Day 15- Pisak to camping by a river somewhere near the 3S (Friday 19th August)

Man what a day. The luxury of Cusco clearly helped us forget exactly how tough Peruvian cycling is.
Don't get me wrong, the first 30km were epic. Relatively flat cycling along the river valley (of course it was undulating, but nowhere near the 4hour climbs of last week). And man it was beautiful, a lovely quiet road, almost all to ourselves... FINALLY this is what we know and love about cycle touring, being able to cycle alongside each other, admire the beautiful scenery, and have the energy left to chat and while the hours away...
...and then came the 3S, our old friend. The main road, we surmised, would be flat with a gradual tilt up hill, rising 400m over about 80km... We can definitely handle that... A joy. Except we've come to learn that "flat" just means steep 100m ups followed by steep 100m downs. An afternoon of this on a road full of trucks and busses was enough to get even Ant's head down... And enough to have me singing another song... Cue the Vengaboys "Up... And Down... And up... And down... Up... And down... And up and down... And up and down and up............................and down".
After a total of about 45km we were really suffering and definitely ready for lunch. We simply had to stop so turned off into a sleepy little village (that turned out to be only 1km short of the larger town we were actually aiming for!) and got stalked by a very poor man, bless him, I'm sure he was looking to grab whatever he could from our bikes, but it put us a little on edge. Then found a wonderful little lady serving pollo milanese (fried chicken, salad and rice). We ate there (along with the rest of the village), watched a cute barky dog guard our bikes, watch with shock as he let another less barky dog pee all over Alan (cheers guys!), then paid and were on our way.
Feeling much better now and definitely revitalised we churned along the 3S for more of the same ("hello I'm a road and I could follow that lovely flat river valley down there but instead I'm gonna go up this mountain then back down the other side if that's quite alright with you").
Eventually we reached our goal, a larger town where there was promise of hotels / hostels, but the habitable ones were full, leaving us with a decision... Stay in a hostel that's actually just someone's fairly dusty room with limited access to bathroom, or camp. No brainer. We grabbed supplies, (crisps water banana... And what's he carrying... Condensed milk... Heaven what a treat! Tinned items usually too heavy to carry but this will be a very welcome addition to chocobear porridge, very happy Stewie).
We cycled out of town with an hour in hand looking for the perfect camping spot... And he does it again. The most beautiful spot right next to the river, quite a hike down, with the bikes misbehaving as they do when you try to take them down steep rocky banks, but absolutely worth it.
Free flowing river water perfect for a wash, and not too cold either; a wonderful and fairly secluded spot where the water drowns out the sounds of the free flowing traffic on the road above. Some chocobear porridge (we are now grateful for the time we put in this morning sourcing the most reliably packaged cooking ethanol), and several pastries later (ALWAYS BUY PASTRIES!!) we are tucked up in our lovely warm and snug tent.
About an hour after we drifted off we had the usual panic... Is that someone outside... But this time it actually was... A couple of dudes walking along the river, laughing and fishing at 9pm... Cute! Perhaps not quite as secluded as we'd thought, but fair play to them... They must have hiked a long way.
All in all, a very productive day and a wonderful camping spot. Fingers crossed tomorrow will be as fulfilling.