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Since leaving Loja, we have been traversing the jungle. While I walked around tonight I saw Christmas lights on the houses, which just looked out of place but beautiful in the this very tropical climate. So far in Ecuador there is no electricity in the towns for a couple of hours at night to preserve water (the towns run on hydroelectricity). The drought has been terrible - another sign of the damage that we have done to the environment. The Christmas lights remind me that the holiday season is coming and that I never really had an Autumn. I had the cold winter in Argentina and Chile. Desert, then altiplano, then finally the tropics of northern Peru and Ecuador, but no leaves changing colours or anything like that. So December snuck up on me without notice. There was also no real notice because time goes by too fast when you don't want it to. Now December is rolling around quickly and I have only a few days left with my group. Four of them will be spent cycling and one will be a rest day in Puyo.
This will be the final blog until Quito. I want to thank everyone for making this trip incredible. The support was constant and never-ending. If this tour was a rock and roll tour, then this is the point in the show where I’d want to point the microphone into the audience and have them sing. What I mean by that is on top of the cycling, I’ve spent many hours trying to promote the fundraiser and now I need a little break from that aspect of the trip. So I want to ask people in the last five days to carry the melody for me and do what you can for these incredible causes. Time for me to just enjoy my last days with a group and soak in the atmosphere. South America is amazing and every day I fall more in love with this place. It will take time to even make sense of the last four and a half months and I’ll have more time to reflect in Quito. Until then.
Oh, and speaking of the holiday season, another great way to give to charity is by visiting www.yellowbirdproject.com and check out their great shirts designed by indie rock musicians. Recently a newer product of theirs called the Indie Rock Colouring Book was selected by Time magazine as the best present for the holiday season in the $5 to $20 dollar range. The book costs $10 dollars but you will have to move fast because these books are selling out quickly. The Yellow Bird Project was created by my brother Matthew and his buddy Casey Cohen.