Rest day on Loja, eXsight Tandems, Brian Siamyeuka.

Today is a rest day in Loja located in the Cuxibamba valley in the south of the country. Loja has a rich tradition in the arts, and for this reason is known as the Music Capital of Ecuador.  The city has a population of around 200,000 and is situated at 2100 metres above sea level. If you're in this neck of the woods, Loja is a great departure point for the Amazon Basin and the El Dorado region.

Now that's enough history about this city. Buck and I did a walk around early today and enjoyed watching Ecuadorean life slowly pass us bye. Today is a rest day and that's what's we're doing. Barry's still not 100% and is spending the day resting up in his room.

Now for something special from back home.

During the 2014 Sydney to Surfers Charity bicycle ride, a tandem bike was used on a couple of days and later auctioned at the end of the tour. Cyclists in the tour are broken up into packs according to his/her own ability, and usually there are about 10 packs of 20 cyclists on tour. Barry Buckley (my mate on this tour) and Mark Morgan from back home were a part of the 2014 Sydney to Surfers bike ride and members of pack 4.  One of the cyclists from pack 4 Clive, suggested that they should put in a silent bid to buy the bike and donate it after the tour to eXsight Tandems of the Illawarra.

eXsight Tandems of the Illawarra is an organisation that takes vision impaired cyclists on tandems for ride rides around the Wollongong region on a daily basis. Barry and I donate Tuesday's to go for a tandem ride each week. I'm not sure who gets the biggest thrill out of the ride, me or my partner on the back.

To make this story short, Pack 4's bid was successful and the tandem was delivered to Geoff Stratton last weekend down in the mighty Wollongong. Several of the riders from pack 4 attended together with members of eXsight.

Delivery of the new tandem to eXsight. That's Geoff Stratton the president of the organisation on the tandem.

The photo above shows the names of the members of Pack 4 who so kindly donated a good sum of money to purchase the tandem. I hope to join pack 4 in 2015 and ride the Sydney to Surfers bike ride

The next topic I wanted to mention was the delivery of cycling jerseys to a good friend in Lusaka, Mr Brian Siamyeuka. During the 2011 Cairo to Capetown bicycle holiday, I met Brian in Lusaka and have kept in contact over the years. Brian is also a keen cyclist, so I decided with a couple of my friends to arrange around 20 jerseys to be delivered to him.  One of my son's friends Dr Dan was was travelling to Lusaka, so I arranged for Brian to meet Dan at the airport and do a handover. Everything went to plan and below are photos of jersey's being worn.

 Brian's the handsome chap on the right.

The photo above is Brian receiving his award for coming third in a big race recently.

With the support of many of my friends back home, the jerseys arrived with a big thanks to Dr Dan. To Clive, Barry, Mark and all the others of Pack 4 a very big thank you. 

There's no more to be said about the rest day other than I'm doing nothing until tomorrow morning.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.