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