Wednesday, 27 July 2016

Day 2: San Bartollo to Cerro Azul (95km) Sunday 24th July

Wow! A big day of cycling and a tough one. Can't say either of us are loving the Pan American highway but it gets us to where we need to be, just a bit monotonous. We stocked up on incredibly sweet pastries (con dulche de leche) and icing sugar biscuits, which were actually just the ticket for our breakfast this morning though I never thought I'd appreciate the accompanying bread and cream cheese triangles as much as I did. Glad we had such a huge breakfast as lunch places were hard to come by. Though we stumbled across what looked like a road side cafe and was actually a pregnant lady and her cute 10 year old son who sold us some dubious pork fat corn role (tambales I think it was called... We will not order this again!!) but were very grateful for the 6rolls of bread that came with it. This was a brilliant little experience though and Ant really enjoyed talking to the boy in what I can only assume was their own Spanglaise language. Somehow they understood each other, via means of hand signals, charades, and Euro2016 cards. They discussed all important matters, like how tall they each were in cm and which player they were most like, the colour of their eyes and mine, whether England was currently at war with anyone and if not which countries had it been at war at in the past, how long it will be before Ant and I have children - that perhaps we should stop cycling so we can have babies (oh ten year old advice!), the ages and names of our brothers... Father... Mother... Ant left glowing... His first proper Spanish conversation. He almost forgot about Nimrod!!


I however was less upbeat, disappointing food and more pan am cycling... But hark... A petrol station... Ant bless him came running out with a Cornetto... All was well again :-) and I even managed to hold a semi conversation with a stranger... 'Where are you going' he asked in Spanish... 'Pisco' I replied... I couldn't have been prouder! All this whilst watching the sweet toilet attendants stealing cakes from the cake seller's trolley who was clearly their friend.. Then giggling lots!


So other than food, not  much to report... The cycling highlight was a diversion off the pan am onto the old pan am which took us on a rocky cute coastal path for a few km... This was amazing... And much more like the tour we are hoping for. Hopefully a sign of things to come once we get into the mountains.


Ant found a wonderful town with a pier called Cerro azul and then did an awesome job finding and negotiating a price for a room (I think they were closed for the winter so this was no mean feat). I meanwhile was helpfully draped over my bike in a heap of uselessness, offering the occasional supportive smile. Boy did good :-)


Ate our body weight in fried fish and fried potatoes and rice... So tasty... And then collapsed into bed... It was 9pm afterall... So late for us these days!


love to all xxx



From Peru
From Peru
From Peru
From Peru
From Peru

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