Ok, the Afternoon rodas were cancled today, so at last I have some time for an update.
Bilbao is an amazing city. From what I have seen so far, one of the prettiest cities in Europe, if not in the whole world. Countless attractions, interesting architecture, and a very clean city. You can feel the effort the people here invest into their city, always cleaning and developing , without hurting the óld europe´ feel they have here.
The food is a bit of a problem for us, as the three of us are strict Paleo, so we spend a lot of time traveling around the city looking for the better option, we do find it in the end, though.
Capoeira wise, the event is great. We wake up at 08:30 everyday, eat some breakfast and go to the first training at 10:00. We train till 13:30 and then go to lunch. From 14:30-15:30 afternoon Roda in the center of Bilbao, and 16:00-18:00 some more training. The competition and Mestre´s rodas are everyday from 19:00-22:00.
We made a lot of friends here. (CDO style... have to be friendly...) A lot of diffrent and sometimes strange capoeira groups and style are present, so its fun.
The mestres.... The mestres are the icing on the cake. We are blown away by Espirro Mirim. He is hands down the most amazing physical Capoeirista I have seen. He takes the term ´body control´ to new hights. If you have seen some videos of EM, dont make the mistake of thinking you´ve seen anything! The real thing is the true deal, and the devil is in the details.
Mestre Paulinho Sabia is another amazing technical capoeirista. he is very generous with his vast technical knowledge and a very nice person overall. He is so technical, I sometimes wonder if he measures his steps, as they are so even..
Mestre Garrincha gave a very interesting class today with rythem and coordination skills. I liked his simple aproach. I think I´ll use it with some training I´m going to give in the future.
Mestre Boneco is the true official álpha male´. he is tall, handsome and strong. I hear he is over 40 years old, but he looks younger than me. The man is an energy bomb. His classes are wham-bam-´thank you for your time guys´, and he is an example of how an instructor should lead a class. He is highly physical in his aproach, and its a nice contrast to some more philosophical teachers that are also present.

Speaking of philoshophical, mestre Acordeon is a warm, charismatic person. His control of music, voice and instrumental, is stunning. He plays all the instruments in his 14 CDs including piano, acordeon and guitar. He hugs everyone and gives advice from the heart.
He also showed during one of the mestre´s rodas he is no old weakling: some of the younger mestres in a act of disrespect, tried to take him down in an Arrastao. (double leg takedown) Acordeon just flipped him over with a WWF ´Suplex´ move. Did I mention this younger mestre is over 100kg of muscles and tattoos?
More, later, have to go to the roda in the Guggenheim now...
Ido.