St. Barths Caribbean Camp. Pirate’s life for me!

Just over two months ago I had started my journey in the El Salvador Globetrotters camp and now I was finally at my second camp in the Caribbean. I had travelled through Central America, hitting as many gyms as I could for two months, meeting people through Jiu Jitsu and others just on the road, people who would make an impact on the rest of my life. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to have this life and how glad I am to have made the decision to go for it.

It was the first open mat of the Caribbean Camp, I had already done a few rolls with my fellow Globetrotters. I sat at the edge of the mats looking at all the people rolling together, laughing and enjoying. Gradually I felt the goosebumps rising from within and I had to try my hardest to hold back tears of joy. I thought to myself of all the places I’ve been to, this is where I belong. People coming from all over the world with one common interest, putting aside nationality, believes, politics and everything else, on the mats that doesn’t matter. We are all the same.

The following week was one of the most intense and best weeks of my life. We would wake up in the morning for surfing, head for Jiu Jitsu class and end the day with a few beers together. To survive that I had to strategically take naps during group beach trips after lunch. Such a hard life. Then Friday rolled around, there was a boat trip scheduled for the whole day. In my childhood I grew up around boats and have always enjoyed myself a boat ride, but this day took it to a whole new level. We sailed out to this remote beach where we set down anchor. We spend the day swimming in the sea, tanning on top of the boats, cheering to a good week and trying our best to grab the best profile picture as possible.

I wish I could mention every single person I met in the camp in this post but there where just to many people I got to know over the course of the week. I do however have to mention my fellow instructors. Every single class that I attended was interesting. In just that one week I was able to add so many techniques to my game. After all this travelling my game doesn’t even look the same, I’m starting to look like a BJJ Frankenstein put together with techniques from all over the world. These camps are not only a place to make friends for life but also improve and widen your Jiu Jitsu.

Before this week started I thought that maybe I wouldn’t make as many friends as I did in El Salvador, maybe it wouldn’t live up to that camp. However at the end of it I had just as many invitations around the world and I realised that each camp would be different and would bring me different experiences for life.