Living in Allston, MA

So I have been living in a pretty rad collective house called Eliconia in Allston, Ma with a lot of really cool and diverse people.

 I have also found a job in Cambridge, MA at a really cool clothing/ costume store called The Garment District. I have been working a lot lately and I really like the job. It is only a temporary job because during Halloween it gets super busy, BUT I have been working really hard and showing the upper management people that I can do a fantastic job and am hoping to keep the job after Halloween even though they told everyone that they will be letting go of all of the temporary work on Nov. 1. 

 I have been playing a lot of music and I have been practicing singing a lot lately. I have actually been giving guitar lessons in return for some spanish singing lessons from our neighbor Miguel from Columbia. He is a really nice guy and helps me out a lot with my pronunciation. 

I have also been helping out the radical non profit organization Food Not Bombs pick up their food donations every week from Whole Foods with my xtracycle bike trailer. They get a lot of food so I get to bring some of it home to our home in Allston. 

I have also been thinking about making huge puppets like the kind I saw at bread in puppet in Vermont so I can attach them to my bike trailer and ride around with them during critical mass and during events and things like that.

Well I hope you all are enjoying life and I love you all! 

P.S- I don't have any plans on traveling any time soon but I am saving money for my next epic adventure!!

Puppets, bicycles and much more

So I am moving in to Allston, MA on Sept 1st!!! I have been spending a lot of time at this really cool collective house called Eliconia. There are about 10 people living in a 7 bedroom house and there is a huge common space and big kitchen and 2 bathrooms and a really large basement! I have been creating so much things. Like a couple of puppets as well as some clothes. I dont have any pictures of my clothes yet but I will soon enough.

I also played a show in the basement of Eliconia a couple of weeks ago. It was the monday after my grandfather past away and it made me feel so much more happier to express myself through music. I also met so many fantastic people.

I have also been starting a zine about my travels!! I will have hand drawn pictures, typing from a type writer, cut and paste pictures and ransom note style letters. It will be awesome!!

A new chapter in my book of life.

I found out that one of the most important Father figures in my life has passed away last night. It wasn't my actual Father because I don't even really know my actual Father because he left my family when I was 2 and I have only spoken to him about 4 times ever.
It was my Grandfather who we called "Pa". He was my Mom's Father and was always there for us ever since we were born. He use to see us every Wednesday and Sunday until we were in High school. He taught my how to fish, tried to teach us how to play catch and other sports, He would always be there for us during events like when I played soccer or when I played my guitar and sang at open mics or cafe's. We would always have family gatherings with him, my aunt, my grandmother(his ex wife) and my great grandmother. They all happened to pass away within 3 years. We would go to Vermont every April vacation and South Carolina every summer. He would bring us sledding, bike riding, help us clean are yard, He Taught me how to drive! He was amazing and always will be. Even though I may never see him again physically, I will always see him in my thoughts and dreams. He taught me how to be a good person and he loved me with all of his heart which makes me want to pass on the love and love everyone with all of my heart. He has given me support in everything I have always been interested in. I would tell him everything that was going on in my life, I would tell him my thoughts, my dreams, my goals, I even told him stories about my sex life hoping to gain wisdom and knowledge for my future. He would step on my toes sometimes but I would never pull it out from under, I would just wait until he walked away. I don't know why but I always have.
I could go on forever about Pa but I won't. I am glad he lived the life he did and I am thankful for that. For now a part of him will be with me forever and I will help spread the love until it is my time to depart.

What I have been doing lately.

So I spent about 1 week and a half in Allston, MA where I hung out at the collective house called Eliconia. I rode with about 100 other bicyclist in Boston for the monthly critical mass which made me very happy. I would like to move in to Eliconia and get more involved in Boston and earn and save money for the summer. I have applied to multiple places but I haven't gotten any responses yet.
My xtracycle is functional and back on the road after being in a box ever since I came home. I have been riding my Giant bicycle which Gray from Earn A Bike gave me since I gave away my Specialized bike to Hector in Guatemala. My knees have been aching a little from riding every day, which isn't a good sign. During my trip my knees started to ache sometimes after climbing up some brutal hills.
I have been working on writing 2 new songs as well as creating a new zine about my traveling expeirences,tips on dumpster diving and bicycle mechanics.

Update on my life.

So lately I have been fixing lots of bicycles for Earn a Bike so we can sell them to get some money for the shop. Gray from Earn A Bike let me have a pretty sweet Giant mountain bike so I can put my xtracycle on it and start using it again for all my needs like carrying my Guitar(s) and synthesizer and camping gear,etc.
I want to leave Worcester earlier than I planned. I would like to leave in July or maybe even Earlier. I have been playing guitar for about 2-6 hours a day. I have been working on writing new songs and learning some cover songs that I would like to play.
I still want to start an Earn a bike program or help at least organize one in Guadalajara, Mexico. I am going to start playing music on the streets and maybe bars and shows for money soon as well. I am going to contact some awesome bike programs in Texas and surrounding states that already do over the boarder work.
I want to play music more with other musicians which I have not been doing at all. I want to start performing puppet plays but I would like a partner or multiple partners to start performing plays.

Home

So I got home on Tuesday last week and got a little bit of a re-entry shock when I came back to the states. The air is much cleaner and it smells a little better up here and there isn't trash that cover the streets or the woods. I realized people aren't so friendly up here compared to Guatemala. Every one I would walk by would usually give be a big smile and greet me properly and usually look you in the eyes but up here I have noticed a lot of people could care less and just walk bye. Of course there will be friendly and not so friendly people that are all over the world. I had to spend 100 dollars to ship my xtracycle which put my money in my bank account down to $12.50

I have applied at a couple of bike shops that I live around. I am going to start doing little jobs like paintings and little plumbing jobs also so I can get a little bit of an income and start saving. I am working on getting rid of most of my things by either donating the majority of it and I am going to try to sell all of my dvds and games and my 12 string guitar and my other acoustic guitar. I have been playing guitar for hours on end every day also since I wasn't able to while I was traveling because I didn't bring one with me. It feels good to play again and I am starting to get new inspiration. I have been riding my 6 speed bike around everyday, it is a little heavy and pretty slow but it is still pretty cool looking. I eventually want to get another mountain bike so I can put my xtracycle back on so I can start carrying things on it again.

When I first came back the weather was pretty cold and not so fun but now it has been really warm and fantastic.

I would still like to travel sometime in the fall and head towards Atlanta and then towards Austin Texas. I would like to be in Texas at least by next March or April.

My last day in Guatemala and I am Paypal Verified

So it is my final day in Guatemala...This morning I woke up and took the bike that I brought on my amazing journey with me out for one last ride before I leave and let Hector have it forever. Me and Hector went out to the main plaza in Panajachel and saw a puppet show that was quite entertaining. It was a man from El Salvador who performed a great show with an enviromental story. Although it was all in Spanish I still understood most of it. I wrapped up my xtracycle in a box and it is all ready to take on the plane with me tomorrow. I am going to start looking for a shuttle bus to Guatemala City for 6am tomorrow morning.


So I am a little late and I totally should of done this before my trip but I just verified myself for paypal so I can get donations. I will be flying to Boston tomorrow...But I am going to start traveling again! In about 3 months or so. I think for now I am not going to update so much since I will be home unless something amazing happens, which I am sure some amazing things will happen.

So....I am taking a little rest and hopefully I will make some money while at home by working a little bit by figure modeling and I would like to get interviewed also about my trip from local media sources. I found 2 people from couchsurfing.com who are interested in traveling with me by bike along the East Coast of the U.S this fall so that is pretty exciting.


Well yall are more than welcome to send me an email and talk if you would like to comment or talk with me about my trip or about bicycles or about the future or about anything in the world.

Going Home

So I am taking an airplane from Guatemala City to Boston on Monday. I am going to go home to donate and sell most of my things so I can start traveling again for as long and as far as I want.
I have been having an amazing and pretty unforgetable time. These past weeks have been really great. I have created and played lots of new music as well as played music alongside with Dave and Paco and Hector. We have been making some money and have been getting free meals for all the times that we play music at restaurants and bars, Which is pretty awesome.
So I am looking for some traveling partners for my U.S East Coast Bike Trip this Fall. I plan on biking from the Boston area all the way down to Atlanta Georgia. Then from ATL I will visit my friend I havent seen for a long time and then ride to Enterprise Alabama to meet my father who I never met. And then from there I will ride to Texas. And then from Texas I might ride to Mexico!!! So if you or anyone you know would like to go on a bicycle trip throughout the East Coast of the U.S then send me an email at jshchadwick@yahoo.com
I am going to bring my xtracycle, my guitar, neccessities such as camping supplies and a big happy outlook on life.

Living In Hectors House in San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala

So I have been staying at Hectors house with Paco for the past week. Hector also lives in Panajachel where he works and sells his artwork. So I have been watching his house and taking care of his garden. It has been total paradise and I have been living it up. I played a show at a restaurant with Paco and got paid 50q which is pretty good. I had a fun time expressing myself with music and I have been writing a brand new song that might be called ¨We all know¨. I am having multiple thoughts about traveling. I am still thinking about selling my bicycle and maybe buying a classical guitar and traveling with just a backpack and a guitar and taking buses and possibly hitchhiking up through mexico and playing guitar at bars and in the cities for some money and making my way up to Austin Texas. Another thought is to borrow some money from someone and take a plane to Boston and then recooperate and go to my damn jury duty in June and then start traveling again in August by bicycle in the states. Making my way along the whole east coast and going west to Alabama to meet my father whom I never met in my life and then making my way to Austin Texas where I would still love to check out the Yellow Bike Project and the Rhizome Collective house. I am not sure at all. I think I might stay here for another week or so because this week or maybe the rest of the month is Semana Santa which is a really religous holiday. And I am not sure if it is the safest time to travel but I am sure it would be fine. If I were to go the crazy adventurous route I would like to find a travel partner who would like to travel up to Mexico and through Mexico with me and possibly all the way to Texas.

San Marcos

So Me and Paco are in San Marcos and we have been staying at Hectors house for free. Hector is a great guy and he let the whole band stay at his house while we were here a couple of weeks ago. Hector gave me lucky stones from Argentina and Chiapas after I got my nose broken in Pana. Paco and I worked our asses off yesterday in Hectors garden all day and helped varnish some of his house. I am going to look for a not so expensive Spanish teacher today after we go swimming in the beautiful Atitlan lake. Hector lives on top of a hill and the view is spectacular. I am going to take a shuttle bus from Panajachel to San Cristobol De Las Casas, Chiapas in about a week. Then I will hopefully go to Cholula, Puebla, Mexico to visit Magdalena and then head towards Texas. I would also like to visit GDL but I am not sure if I will have enough money to do so. Hector is helping me out with my spanish as well because I know I am definitly going to need more than I already do while traveling alone. So I plan on being in Texas in late April or maybe earlier. We will see what happens.

Back in Panajachel

So after spending a long time in Antigua having fun filled adventures, I have come back to Panajachel. Paco and Dave have been playing in cafes,bars and parks every night and collecting some tip money, while I have just been chilling out and just going with the flow. I played my synthesizer with them the other night while Dave and Paco got to open an open mic night where we got free food. We played for a good hour or so and it was pretty fun. A half hour into it the place was pretty dead with only 2 people in the crowd. But then about 15 mins later the place filled up with about 20 people or so. There was this great band from Guatemala City and they were really good.
It has been cool hanging out with Paco and Dave but I was definitly getting an over load of Antigua. It was way to expensive and there were way too many touristas, mostly rich college kids on spring break. I did meet a lot of cool though and we went to a couple cool parties. And we went to a pretty pumpin party on the sidewalk when I was with Dave one night. Dave was playing the jembi and there were like 30 people just singing chants and dancing around and acting silly. Then the cops came with their big machine guns and every one started to split and I made Dave leave with me. Right when we started to leave about 6 or 7 cops just surrounded this one funny kid who didnt do anything and just start to hit him and put hand cuffs on him and arrest him. Then thats when I started to walk a lot faster.
I am going to San Marcos tomorrow to look for a good spanish school or teacher and stay there for about a week. If I just find a teacher I think that Dave and I will stay at this awesome guy Hectors house. He will let us stay in his house for free if we take care of it and his pets and help work in his garden while he lives in his Grandmothers house in Pana.
Then after I learn some spanish I will head on out towards Texas alone in Mexico. I am going to take a shuttle bus to San Crystalbol De la Casa, Chiapas and from there find a way towards Texas. I need to work on my bike because my gears are getting all funky and all the gears are starting to slip and change automatically while I am riding. It is a little different not being in such a bring group anymore. I felt pretty safe with the whole group but now I feel like I have a lot more time to explore by myself and check out some scenes while I am here. The market in Antigua is definitly a really cool market with loads of fruits,veggies,raw meat hanging around with tons of flys and people with fly swatters swatting the flys on the meat, lots of donated clothes from America( I think tjmax and marshals send their clothes to Guatemala after they cant sell old clothes because I saw a lot of clothes with Marshals stickers on them),cheap meals for under a under an american dollar and much much more.

Everything is Ok

Ok so the atm machines all lied to me. I called up my bank and I found out that I have 390 dollars left. So if I use it wisely and stop buying yummy helados and pan de dulce than I will be able to make it to Texas! Once I get in to Mexico everything will be a little more cheaper which is better for me. I can definitly find a bus going to the Mexican/guatemalen boarder. From there I can probably find some travelers that are headed up north and head up with them. I was thinking about riding through the boarder hoping that they wont give me any problems since I dont have a guatemalen visa or a passport stamp from when I first entered the country. Everyone is saying that I should be fine since I am american. And I already have a mexican visa so I should be fine. I am working on looking up some jobs for when I get into Texas and I plan on working with the yellow bike project in Austin. I cant wait to get involved with them and start working with them and see how their program works and runs. I am totally not worried any more.
Last night I had a dream that I started to fly....Kipchoge and the rest of the ginger ninjas were all their while we were in Guatemala. At first I had a really hard time, I started to get really high and then all of a sudden I would plummit down really really fast. Then everyone told me I was flying that well because of all these negatives thoughts that I manifest in my head sometimes. Then I kind of woke up while that was going on but I liked the dream and I didnt want it to end. So I wondered how I could continue to fly high and free with no worries. Then I started to imagine that I just unzipped a invisible/gooey suit filled with negative thoughts,images, regrets, worries and much more. After that I was like 60 lbs less and I started to soar higher and higher. Then I decided I would end it there and then I woke up and Paco,Dave and I all went to the mercado and bought breakfast for 7 q each.So I think we are going back to San Pedro or Panajachel tomorrow and from their I will look for a bus to Mexico, Possibly even mexico city.
Well those are all the updates I can think of for now, besides that Paco and Dave have been playing shows pretty much everynight together. I am not so confident with my synthesizer playing to play with them so I usually dont play with them. The sounds are too extreme and it is hard to find the right sounds for reggae. It takes time to come up with good ideas to mesh with the music and I dont have an amplifier so I cant practice with them. My mind keeps filling up with tons of new ideas but they slowly leak out if I dont get to play an instrument for an etended period of time. Music is medicine for me and relaxes and calms me down. Lately I have just been sleeping early and acting a little depressed. I was so used to just following the group that now it is hard for me to cope with being on my own. Sure I am with Paco and Dave but its just not the same. I think Paco and Dave are going to continue to head down south towards Honduras and Nicaragua while I head north Solo. I think it will be a good and challenging expeirence for me, and I know I will learn a lot from it as well as grow a lot. Once I get into Mexico I would like to start looking for a family to teach english to while they teach me spanish for a month or so or maybe just a couple of weeks so I can feel more comfertable with traveling alone in a spanish speaking country. I feel like I have been using Kipchoge and the other spanish speakers in the group as a crutch. Also I let Paco do all the talking whenever we book a hotel or buy food because I just do try hard enough to communicate. I understand a lot of spanish but i just get self concious and dont try to speak it.
Anyways.... until next time Amigos

No mas dinero en Guatemala

So it looks like I have 0 dollars in my bank account. I took out 500 quitales, which is about 50 dollars, and I checked my bank balance and it says I have 0 dollars left. So I was thinking of selling my bicycle for money so I can make it to texas. Or i was thinking of hitch hiking to texas somehow and then working in texas, possibly at a bicycle shop for a couple of months and then continuing my adventure. I really wouldnt want to sell my bike but I know I can earn another by volunteering at another earn a bike organization in Texas. I am still with Dave and Paco and I think we are going to hed back to Panajachel tomorrow. There I will call my bank and figure out if the machines were lying about my balance or not and see if I can get a direct bus to Mexico city from there. I would like to be in mexico in a week or so. And in Mexico I would like to find a family to live with and work and teach english to while they teach me spanish in return.

Hanging out with Dave and Paco in Antigua

So Kipchoge went home right after Dave, Paco and I arrived in Antigua. We didnt get to play one last show or say our final goodbyes. But we did meet up with the rest of the crew and said our good byes to Laughter,Jared and Cara. They all took a bus to Mexico the next day. Dave, Paco and I have been renting a hotel for fairly cheap and we played a show at an open mic night in a restaurant. I finally got to play my micro korg synthesizer. Paco is a really great guitarist who plays a lot of reggae songs that he mostly writes. We pretty much booked a show everynight here until weds. And then I think we will go back to Panajachel or San Pedro. I am thinking about going to Spanish school in either towns for a week and then trying to figure out my plan from there. I am thinking about taking a bus from Panajachel, if possible ,to Mexico City. Then from there I would like to visit some new found friends and then go to Guadalajara and then to Texas. But Paco keeps talking about going to his home country of El Salvador to play lots of shows and travel throughout south america. It sounds really awesome but my money is really low and I kind of want to travel the states for now and ty to work in random cities and make some money and then travel throughout south america in a year or 2 or maybe 3.
Eventually I would like to look for some fellow travelers who would like to go bike from the west coast to the east coast with me when I decide to go home. But that won´t be for a while.
For now I am just living it up in Antigua and I am a little disgusted by all the tourists. But thats life. Tomorrow I might make my way to Maya Pedal, which is a really cool organization where they create bicycle powered machines such as a bicycle powered blender, water pump, machete/knife sharpener,generator.

Sick again, Lake atitlan adventures and plans for the near future!!

So a lot, and I mean a lot, has happened since the last time I updated my blog. The whole gang has been hanging out in the lake Atitlan area for an extended period of time. We hav e played multiple shows at multple venues. For the majority of the time the band played the shows, I was really sick and not able to participate because my stomach and broken nose have been making me depressed and feel out of it. But now my nose is all better and I have been drinking lots of local herbal tea and eating Papaya seeds, which make my stomach feel so much better.
Lake Atitlan Festival
So the whole band went to this awesome Lake Atitlan festival just around the lake in Santiago, Guatemala. There were a lot of guatemalen bands and a lot of cool hippies. We camped out that night and I somehow managed to eat a pot brownie, which were being served at the festival. That night my stomach started to hurt so I decided to take a nap around 8 or so and then wake up in a little while to continue watching ands until midnight... Well as I was sleeping I was woken up because I heard a lot of rustling of leaves in the woods right next to the camp sight. I looked to see what it was and I saw about 5 or 6 men with candles and it looked like they were wearing masks and had guns and machetes in their hands. I quickly woke up and started to run down to the festival only to see that all of the paths were blocked with men with flashlights. I started to panic and my heart started to race faster than that time I rode my bike down a 88 degree mountain in Chiapas Mexico. So I saw that there was an empty spot that lead down to the river so I ran as fast as I could down these huge ruin looking stairs almost slipping while huffing and puffing down. I saw that people with flashlights started to follow me so I started to climb up this mouantainous ridge until I came upon the most perfect cave I have ever stumpled upon. I was too afraid to shine my flashlight because the shadowy craetures with flashlight started to approch quickly. So I started to climb my way into this cave and crammed myself in there...for 2 hours. I would eventually look out to see if they were gone but they were still there!! the whole time! I would eventaully see people scouting out the locaction. After two hours of being paronoid and stuffed in a cave I decided I would run back to the tent and hope it wasnt tooken over my criminals in the mountains of guatemala. I returned safely with just normal campers walking around with flashlights. There were no men with masks and guns. Although there were security guards, and they must have been the men who started to chase me, and I think they were carrying had guns. So I slept in my sleeping bag outside and went to bed. The next day I woke up and talked to some people the next day and heard that there were a couple of locals who came by to the camp sight ready to lynch a criminal who just raped and robbed someone close by..... After that we all took a boat back to San Pedro and we were all safe and sound.
The Future of my life..
So Kipchoge has found out that has father is having a hard battle with cancer back home and has decided that he is going home on Sunday. This means I will have to decide what I am going to do with my life. I have multiple ideas of what I can do and what I would like to do. For example I would like to stay here in the lake atitlan area for a couple more weeks and go to spanish school which is about 65 bucks for a 20 hour course. Or I was thinking I could live with a local family and teach them english while they teach me spanish and help them work around, or on the house and their farm if it exists. There is also the possibility of continuing down south and trying to contact some new found travelers I have made on the trip and traveling with them for a while to south america. Or maybe I will go back up to Mexico and meet up with new found friends there. Or maybe... I will take a bus up to Texas and travel by bike around there and visit some really awesome bicycle collectives and meet up with some really cool bicycle advocacy groups and then travel the whole west coast by bike. And eventually go to Tour De Fat or just go to the New Belgium brewing company head quarters to check it out and visit other really cool spots on the west coast. Maybe I will find a place to live for a couple of weeks,months,years on my travels. Maybe I will go back home and then gather up some of my friends from home and go on an all out bike trip with them. Maybe I will cross paths of people I know and have met in the future. WHO KNOWS????But I do know that I am going to have a fucking awesome time doing whatever it is I am going to do. I am going to try to post up news pictures of my adventures shortly. Until Next time, be happy and live life to the fullest!! Dont let spilled milk or amibas or poverty get you down.

San Marcos

So we took a boat ride across the beautiful Atitlan lake to San Marcos. We have been staying in Hectors house,Hector is a really cool artist who sells his art work in the main market in Panajachel. It has been paradise. There was a beautiful view of the lake, and the town is pretty cool and not so touristy, but there are still a lot of gringos there. I have been taking it easy since I got hit in the nose unexpectedly on Saturday night. I slept while the band played one show at Panarock on sunday, and I missed out on a an epic journey where they hiked 18 km round trip to an amazing water fall. But I had a good time sleeping and playing my microkorg synthesizer. That was probably the 5th or 6th time I have played it since I have been traveling with the band since January.
My imagination has started to flow with all sorts of crazy ideas and I have been feeling really creative lately. Also I have been practicing Español a little also. I would like to go to Spanish school but I really don't think I need it and I couldn't afford it anyways right now. I think I am doing ok for never taking any classes ever in my life, but also I could be doing much better. I am just afraid to go for it and just speak it, so I end up sounding like a goof ball.
After hanging out at Hectors house enjoying the view of the lake and the beautiful garden and playing music every night, we decided to come back to Panajachel. We are playing another show tonight at Panarock again. The future is looking a little hazy and untold so far but I think we will go to Antigua and then San Salvador, El Salvador. But I am not positive yet. We might hang out around here for a couple more days to play a few more shows and then venture on to the south.
Yesterday I decided to start trying to plan what I will be doing after the tour. I am thinking about going back to school and trying to get some scholarships and study some sort of cultural anthropology or maybe study puppeteering. I was also thinking maybe I can play music for money and travel by bicycle with some fellow travelers around the world. Or maybe I can just stay in one country and volunteer there for a couple of months and then travel some more. I was also thinking about trying to join a bicycle crew for bicycle tours or crazy events like the Tour de Fat, which I just heard about the other day. I am not sure where my future will take me yet, but I do know that I will have a great time doing whatever I choose to do...

Another Day another Broken Nose

So I have been having a great time in Panajachel, Guatemala. Everyone here has been really great and friendly towards us. On Saturday night we played a pretty cool show at Solomon´s Porch. After the show I made some new friends and we decided to hang out and go to one of their friends house to hang out. Dave and I wanted to go to the hotel real quick to drop our bikes off and walk there. So Erin and her friend walked with me behind Dave in the aly way which lead to our hotel. Dave passed these 4 drunk guys who were walking and taking up the whole aly way. So it was my turn to pass the men, so I rang my bell to get there attention so I could pass. Pretty much seconds after I did that they started to walk past me and the guy on the left threw his arm out as hard as he could towards my face. Then they all started to walk away like nothing happened. I was a little confused and shocked and kept riding to the hotel. Then I stopped at a corner and realized my nose was bleeding non stop and that it was completely broken. The girls ran up to me and helped me with my bike and we went back to the hotel. Luckily Erin is awesome and called up her friend Noay who works at Solomons porch. He drove me to the hospital with Erin and Dave. When we arrived to the hospital the doctor didn´t want to help me at first. He said something along the lines that I am american and I should go to America to get it fixed. But luckily Noay convinced him that I was a volunteer at Solomons Porch and worked with children and lived there. So the doctor agreed and they did an x ray and saw that my nose was completely broken. Then some guy with regular clothes on had a hard time putting an IV in me. After stabbing me a couple of times he eventually put it in and they started to place my nose back in place. By the time the doctor but my nose back in place I was pretty drugged up and barely felt it. So now I have two big plugs in my nose that are really annoying and ugly. I also have to wear a nose cast which makes me stick out like a sore thumb and look pretty silly. But I feel fine. It is swollen and I kind of look like elephant man, but besides that I feel great. My stomach hasn´t been bothering me at all either.
We have been staying in Hectors place across the atitlan lake. It is very very beautiful and it is like living in paradise. I am considering living in Panajachel and volunteering while the rest of the gang goes to El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama because I am running really low on money. I only have 600 american dollars left. Which I dont think is enough to go all the way down to panama and then all the way back east home. So we will see what happens in a couple of days...

I feel better now.

So we are still in Panajachel, which is a pretty awesome town. There are a lot of tourist and there is a beautiful view of Atitlan Lake and the three huge volcanos that surround it.
My stomach feels much better and I feel happier. We have been playing shows and will coninue to play shows every night here until Monday where we will head off towards Antigua or Guatemala City. I am not sure where we will head next.
But the weather is great and I have been relaxing and having a great time hanging out with the crew and some new found friends. We have been hanging out with a mexican band who is also on tour. We ran into them in Oaxaca and maybe in Chiapas also. They are all really cool and play sweet traditional music with a modern twist.
I am kind of bummed that we are headed to El Salvador and then straight to Costa Rica, skipping Honduras and Nicaragua. But maybe I can visit those countries some other time in my life. El Salvador and Costa Rica and Panama should be really fun and exiciting. We will see what happens next.
Anyways I am trying to find some places to volunteer in Mexico for when I get back into Mexico after the tour. I emailed an orphanage but they haven´t responded yet. I would like to try to work with children and perhaps work with a program similar to an earn a bike program.

Stomach Problems, Chichicastanango and Panajachel

So my stomach started to hurt a lot while we were in the town before Chichicastanango and the riding started to get brutal because of all of the hills and mountains. We played a show in a little Peubla that we rode to at an end of a long day of epic riding. Everyone was really nice and accomadating to us and they let sleep in a community center type of building. I think it was there where I ate something full of hungry stomach cramping, non stopping diariah giving bacterias. The next morning it was time to ride on what was suposed to be a 4 or 5 day journey to Chichicastanango. My stomach and Caras stomach started to feel really bad and uncomfortable. So Cara told us that Jared, Corey and herself were going to take a bus ride to Chichi which would be about 5 hours conpared to 5 days. That way Jared would be able to get some work done on the system. But thats when I decided to just bail out on riding as well and decided I would like to take a bus too because I wasnt feeling so well. So me and Dave both took a couple buses to Chichi while Kipchoge and Laughter were left to ride for days on end. Oh yeah, and by the way Laughter is a 54 year old Woman from the crazy mountains of California. So me and Dave made it to chi chi where I got lost within a alf hour of getting there. The crowds were swaming with all sorts of people from sketchy to hungry and to helpful and kind people. I found an internet cafe and dave rode by with some fellow travelers. We found a hotel and met up with Cara, Jared and Corey the next day. That day was full of unpleasant gas, extra large bloatage of my stomach, and really really unpleasant cramps. I went to the doctors and I took a fecal exame and the results said I have a large source of bacteria in my stomach. It was probably the worst stomach pain I ever had in my life. I slept for like 2 days straight and I havent been feeling hungry at all. The doctor subcribed me to some medication that I have been taking. So we will see how I feel in a week or so.
Before we left Chichi we all agreed that we would go to El Salvador next and then bus to Costa Rica and bike down to Panama. We are currently in Panajachel which is a really cool town right next to a beautiful lake with 3 Volcanos in site, right near Antigua. The hills and terrain are just getting tougher eachday but I am still surviving somewhat. Hopefully I will start to feel better soon. If not I may leave the group and head back up to Mexico alone to a big Hospital. But I doubt I will need that.
Anyways today I hitched by myself and rode about 12 km from where the truck dropped me off to Panajachel, I went to an awesome market and bought some delicious fruit. Shortly after I bought the fruit about 4 small children who were full of life started asking me for money and they were a little dirty. I had big bills on me so I gave them 2 mangos and 2 bananas. They wanted 2 more mangos but I decided that they would be beneficial for the near future. Anyways I made it into town where I directly went into a cool little restaurant that was playing loud jazz music and had a drum kit set up. I worked my magic and got the band a show within the same day and I got free lunch and dinner. The owner is a really cool guy along with the rest of his family and coworkers and friends. Everyone who pretty much works here speaks perfect english or is American. We had a good night and went to a beach and had some hotdogs that I probably shouldnt have eaten. So we are going to hang out in this cool town for another day or two and head on out to Antigua and eventaully head towards El Salvador.
Well anyways...I hope you all have a safe and exciting filled life until next time.

Epic moutains and landslides in Guatemala.

So we have been biking for a couple of days straight since we stayed in Coban , Guatemala. We have been sleeping in Peublas and restaurants that we pass by.
The mountains here make all the hills in my home town look like pimples. The terrain gets really rough sometimes which makes it especially dificult while riding up hill.
So the other day we were riding along having a nice day when we passed by a small town to get lunch. A man in the town said we wouldnt be able to continue on the main road because of the ´derrumbe´. So after a couple more hours of riding in the deep jungles of Guatemala, you could see this huge giant dirt mound from a distance. As we got closer and closer we realized that the road was destroyed and was covered with huge rocks and dirt. As we got to the end of the road there was a homemade fence made out of sticks and cloth to prevent people from crossing over. We all got off our bikes and climbed over the fence and went to the edge of the cliff to check out the scene. It was a beautiful site, and an amazing view. We talked to the security guard who was at the fence and he told us that it happened about a month ago and it killed about 130 people.As we looked down we saw a small little road which crossed underneath the cliff and went to the other side where the road continued. So we knew we would have to take that path since it as the only way to go. So we went back a couple hundred feet where a microbus was parked with about 20 people outside of it hanging around. We all took our bikes down this really dangerous narrow steep path that was filled with rocks and dips and sticks and whatnot. That was the road that everyone used to cross to the other side. Pretty much everyone road there bikes down it but I decided to walk down it with my bike. I fell over about 12 times since I walked down the whole road because I didnt feel safe riding down it. Luckily some of the people that were crossing the path decided to help me walk my bike down the hill. They were hard workers who carried huge machetes, which is normal and common down here. (We first started seeing everyone carrying machetes while in Chiapas, where there are lots of crops and deep thick jungles.) So after they helped me walk my bike down the bottom of the landslide it started getting easier to ride my bike, so I thanked them and shook all of their hands and began to ride uphill. But the hill was epic and full of more rocks and bumps and I couldnt really make it up the hill. So the guys helped me walk my bike (which probably weighs about 150 lbs or more),all the way up this huge hill. It was very tiring and took so much energy out of me. Then as we made it up the hill we realized that there was no road at all because the landslide pretty muh just destoyed it all, so we all had to take all of our luggage off our bikes and walk it through the jungle for about half a mile until we reached a dirt road. So pretty much everyone who crossed the path helped us carry everything to the road. We gave some of the guys who stayed around a tip of 10 quitales each. I was really whiped from that crazy adventure and we all needed a nice sleep.
The next morning we had a pretty good ride and all met up to eat breakfast. We found out that Dave got robbed by gunpoint by two teenagers who were wearing masks. They tried to rob Jared also but Jared just kept riding on even though they pointed the gun at him. It was a pretty unexpected and shocking story. Luckily they let Dave go after he gave them 50 quitales.
Later on in the day we came across hills that seemed never ending. They just kept getting higher and higher and steeper and steeper. I was in front of the whole group by half a mile or so and stopped half way in the middle of the huge mountain to a little Puebla where I filled up my water bottle. I layed down on the ground to take a little rest. Eventually everyone else showed up and a man from one of the houses came over and invited us to his house for some juice and water.
Everyday has been an epic journey and I am enjoying every minute that passes by.
I have been starting to get a little home sick and I miss everyone back home. But I know I will see everyone eventually after my trip.

Riding through the jungles of Chiapas and Guatemala

So we have finally began to ride our bicycles non stop through the deep jungles of Chiapas and made our way across the Guatemalan boarder where we currently are.
On our second or third day of non stop bicycle riding from Cometan, Chiapas, we came across a construction site. Now at first I thought it would be just an average construction site, but I was totally wrong. Apparently the river washed out some of the road which meant that there were cars lined up on both sides of the road with no way to pass over. There was a huge tractor scooping up a bunch of dirt and filling in the road. After the tractor smoothed over the road they started to let cars pass. After some cars passed by our whole bicycle gang of 8 bicyclist passed over the road with no problem. After a brief moment of excitement and jumping around we heard crying and people screaming. We all turned around immediatly and saw that the road that just got packed in started to crumble, which made a pick up truck fall in the dirt partially. Everyone evactuated the truck safely before we arrived on the scene. Kipchoge and I and some of the rest of the gang started to run towards the truck. As I arrived to the scene people started yelling at me in Spanish and English saying they wanted to use my light and that they needed a large chain that was in the back of their truck. Without thinking I quickly jumped into the back of the truck which was halfway off the road trying to find a chain. Shortly after throwing everything around in the back of the truck frantickly, I found the chain and then carefully jumped out. They connected the chain to the tractor and the tractor pulled the truck out which turned out to be a happy ending.
So after biking through the dense jungles of Chiapas and camping out in various places everynight, we have finally found ourselves in Guatemala. As soon as we crossed the boarder we realized that Guatemala is a little different compared to Mexico. The roads, the clothing, the food, the langauge, and the money have all changed.
So now we are currently in Coban, Guatemala trying to figure out where our adventure will bring us next.

Oaxaca and San Pedro Cajonos

So we took another bus to the beautiful city of Oaxaca Mexico. We played a really cool show in a small cafe called Cafe Central, the place was packed full of people and it was a pretty cool atmosphere. The show went well, there system only shut down once for a couple of seconds. There werent that many volunteers though, the crew including me pedaled the bikes a lot. And the same volunteers kept coming up for more. There were a lot of girls with high heels pedaling, which seems like it wouldn´t be too fun. Then after the show I danced all night until about 430 am. The next day I Kipchoge, Corey, Laughter, and Dave took a cab up to San Pedro Cajonos for a fiesta. Cara, Matt,Jared, an awesome indeginous guy, and me hitchhiked on the back of a pick up truck to the same fiesta. We arrived to the fiesta and met up with the others. We paid 50 pesos to get inside. The music wasn´t very good at first. It was really really loud and not a lot of people were dancing at first. Then after a couple hours a lot of alchohol for everyone else besides me, it started to get a little fun. I started dancing solo among the large crowd with traditional mexican music. Then Corey tackled Jared and the police with the big guns came after and pretty much kept an eye on us, which wasnt cool. Then we left shortly after that and slept at an awesome community center. They gave us bowls of hot chocolate and bread that night. Then in the morning we woke up to the band of horns, drums, and symbols walking into the community center where we were sleeping. I took a short little video of some of it. It was one of the best wake up calls I ever had in my life. Then I walked around the beautiful town of San Pedro Cajonos. I got invited into a nice little house and met a couple of children and Antonio who spoke english. Then I went back to go find the rest of the crew. We firgured out that there was a huge protest against the price of diesel gas. Which meant that there were no buses are taxis coming in or out of town. So we all split up in pairs of two and hitch hiked. Me and Dave hitch hiked together, before we left the town. this awesome family invited us in for lunch. We taught them a little bit of english while they taught us some Spanish. My Spanish is getting much better. I am more confident to out on my own to get food or just to have small conversations with people. Today we are taking our final bus to San Cristobal, Chiapas. From there we will start to ride non stop to Panama. I am excited and a little nervous for the epic journey ahead. Hopefully I will try to post up some pictures and Videos in the near future.

One more last blog worthy story=
So on the way out of Mexico City we rode our bikes to the bus station. On the bus station the whole gang stopped at this section of stores that were all music stores. There were about 10 different music stores. So we all split up and walked around while Kipchoge and Jared were looking for a new mixer. Dave went into a cafe and brought his back pack with his computer, cell phone, and chargers in there. The guy at the cafe was really nice and kind and knew a little bit of english. Then the crew regrouped and we rode to the bus station. About five minutes after we got to the bus station, Dave remembered he forgot his backpack with all of his valuables in it. He started flipping out and was going to ride his bike back to the cafe which was about a 15 or 20 minute ride. Then we all sugegsted that he should take a taxi. So right when he ran to grab a taxi, the guy from the cafe comes out of no where and starts running towards us covered from head to toe in sweat. It turns out that he ran all the way from the cafe to the bus station on stop with daves bag. Someone ran and got dave to tell him. We all gave him hugs and gave him 20 pesos for doing so. It was unbelievable and very awesome. That shows you how nice people really are, especially in Mexico. Everyone has been so kind and generous to us. I am having an excellent time, and I think it will only get better.

Last Day In Mexico City

So today is my last day in Mexico City. I had a fantastic time and I had some times that I will never forget. Last night me and my new found couch surfing friends all went to a free jazz concert in Coyoacon. It was a really great show. Then on the last three songs the saxophonist daughter came out on stage and sang. It was really great and entertaining. Then after the show we spoke with her for a while and played with some really cool children. They were the children of some local merchants selling jewelery on the street. Then after that we walked to a park and saw this great Mexican guitar player playing a traditional mexican guitar with 7 strings. Then after a few songs he asked if any of us played and everyone pointed to me. So I got next to him and played a beautiful classical guitar while he played his traditional guitar. It was an amazing expeirience. It was great music that I will never forget. I needed that, It made me feel so powerful and creative. I just let everything flow through me and into the guitar. Everyone enjoyed it and there is a video of 2 of the songs. I will post up a link to it after it is posted up online.
So tonight we are going to take a bus to Oaxaca. There will be 10 of us. Enio is a new addition to the pleasant revolution. He has got us a lot of shows and will continue to do so. He is the tour manager I believe. Which is good because we definitly needed a tour manager.
So I have been feeling a little better after I took some anti biotics but I have also been feeling a little weird. Sometimes it feels like the floor is moving when I am standing still, and it kind of feels like everything around me is pulsating sometimes , which is wierd. If it gets worse I will see a real doctor in Oaxaca. I would love to go to a beach in Oaxaca but I don´t think we will. But Kipchoge said we will go to some beachs in Central America. I can´t wait.

My battle with pollution, amibas and loco driving in Mexico City

So it has been an intense week for me so far. We have been working on the bicycle generators because we keep having multiple problems on stage at pretty much every show. But we still manage to have a great time and have really cool shows. I keep meeting a lot of cool people and I am learning more and more about the Mexican culture everyday.
So the other day Dave,Dante and I rode our bicycles to Dantes shop where we worked on the generators. The ride there was nuts. It was really conjested traffic and the pollution was unbelievable. The ride wouldn't of been so bad if there wasn't so much pollution. The pollution is so bad that you can see it everyday. It just lurks over the city and hangs out in the tops of the trees. But I survived.
Anyways I apparently ate some dirty delicous street food which gave me some amibas in my blood stream which made me have bloody poop. It was awful. It was the most blood I ever seen come out of mi ano ever. But I went to a really small medico clinic that was the size of my bedroom. There were about 40 people in line waiting for care. I eventually saw the doctor who didn't speak any english. He prescribed me some antibiotic pills which kills the bacteria. I am taking three different pills all at the same time. I feel a little weird but I hope it helps. He said I can't drink alchohol for two weeks and can't have greasy food, condiments, or street vendor food. Mexico is full of all of those things. It is really hard to eat pretty healthy here because everything is so tempting! But I will get over it.
So we are taking a bus to Oaxaca tomorrow night and will arrive there in the morning. Mexico City has been really great and awesome but I am ready to move on for now. Hopefully I will come back here in the future.

Jesus Ride a Bike bike shop and Coyoacon

So on sunday we rode on the Ciclo Pista Bike trail to the Glorieta Andgel De La Independencia. We were supposed to arrive there around 930 am, we didnt end up getting there until around 12. We were supposed to play for the Mexican Minister of enviromental awareness, or something similar to that. But it didnt work out because of multiple scenerarios within the morning. It was a valuable lesson for the whole crew and we all learned a lot from our mistake. I learned that my critical thinking isnt so critical. I get shocked and scared and nervous and lazy sometimes when an emergency or problematic situation occurs. I usually rely on others to help me out or fix the whole problem for me. I have been doing this my whole life, and this tour is helping me relize this. I am very greatful for these kinds of expeirences and I am learning a lot from each problem that occurs.
Anyways... we ended up playing the show anyways even though were really late. The minister wasnt there but we still had a good crowd with us. The film maker who is making the Ginger Ninjas documentary was there and video taped the show. The show went very well I thought. Dante the engineer was there to guide us a little with the system but I think I did a good job setting it up with little help. My spanish is getting a little better. I am so glad that I am meeting people who speak a little english. My notebook keeps getting filled everyday with more and more spanish phrases and words.
So we stayed at the Jesus ride a bike bike shop in col. Santa Ma. la Ribera Mexico DF for two nights. Pablo is a great bike mechanic who runs the shop. He helped fix matt and daves bike. He also helped me out a little while I fixed Andreas bike. Her bike was in really rough shape. The gears barely shifted, the cables were really worn out, the housing was bad, and her handle bars were really small and uncomfortable. I replaced both shifter cables, the brake cable, cleaned her bearings and repacked her cones, and replaced a her front derailer shifter. I also changed her handle bars to cruiser bars which are very wide and pretty comfy. I plan on coming back here after the trip to visit and help coordinate an earn a bike program possibly.
After we finished all the bicycle repairs we helped clean up the room we stayed in by bagging up some trash and debris that was lying around. Dave and Corey went to meet up with the rest of the band for band practice while Matt stayed at the shop so he could go to Dantes work the next morning to help him work on the generators. Andrea and I rode to Destiny's house in Coyoacon. It took us about an hour and a half to 2 hours. It was around 8 pm and was pretty effing dangerous. More dangerous than Boston rush hour traffic. We met another bicyclist who was going our way so he pointed us out in the correct direction. We finally got to Destiny's house. We were very hungry, thirsty and tired. We walked in the apartment and met about 10 or 12 other travelers. It was a unique expeirence that I enjoyed. Everyone came from another part ofthe world. There were people from Austria, Canada, France, and other parts of Mexico. It was awesome. They just cooked noodles with squash and gave us some beer to go with it. We exchanged stories about our travels and went to bed shortly after. So Now I am in a Internet cafe about a block away from Destiny's wondering what the bands next plans are. We might play a show tonight after a huge critical mass like ride. But it is still undecided. So I was thinking about doing a little shopping. If you would like to send me a postcard with a little story on it give me an email with your address at jshchadwick(at sign)yahoo.com

Cuernavaca and Mexico City!

So on our last day in Guadalajara we took 2 separate buses from Guadalajara to Cuernavaca. All of our bikes wouldn't fit on one bus so we split up into two groups of four. I went with Corey, Dave, and Andrea. It was a 10 hour bus ride from 12 am to 10 am. I slept for the majority of it but I hurt my knee from climbing some hills in Guadalajara so it was kind of uncomfortable. So when we arrived to Cuernavaca, I realized that the whole city was on one big hill. We met Enyo( I dont know how to spell it). He has been setting up the band with all the shows in Mexico. He rode his moped through the city while the 8 of us followed by bicycles up one big 15 hilly city to his house. On the way there up the big hills we saw a bunch of mexican military men with big guns and hummers flagging random cars over. There were also a lot of fruit stands and the usual taco,torta stands. There was barely any pollution in Cuernavaca compared to Guadalajara. There were some times when I had to put my handkerchief of my nose and mouth because the pollution was bad in some parts. Enyo's house was really nice and his mom was really friendly and accommodating. We had beans and eggs made in a pan with handmade tortillas and the best coffee I ever had in my life. It had cinnamon in it and it was definitely local and delicious. Enyo told us that the every tortilla taste unique because some of the natural salt from the makers hands is put into ever tortilla. They were amazing tortillas, they were really soft and warm and semi sweet. It was like paradise staying at his house. His dog Jack was a tough boxer kind of looking dog who was in love with everyone legs or back. And he kept attacking my toes. Then later on that night we rode all the way back down the huge hill we originally came up to a blog past the bus station to a universidad where we played a show. The show was fun and we had a couple of technical problems but everything went well. The crowd was large and really fun and into the whole project. People instantly lined up to pedal the bikes once we started.

I started having stomach cramps and deadly gas. Last night we went back to the house and I let a small but powerful flatulent out which made everyone cover their noses and clear the room. They also decided that I should sleep alone outside in my tent. I enjoyed sleeping by myself outside in the beautiful yard. I was surrounded my beautiful flowers, papayas, huge agova plants and other exotic plants and trees. So I decided I will be vegetarian for a couple of weeks to clean out my system. I enjoy eating vegetarian and vegan dishes anyways since I have a lot of friends who are vegan and vegetarian so hopefully that will make my system nice and cleaned out. I decided that I shouldn't trust the meat from every taco and torta stand I go to. Even though they have basically all been delicious and yummy.

So we had quesadillas with more extravagant coffee and left to go downtown to catch another bus that was only 50 pesos to go to the outskirts of Mexico City. We are currently at Dante the engineers shop. He is working on fixing some of the generators and we are doing some minor work on some of the bikes. The plan is to stay in Mexico City for 2 weeks and play a lot of shows. Tomorrow night we will joining in on the weekly sunday night critical mass ride in Mexico City. There are going to be about 500 to 1000 people, maybe even more. Then after the ride we will play show. I am not sure where we are going after Mexico City, but I do know that I am thinking about living in Guadalajara for about 4 or 6 months after the tour. I have been telling a lot people who live here about the Earn A Bike program, and I have been thinking about helping start a couple of different programs in different locations. I would like to collaborate with recycled bicycle programs such as Bike Not Bombs or Worcester Earn A Bike or other programs closer to Mexico like in Texas or California in the United States. The idea would be to raise money to get a container shipment of donated bicycles that are in fixable condition shipped to Mexico where we would restore, fix and teach people how to fix a bicycle while earning one for themselves for free.

There are more people who ride bicycles and there are way more bicycle advocacy groups then I imagined when I first thought about traveling through Mexico. I have met a lot of great people and keep more and more who are really passionate about bicycles and using a bicycle as their only source of transportation. The culture is really interesting and intriguing and I am curious and would like to know more. That is why I would like to live here for a while so I can help clean this planet up one minute at a time.

Oh yea when we were in Guadalajara we rode our bicycles with the mayor for the opening of the ciclo pista, which is a bike path that is built on the side walk on a lot of main streets.

I am just having a great time and my mind is just filled with marvelous sights and unbelievable stories. I wish I could write down everything but I can't, so maybe the next time I see you we can exchange stories of our lives.

So until next time. Hasta Luego!

Last day in Guadalajara

So today is our last day in Guadalajara, we will be taking a bus to Mexico city tonight around 8 and arrive there in about 9 or 10 hours. We might be spliting up and some of us will be staying at a girl named destinee´s house I found on couchsurfing.com and the rest might stay with the engineer for the band.
Last night we went on a huge bike ride with about a thousand people!!! It was a site I will never forget. It was really organized and fun. I saw about 10 crashes and a couple of break downs. I saw one really bad after effect of a crash of the only bicyclist with a fixed gear. I talked to him earlier in the night because he knew spanish. At first he thought I was disrespecting him because I shouted WOW A Fixed Gear. But then I told him I respected him for riding that because they are so dangerous sometimes. He was going to fast and hit a huge hole and cracked his head open. Kipchoge, Jared, Cara and Dave were riding around with there low glow flourencent green lights on the bottom of their bikes last night, which made it easy for me to spot them in the huge crowd. Kipchoge has been riding around soul cycling. Soul cycling is when you attach a battery to a huge speaker on the back of your bike while playing music on a music player like an IPOD. It was a pretty intense 2 hour ride. The largest and longest ride I have been in and seen since I became a 24 hour non stop hardcore bicyclist. After the ride we arrived at a big statue with all of the riders and started to set up and play a show. I set up all the bicycle generators to the power source. Last night I couldnt get Jared´s bike to work properly, There are a couple of problems we have been running into since the begining but they will out get fixed up once we arrive in Mexico city and meet up with Dante the engineer. He is the one who put the generators together. So hopefully I will learn a lot about the system and get a better understanding of it all.

Yesterday evening another member of our crew showed up at the house we were staying at. Her name is Andrea and is from Mexico. Chava is working on setting up her bike today so it will be ready to go for tomorrow. So now there is a total of 8 crew members. We might get more in the future possibly. We will see what happens.

Mexico!!

So a lot has happened since my last post. We rode our bicycles from North San Juan California to Sacromento California which took about 1 day and a half. We took our time in Grass Valley where we stayed at a recording studio called Sun Sound Studios. The day after that we rode about 35 miles to Folsom California and slept at a camp ground. The day after that we rode on the beautiful American River bike path which was about 30 or 35 miles to Sacromento. When we got to Sacromento we went to the Mercy General hospital where Kipchoge visited his friend Issac who was in a car accident a couple weeks before. Then the whole gang met up at an Auto Zone where the Mexican bus picked us up. I was pretty nervous because it was my first time leaving the country and I didn´t have my mom with me. Before I go on any further I will introduce my traveling partners. I am traveling with the bicycle powered band called the Ginger Ninjas. I am their bicycle mechanic and bicycle power engineer. The lead singer is Kipchoge, the bassist is Jared May, the drummer is Dave Scandurra from Boston, then the second guitarist is Corey, the spanish pro is Matt, and the lovable Cara handles merchandise,food, expenses, etc. Kipchoge is the singer at guitarist. I met them last September while they were on their east coast tour. They were looking for a show to play and Worcester so I helped them out and got them a place to stay for the night. Then the next day, which was my birthday, I went to Boston with them for three days where we met Dave the drummer. So back to my story...

So we were on the Mexico bus for about 16 hours from Sacromento to Tijuana. Then after we crossed the boarder we took another bus which was about 36 hours to Gaudalajara. We packed all of our bicycles on the bus and about 30 bags of personal/band equipment. So we got to Gaudalajara where I currently am now. We stayed at his friend Chava´s house for a couple of days. Now we are staying at his friend tzintzuni´s house. She is really cool and has a big house. We have already played three shows so far. I am in charge of hooking up the generator system which connects to the bicycles. People ride the bicycles during every show to generate electricity to the equipment, for example the P.A system, amplifiers, etc. It is really fun and interesting. I am having an amazing time and will keep having a great time. My Spanish isn´t so great since I got seperated from the group last night and couldn´t find them for a couple of hours. I tried asking a couple of people where I last saw them but I couldn´t understand. Then a couple of people pointed in a couple of directions so I just kept going straight and eventually I made it to downtown. In the meantime the band realized I wasn´t behind them and started seraching everywhere for me. I should of waited in the spot where I lost them. A bag fell off my xtracycle trailer while I was the last one in the group riding. So I stopped and put it back on. Since I was busy I didn´t realize they took a turn just up ahead. So after I got situated and fixed my belongings and I kept going straight instead of turning, since I didn´t know I had to turn. The rule of thumb is to wait for the last person riding if you are the second to last person. It´s an important job, but the last person who did it, which was Corey I think, didn´t. So I kept going straight and eventually got to down town when I went to the same exact plaza where the band played the night before. I biked aroudn the plaza a couple of times searching for anyone the I recognized from the night before. I didn´t recognize anyone but I did find two cool people sitting on a bench. Their names were Marcela and Christian. I went up to them and said ¿Hablo Inglis? and the Marcela said she did a little. So I told them my situation and we didn´t know what to do. Christian barely speaks any English at all. So we got to an internet cafe we I emailed Kipchoge and told him I was lost and was downtown. Then after I emailed them Marcela said I could stay at christians. I said yes even though I should of waited at the cafe for a respond email. So Marcela went home and me and christian went to his house. We couldn´t communicate since he doesn´t speak english and I don´t speak much spanish. Then I used his computer and saw the response from Kipchoge saying to meet him at the plaza. So after a moment of confusion from mis communication, I put my belongings in Christians sister or friends car and followed the car to the plaza by bike. I finally met up with Jared at the plaza and thanked Christian by saying mucho gracias over and over again. I kept saying chido too which means cool, i think. So the moral of the story is..... have fun whenever you get lost in Mexico. And don´t talk to sketchy people, which I didn´t. So check out pleasantrevolution.net for the band´s blog and tour shcedule and see the picture of the whole crew. You can´t see me because I am behind dave, but you can see my helmet and hands in the air.

The Begining of my trip...

Hello everyone. I took a plane from providence Rhode island to Sacramento California on January 7th with Dave Scandurra from Allston Ma. I got picked up by Kipchoge and his really awesome friend who gave us a ride to where he lives which is in North San Juan California which is an hour and a half drive. It was really foggy outside and the roads were scary at times. That night I stayed in Kipchoge's pad which is really small. I originally slept outside on the porch but it was about 30 degrees or so outside and my sleeping bag is only good for 40 degrees and higher. So I was freezing. I could barely fall asleep and when I finally did I woke up about an hour ago shivering so I went into the shack and snuggled up with my road mates. It has been an amazing time so far in Northern California. We rode are bicycles up this huge beautiful mountain that after I finished putting my bike back together since I had to disassemble it and put it and my xtracycle in a box for the plane. The mountain we rode on was pretty much all unpaved on the way down. I had about 80lbs-100lbs of gear on my bike while going down a really steep unpaved mountain. It was an amazing feeling that I have never felt before. It was pretty fantastic bumping and sliding and dropping things out of my xtracycle down the mountain. Then at the end of the mountain we crossed a bridge which lead us to a 7 mile mountain. There were some hills along this trip which made me want to fall over and die. Some hills were just too much for me so I walked a couple of times. Walking is a last resort but when I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest and run as fast as it can away from me, I walked. So at the end of the ride ,which was about a 12 or 15 mile ride total, was the really cool hip town called Nevada City. There was an environmental film festival going on all weekend so got to go see a bunch of independent environmental movies. The band I am traveling with called the Ginger Ninjas played a really low key show at an art gallery in town. We actually ended up staying and sleeping in the art gallery for the past two days. We had tons of fun and went to a couple of parties. I have met so many people so far and have gotten a lot of numbers. Everyone around here is so nice and friendly and very welcoming. So after we spent a great weekend in Nevada City we started to head home. We took another route back to North San Juan which was paved. It was a highway which was very narrow and it was very steep and had a lot of blind turns. I was going really really fast down the hill but I still wasn't fast enough because I was the last person in line. I have been biking with 6 other people. We are all a team and watch eachothers back, which is great.