Ever since hearing Paul Simon’s free concert in Central Park (on tape) I imagined how fun it would be to play there. Something epic about it. Well, we’re not doing a 2 million person free gig but we are playing in the park for a big event, and it is free, and it is sunny, too, after 5 inches of rain yesterday.

More details about the tour launch soon! Here’s our Denver gigs so far. More to come this week.

A great writer came down to ride with us last January. Here’s what he wrote:

“Kipchoge Spencer was somewhere in Mexico, and so was I. We had that going for us. But other than knowing that Spencer and his rock band, the Ginger Ninjas, were riding bicycles across the state of Jalisco, I was clueless, and attempts to learn more—text messages sent, blogs scrutinized, a publicist interrogated by cell phone—hadn’t produced any concrete leads. I hired a taxi in Guadalajara. The driver took me four hours west to the town of Mascota. No Ninjas. I reached for my phone once again and then had a better idea: rolling down the taxi window, I waved to a passerby. “¿Visto usted los gringos en bicicletas?” I asked. “Si,” he responded, pointing straight ahead. Two minutes later I was shaking hands with Spencer.”

We’re gearing up for our next jaunt. Starting with the DNC and RNC, then the East Coast, then Mexico, then…

(many of these dates are booked even though they say TBA, we just haven’t filled in all the details yet; but there’s still room for more shows — get in touch if you’d like to see us)

We spent some fun and frustrating times putting this little 3-minute vid together. Let’s just say that after the 1000th edit, iMovie can get a little flaky. Dig.

Amigos y amigas. Volvemos a nuestro casa en GDL para unas tocadas finales antes que volver a California. Ponemos las fechas mas tarde. Ojala que nos vemos!

By Arturo Garcia (translation by Jeannine Caubarrere)

CHAPALA, JALISCO. The rock group Ginger Ninjas is passing through Lake Chapala on a 5,000 mile journey from the Sierras of Northern California to the jungles of Chiapas, visiting our entire country and giving hundreds of shows along the way with their bike powered energy source. Yesterday, Saturday February 16^th, this activist/pacifist band gave a free concert at the Fuente de los Pescadores del Malecon (Fishermen’s Fountain at the Pier). The Director of the Cultural Office of the Municipality of Chapala, Sergio Unzueta, in coordination with the Office of Culture of the State of Jalisco, introduced the band within the framework of the “Chapala Vivo” festival.

The Gig

Brock put together this vid of the 5 month experience to date.

Cello Joe went home to California 5 weeks ago; Eco took an excursion 2 weeks ago; Jared hurt his achilles and got lost hitching with Sister Jo 7 days ago; Toby and Chaba took a right when everyone else went left and got lost in the mountains 5 days ago; so when we rolled into Chiapas, there were only four of us left!

Yesterday, all rode out of the wormhole and rejoined the Revolution. Even Cello Joe decided to retry his luck… now we are 10.