Day 13 (85km with 1100m ascent) Camping to Abancay... A good place for a Chicken sandwich...

...so much for an easy day!

After last night's beautiful camping today was a super hard day. The third big day in a row and man we were both feeling it. The town we thought was 5km away was actually about 20km but amazingly we found a lovely young lady called Anna, who offered to get her mum to open their cafe to feed us... Yes please! I think I literally breathed in my plate of tuna saltado... And some lovely (though dubious looking) creamy white sweet hot drink. (incidentally the town is called huancarama... Those of you familiar with the Spanish language will know how to pronounce the initial 'Hu' and may find the name rather amusing!).
We left fully fueled up and feeling positive, ready to tackle the day and possibly hop a car for the last 20km uphill to Abancay. 
It wasn't long before the positive vibe seemed to hop like a sandfly between Ant and I, with only one of us able to feel it at any one time. The road that should have gifted an initial gradual and pleasant 300m ascent, ended up being a 500m climb from hell (>12%, very tough on tired legs and loaded bikes). And every corner that looked like the top, was obviously just another path to impending doom.
Then finally we summited, ate a few choco bums to keep us going and wrapped up warm ready for the (wait for it... 1600m descent!). Man what a descent that was... Well the first half at least was amazing, whizzing down the mountain, stopping only for cows, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs (all who think they have right of way on the equivalent of the A34!), oh and of course the speed bumps on entry and exit of every village... But a fast paced and very fun and beautiful descent...
... Until the attack of the killer wind...
About half way down the climb a very strong a gusty whirlwind attacked us around every other hairpin... At times having to pedal down hill, at times having to break hard to get control of the bike.  Obviously we were delighted by this... !!
So we got to the bottom of the valley and treated ourselves to a cheese sandwich and a coke at a real live petrol station (good job really as all these things were about to become alien to us)...
...And watched the truck drivers having their Friday mid afternoon beers (?!!) and playing "throw the bottle lid into the crate" with very little success! They excitedly (and wobbly) told us that the other gringo was in the cafe... Guess who... Jan. Great chance to say proper farewell as he takes the road to Puno at this junction.
After some debate as to how we hitch a lift from the seemingly unwilling pick up drivers... We decided to psych ourselves up for the long and arduous climb into the city.
Things I feel I should note:
1) everything about the valley felt much more city, the dress, the dust, the people (rushing around too busy to notice the crazy gringos let alone joke and chat to them)... And no more women in hats
2) when I say we tried to hitch a lift we did this in a typically British way... Standing by our bikes at the petrol station attempting to look tired... Perhaps not the most effective method in hind site!
3) the valley at 1800m is below the sandfly line (trial and error has made us draw an imaginary line at about 2800m above which we are safe from bites. There are two other lines one at 3800m where I start to get grumpy, a slight headache and breathe heavily due to altitude, and one at 4000m where Ant joins in this altitude game).
4) this side of the Andes is incredibly green... Much more so than the coastal side.
So... Fueled by coke and cheese we started to attack the climb, the positive vibe landed on me for the first 6km and I managed to mentally drag Ant, head down and fed up, up the hill into the strong wind and hot sun at a healthy 6km/h. As seems the theme for the day the vibe soon hopped across to Ant who then pulled me along... But with 8km to go the positivity left both of us... Not even a stop at the next petrol station for ice cream could boost us. It was a case of head down and grind... The only way is up... And up... And up. (thanks Coldplay)
3 very angry shouty dogs did an amazing job of helping me cover a few hundred metres very quickly, whilst a glance over my shoulder revealed they'd finally broken Ant who'd got off his bike faced up to the dogs and shouted "you want to fucking scare my wife, do you want some, come on then, fucking come and get it"...the dogs, probably never having seen anything quite like this, backed away nervously with their tails literally between their legs... I'm not sure they were quite as shocked as the onlookers though!
The road seemed to go on and on and on and up and up and up, from beautiful green mountain side to grimey dusty city suburbs that brought Ant down even more and tired me out beyond belief.
Eventually, though hotel touristica came to our rescue with a beautiful (by our new standards) room, a rainfall HOT shower, massive flat screen TV with at least 5 channels showing the olympics, and the BEST food we've had in Peru by far... A mixed grill big enough for 3, cooked and seasoned to perfection and a plate of perfectly crispy and fluffy chips... Literally we were in heaven.
It didn't take much to convince Ant we should stay an extra night and let our bodies recover... So that we did...
We laid down for almost 24hours solid watching olympics, with a brief interlude to see the city and get some supplies... And the most amazing chicken, pork and pancetta sandwich and mango juice.
Our dinner was a plate of those awesome chips ordered to our room... They couldn't quite believe that was all we wanted so gave us some cheese too... OH MY GOD I love them!... Followed by two beers and some chocolate cereal and cold milk we sourced earlier... Literally in heaven.
So bus to Cusco tomorrow... I feel like that will be an adventure in itself.