Day 9 - Ocras to Chincheros (Monday 8th August, 55km)

Wow what a start to the day, nearly 20km of 4% downhill, absolutely amazing to swirl down from the top to bottom of a mountain. So beautiful and such fun. I guess the next few weeks are going to be about cycling up for a day followed by an hour or two down... Might make it worth it.
Ant is in his element today, loved the down and really fuelled him mentally to tackle the looming uphill slogg.
The beautiful sweeping down was followed by 20km of rolling hills (much more like UK cycling, some ups some downs to give you a rest) and much easier to feel like you're making progress on... Ant and I had smiles on our faces the whole morning (nearly 40km under our belt and it was only 11am!!).
And then we turned left and noticed three things happening... 1) we'd dropped to nearly 2000m which meant we were cycling stronger with the oxygen rich air (imagine what we'd be like at sea level!) 2) we were low enough for the return of the most evil beasty, the sand fly, incentive enough to get back above 3000m and away from the buggers 3) we were cycling up..  And up ... And up... (yes I've had the Coldplay song on repeat not always in my head... Sometimes I've had the energy to sing it... Poor Ant!)
For some reason the start of this ascent hit me hard mentally... I think it was the supreme joy of going at 20+km/h all morning and actually making progress, followed by the return to working incredibly hard for just 5-7km/h and the monotony of being on the bike and churning the wheels, knowing this was your lot for the next 3-4 hours. I was so grateful that the downhill had the opposite effect on Ant... "come on Stewie this is what we pay to get an amazing morning like this morning, if we get to the top of this we have a 40km descent... That's over an hour of pure joy". Cycle touring optimist strikes again! How he did this on his own is just amazing... I couldn't.
We tried (the surprisingly fairly standard practice of) holding onto a truck... They drive slowly passed you and make a clenching fist sign to illustrate you're good to grab on... Although fun for about 100m it's gonna take some getting used to... And unfortunately a bit more arm strength and guts from me. I dropped the truck around the first corner (surprisingly the fear of the truck corner was bigger than the fear of the hill) but I can see how this might be a useful technique once we get to grips with it.
Once we caught up with Jan (who we discovered lasted a whole km on the truck once it dropped us) and had a little rest and bite to eat, I felt much more refreshed and started plugging uphill with a bit more mental strength.
It was also super fun listening to Ant and Jan chat about life and work... Belgian government employees get up to 5 years of paid sabbatical in their working life, 450€ a week during the leave, theory being to avoid burnout and promote enjoyment of the job. Figure they get more from employees in the long run.
So the 15km and 1000m ascent into Chincheros came and went and we found a sort of shopping mall style food court without the shops but with incredibly smiley happy people who made us sign a visitors book(!!?!!). An amazing and much needed lunch menu (less than 10soles (that's like a couple of pounds!) for: soup and stewed chicken, rice and potatoes ... Or fried fish... But don't have the fish(!!?)...and Cool mint tea) and some freshly squeezed pineapple juice from the juice store and we were almost ready to rock and roll and get the next uphill 7km under our belt...
...but it was 3pm and this is a cute town with good looking hotels... The lure of a relaxed evening, warm shower, tv, and comfy bed on our anniversary is simply too much. We bail after not even 500m, say our goodbyes to Jan and cycle back to town to find hotel, that's almost perfect. A cute garden with hose pioe to wash bikes, clean sheets, functioning WiFi, a tv that almost works, our own bathroom with functioning sink and toilet... And a cold shower, despite the promise of agua caliente. I'm ashamed to say my cold shower bravado slipped away a little after the third one in a row, but as Lucy says, the next time we find hit water will be all the sweeter for it :)
After a lovely chill out by me and some route checking by Ant we strolled into town and found a church service in the town square. We went in for about 20min and said a few prayers... Mostly thankful that we are able to do this and asking for the strength to keep going, and praying for everyone at home... This was amazingly uplifting. We then found the most tasty roast chicken and chips shop... The perfect anniversary meal (of course Ant just had chips... A shed load of them... Whilst I munched my way through a quarter of a chicken under the beady eyes of the cutest dog ever).
So not the typical first anniversary celebrations, but enjoyable none the same.
I can't say I'm looking forward to tomorrow's cycling... 26km up to 4200m... But the 40km descent to the next town has to be worth it right??!!
Wish us luck (or just wish for friendly pick up trucks to help us out, or nice lunch stops, or hot water...!!)
Tons of love and hugs to all you warm shower folk at home (I'm not bitter really)
Xxxx