well as multiple fields and courts filled with people playing all kinds of sports. We also wandered through a playground area with so. many. seesaws.
After watching the sunset over the lake at the park and soaking in one of our first touristy experiences in Brazil, we headed to a Brazilian steakhouse for another delicious meal!
From yuka to pork skins, we tried even more foods rare in the United States, and we definitely took advantage of the all-you-can-eat part of the buffet! Thankfully we left room for dessert and treated ourselves to cheese slices mixed with dolce de leche and a pumpkin coconut paste as well.
After entering our food comas, we crashed and rested up for the adventures that were coming the following days!!
June 3
We started our day off with a nice hotel buffet breakfast featuring eggs, yogurts, pastries and more. After fueling up, we went to the Farol Santander bank (one of the tallest buildings in the city) to learn about its history and we ended up at the top with a perfect view of the city skyline.
On the way up we stopped at an indoor skate park, which we definitely would have had some fun on if we weren't trying to avoid injuries for the sake of volleyball. Then on the way out of the bank, we ran across a karaoke stage so we had to pause to take advantage of it.
After exploring the bank, we went to a market for lunch. Immediately upon entering we were bombarded with every kind of meat you could think of. For lunch I shared an award winning sandwich with Gaby, and afterwards we were ready to play our first match!
We got to show off our new sleeveless jerseys today against the Brazil national team, and we also were given some of their old t-shirt jerseys from the team during our t-shirt exchange. After four hard fought sets, we headed to a Brazilian steakhouse for dinner. Once again we were presented with an all-you-can-eat style dinner, and we definitely took advantage of it. From chicken hearts, to sushi, all kinds of meat were offered. After wrapping up our second day with full bellies we headed back to the hotel to rest up for what will be another full day tomorrow!!
June 7 | Rio
This morning we had some free time to explore the beach! We strolled along the water for a bit watching the waves crash, and then some of us swam before we headed back to the hotel to grab some breakfast and get ready to shop.
There were a ton of different shops with bathing suits, bags, clothes, and other souvenirs, so all our wallets got a little bit lighter this morning. After browsing every shop we could find, we loaded the bus to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain.
We boarded the gondola and took in the view as we traveled up the mountain (those of us afraid of heights closed their eyes). Then a second gondola took us even higher and we were faced with even more souvenir shops ready to take advantage of the American tourists. We also befriended some monkeys and spent some time taking in the AMAZING view of the whole city that we had from so high up.
Then we grabbed some lunch on top of the mountain, and went to start warming up for our last match. After four sets, our volleyball competition for the trip came to an end, and we headed to dinner: a Brazilian steakhouse. Then with full bellies we came back to the hotel after what was another full day in Rio!
June 8 | Travel Day!
This morning we grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to the beach for some beach volleyball and wave jumping. After a bit, the coaches joined us in volleyball too (Trey had a bit of an advantage since he used to coach beach volleyball).
The waves were definitely bigger than I was expecting, and I was a little too ambitious…..I fought a wave and the wave won. After being tossed around underwater like I was in a washing machine, I finally made it to the surface with everything intact except my pride. Besides my little tumble, it was SO nice to be on the beach in the sun all morning!!
Afterwards, we headed to Saquarema to tour the Brazil national team's training facility. The whole outdoor area was so peaceful and their gym was incredible. We were lucky enough to be there while some teams practiced too, so we got a peek into their training.
Then we were back on the bus for another couple hours until we got to Arraial do Cabo where we unpacked and had some dinner before crashing from the long day.
June 9 | Arraial do Cabo!
We woke up this morning and had some quick breakfast before walking to our boat tour. We were in AWE by how beautiful the ocean and the beaches were through the whole tour.
We started by getting off at a beach by a military base to snorkel and hang out where the water was super clear. Afterwards we headed to a more touristy beach and treated ourselves to some açaí, and then turned Kaitlyn and Taylor into sand mermaids.
Our last stop was another snorkel destination, but at this one we got to jump off the top deck of the boat into the water. We were able to convince the coaches to jump, and then Tanner did a flip, inspiring some other people to flip too.
June 10 | Last day
We started this morning early to head to surfing lessons!! The water was SO clear and we all had a blast soaking up the Brazilian sun for the last time. We had a ton of fun and a ton of wipeouts.
After our lesson, we walked back to the hotel for one last meal (and one last açaí) before driving back to Rio and flying back to Houston to conclude what was an AMAZING trip all around!! We are all so grateful for this once in a lifetime experience and all the memories we made, tchau Brasil:)
June 6 | Rio de Janeiro
This morning began with another great hotel breakfast before we headed to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. After a train ride to the top of the mountain, we were among hundreds of other people eager to see the giant statue, several gift shops offering shirts, magnets, key chains and more, and the statue itself, in all 30 meters of its glory.
We took hundreds of pictures of the statue, the view we had from the top of the mountain, and the monkeys that were bold enough to come right up to tourists and take their food. Once we soaked in the experience as much as we could, we headed back down the mountain and back to the hotel to relax before our game.
We played a military team (which included players that have been playing volleyball longer than I've been on Earth) and we battled hard in a heartbreaker of a four-set match.
Yet another all-you-can-eat buffet was in our schedule for dinner, so we enjoyed a variety of meats, sushi, fruit, vegetables, quiches, and pizza before taking a stroll next to the beach to end the day. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before our next game day!
June 4 | Sao Paulo Final Day
We started this morning off with another breakfast buffet to fuel us up for our second match vs the Sao Paulo state team, then we were off to the gym. After another four sets, we exchanged t-shirts and got to know the other team as best we could with the language barrier. Thankfully some of them spoke English really well which helped make up for our team's collective three words of Portuguese. One of the girls I was talking to invited me into their huddle to lead their team cheer, which I definitely did not pronounce correctly.
The team we met on the first day had invited us to watch them play a match later that day, so after showering and having some lunch, we headed to cheer them on. Intense would be an understatement for the game which featured several digs off of players' heads and a kick-save.
Afterwards, we headed to a family owned Italian restaurant and we were served several different pizzas. Between the margherita, four cheese, pepperoni, and chicken-with-cream-cheese pizzas, we were stuffed! But we obviously saved some room for dessert. When we got back to the hotel we walked to a market and got ice cream, cookies, and snacks for the long bus ride tomorrow to Rio. I chose some chocolate wafer cookies that were delicious!
June 5 | Travel to Rio de Janiero
I started this morning with Lola and Emilia doing some light yoga to loosen up before the six-hour bus ride we had ahead of us. Then we enjoyed our last breakfast at this hotel, and hit the road. Right as I finished watching 21 Jump Street, we were ready to stop for lunch.
We got to enjoy another buffet with assorted meats, burgers, salads, and pastries to fill up. We also browsed some snacks and desserts that they had in a gift shop portion of the market, including jars of doce de leite, and entire ropes full of honey. After we had enough, we were back on the road, and before we knew it, we were in Rio!
We unpacked our bags and headed to watch the teams we'd be playing later compete against one another: the u21 national team, and the military team.
The game was on a military base, which happened to be exactly where Rio de Janeiro was founded by a Portuguese sailor.
We admired the base and the scenery, then we headed to another all-you-can-eat buffet (it seemed to be a pattern for our meals at this point) featuring interesting pizza flavors. After our dinner pizzas like pepperoni and margherita, we enjoyed dessert pizzas such as chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate strawberry, and cinnamon banana pizzas. After our feast we were all ready for bed, so we headed back to get some sleep before what would be our first full day in Rio!
After a long 10 hour flight, we made it to Sao Paulo early on June 2 just in time to head into practice. We trained at Club Paineiras Do Morumby after some coffee and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. The club also had other sports, including what seemed like a mix between pickleball and sand volleyball.
We trained for about an hour and got to meet a Brazilian team for a quick photo. Afterwards, we were treated to a lunch buffet featuring dishes such as a variety of pastas and sauces, a special juice from the fruit graviola, quiche, veal parmesan, and various other meats. Little did we know the unique cultural foods would not end there!
After making it back to the hotel and taking some much needed showers and naps after the long night of travel, we went to explore Ibirapuera Park, one of the largest parks in the city. There was a winding path filled with bikers, roller bladers, walkers, and runners, as well as multiple fields and courts filled with people playing all kinds of sports. We also wandered through a playground area with so. many. seesaws.
After watching the sunset over the lake at the park and soaking in one of our first touristy experiences in Brazil, we headed to a Brazilian steakhouse for another delicious meal!
From yuka to pork skins, we tried even more foods rare in the United States, and we definitely took advantage of the all-you-can-eat part of the buffet! Thankfully we left room for dessert and treated ourselves to cheese slices mixed with dolce de leche and a pumpkin coconut paste as well.
After entering our food comas, we crashed and rested up for the adventures that were coming the following days!!
June 3
We started our day off with a nice hotel buffet breakfast featuring eggs, yogurts, pastries and more. After fueling up, we went to the Farol Santander bank (one of the tallest buildings in the city) to learn about its history and we ended up at the top with a perfect view of the city skyline.
On the way up we stopped at an indoor skate park, which we definitely would have had some fun on if we weren't trying to avoid injuries for the sake of volleyball. Then on the way out of the bank, we ran across a karaoke stage so we had to pause to take advantage of it.
After exploring the bank, we went to a market for lunch. Immediately upon entering we were bombarded with every kind of meat you could think of. For lunch I shared an award winning sandwich with Gaby, and afterwards we were ready to play our first match!
We got to show off our new sleeveless jerseys today against the Brazil national team, and we also were given some of their old t-shirt jerseys from the team during our t-shirt exchange. After four hard fought sets, we headed to a Brazilian steakhouse for dinner. Once again we were presented with an all-you-can-eat style dinner, and we definitely took advantage of it. From chicken hearts, to sushi, all kinds of meat were offered. After wrapping up our second day with full bellies we headed back to the hotel to rest up for what will be another full day tomorrow!!
Players Mentioned
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