Hi folks Just as an add-on to what Steve from Santa Cruz had to say about El Machete; This past winter I went down to San Cris after replying to El Machete's request for help and donations over the thinktank list. I donated tools, stayed and helped out for a little over a month. Steve is right in that it wasn't what I expected; mostly international travellers, based out of a collective punk house, pretty disorganized. Very few bikes/parts worth salvaging from the scrapyards and no international bike donations established makes for difficult builds/repairs. But in Machete's defense, it was a very new project and none of the collective members had prior community bike shop experience (but were inspired to take this project on after bike touring canada/US and seeing our wonderful network of community bike shops). Machete may be lacking in some long term vision, organization, and quiet places to sleep, but they are trying their best, hopefully learning from their mistakes and were the talk of the town over the winter. I think their main downfall was too few people tried to do far too much, which is a common fault that many of us share. So feel free to go visit them and lend a hand. They could use your help! But don't go expecting an established project or a chill place to sleep. In solidarity,