If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

If you’re a fan of Caedmon’s, you’ve probably seen this picture before. I believe it was actually the back cover art for the Share The Well CD.

It was taken by David Dobson at a Hacienda in Ecuador right before the band left Ecuador to come back to the States in April 2004. BUT, right after that picture was taken, David switched lenses and took a shot of the whole group on that Ecuador trip.

Only problem was, I wasn’t there. I was 200 yards away in a courtyard watching over the band’s stuff. While I was sitting there I started to hear someone yelling my name. Apparently they were about to take the picture and realized that something, or someone, was missing…That someone was me. So they were all yelling my name, and I came running over. The sun was setting fast and we were running out of natural light to get the photograph. I was out of breath when I got there, and Josh threw his cowboy hat on my head right before David snapped the picture.

Speaking of that trip to Ecuador, I’ve finally posted my short journal I wrote while I was there, along with a few pics. If you’ve got a couple minutes, you might enjoy reading it:

Bryan Goes to Ecuador With Caedmon’s Call & Compassion International

Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5

It was an a amazing trip and I am still thankful to Cliff and the band for asking me to go.

Tags: caedmon's call, Ecuador

Yes, I have played cowbell on stage with Caedmon’s Call in the past:

But believe it or not, I had nothing to do with this:

Tags: caedmon's call, cowbell

9am

Yesterday was a cool day. We spent all afternoon at a photoshoot at a Hacienda. David Dobson, the photographer, got some amazing pictures. At one point I was helping with the photoshoot (holding a lens) when Andy O decided to stealth-disco me. (when someone dances behind you in a picture and you aren’t aware)

Andy Osenga stealth-discoing me at a photo shoot

The pics he got as the sun was setting on an old church were some of the best I have ever seen and will surely find their way into the CD liner. (it did, in fact, and here it is)

And right after that picture was taken, this one was:

The Entire Compassion Trip Ensemble

David has also been videotaping footage of everything we’re doing for a DVD that is supposed to come out 8 months after the release of the CD (Editor’s note: never happened). Right now the CD is slated for an early October release. The brothers said goodbye to us at the Hacienda with a song and we all stated our wishes of seeing each other again. Somehow I think it will happen.

We checked back into the Hotel Quito last evening and had dinner. Andy O got stuck rooming with me the last night, but it turned out to be pretty cool. Ignoring our bodies’ pleas to go to bed, we chatted about tons of different things for a few hours before crashing. I’m glad we were able to connect like that. This morning we are headed for a church service, tonight we fly out.

1am

I am seconds from nodding off, hopefully for the next 5 hours of this flight. Church was interesting today. Very Americanized, but still cool to praise God in Spanish. After church we went to Fernando and Liceth’s house for lunch. My stomach had been iffy all morning so I only had a few bites. Christie and Mel (Jeff’s wife) were up all night sick the night before and were still recovering. The steak and shrimp were unbelievably good, but I could only stomach a few bites of each. I finally started to feel better in the afternoon watching the Master’s golf tournament. Cliff and I watched the final two hours rooting hard for Mickelson. When that birdie putt dropped on 18, we both went crazy. It was a great moment. We both decided to put it in our top 5 sports moments of all time. But I digress.

So the trip was wonderful. Seeing Ecuador was a treat. The mountainous landscape was very inspiring. Hanging out with the band was a lot of fun as well. They are all smart and funny, so it’s almost all nonstop laughing. The best part of the trip was probably the Compassion work. Seeing those kids’ faces light up from a hug or a smile made the whole trip worthwhile. Definitely something I would do again. And since Cliff mentioned to me the possibility of that happening next year, I’ll keep my options open.

Tags: caedmon's call, Ecuador, Share The Well

Apparently Cliff was up sick all night last night in every imaginable way. Thankfully he is feeling good enough now to make the trek back to Quito. We went into the famous Otavalo Market today for a couple hours. Tons of vendors and everything was priced really well. The merchants were easy to bargain with. I only had 20 bucks on me, but thankfully there was an ATM on the street that actually gave me money. Ah the wonders of technology.

Andy and Todd at the market in Otavalo

Andy O came pretty close to buying a beautiful electric guitar but ended up with a nice Charango. The sun was out most of the time we were in the market and it got pretty warm. But suprisingly, even though we were right near the equator, it never got above 85 degrees. Up in the mountains it felt like it was in the 40s or 50s at times. I got some little stuff to bring home to the family at the market, and we headed back to check out of Puerto Lago.

(–> Day 5)

Tags: caedmon's call, Ecuador, Share The Well