Day 36 - Arachnophobia

Windy hell hole to Belen(d)...
( he he he... Never fails to be funny!)
 (100km) Friday 23rd September


We woke up after very intermittent sleep in a windy, but firmly pegged out tent (thanks to Ant's perfectionist ingenuity), to cloudy stormy skies and heavy hearts. Our worst fears were realised as the absence of Sun hadn't helped the wind die down and it felt like we were in the middle of a storm. At least we wouldn't need Sun cream today, we were wrapped up warm in gear, which we would ordinarily wear to cycle the Brecons at Christmas, and were shivering during the day - something that's grown unfamiliar!

As we packed up the tent and ate the only breakfast we had - two mini three day old croissants filled with sticky dulche de leche and the last few swigs of apple juice, we saw two fluorescent figures on bikes with two smaller less flourescent minis in line on the road ahead. This was legend number two - the second of the French families, this one with a 10year old and 6year old in tow. Hey if they can do this then we can! So spurred on, we packed up the rest of our gear and got on our way to catch them up.

This took much longer than you might imagine - they were incredibly strong! Turns out they were on exactly the same route as us from Lima, except they DID cycle through the rippio hell of Bolivia, and had little positive to say about it! We cycled in a 6man train (or technically 4 adult, 1mini on bike, 1 mini attached to front of Dad's bike in reclining peddling fashion contraption) into the head wind, that was surprising light. We hadn't realised we were going at the crazy speed of 25km/h until we saw the km markers whizz passed.

Hopes and heads much higher we chatted away until I struggled to keep up and fell right off the back wobbling away... Damn it! Now is NOT a good psychological time to get a puncture! Clearly we're not destined to cycle with anyone else!

We watched them cycle off into the distance as we checked the tyres and removed the hundreds of thorns we'd both picked up at some point in the desert... Grrr! An hour later and we were on our way again, slightly less upbeat but still thankful that we could make good progress.

The 20km to the hot springs that we'd been aiming for yesterday came and went, as did the hope of breakfast... De nada. We found a shop to sell us much needed water and some weird apple soya juice though, so we were fuelled enough to cope with the next 10km to the town.

There, thankfully we found an open restaurant and inhaled our food. The dilemma came when we also saw a couple of pleasant hostals - a glance at the map told us it was a simple choice - stay here having only done 40km today, or press on to the next town of Belen (another 60km with nothing in between) and risk a head wind and another spot camp. Feeling strong, positive and well-fed and with time on our side (2pm) we decided to press on. After all every km was a km closer to being out of the back ass of nowhere!

We bumped into the French family on the way out of town who HAD decided to stay, this put more doubt in our minds, had we made the right decision? Ant was not liking the idea of another dusty, unclean night in a tent (he's already sad the tent's super sandy). Oh well the French crew can travel fast, but not so far with kiddies - we have stamina (and a few less minors in tow!) so we said our goodbyes.
And then we started enjoying the day. Nervous, but feeling positive that we could tackle whatever laid ahead, we whizzed along at between 17-25km/h. The road was slightly downhill and surprisingly sheltered by lumps of rock leaving only a strong, but very manageable head wind.

We even found a service station to get a last few supplies (chocolate and beer!) just in case we had to camp again. We were confident we could now conquer the world... After all we had beer!

But soon enough we reached the end of the plain and entered a mountainous world of trees, rivers with actual water in them (not the dried up mud banks we've become familiar with) and a downhill sweep for the last 15km into Belen(d). Ok so we still had our old friend the head wind, who picked up strength as we swept around every other corner making our descents like a slow mo, pedalling version of their Peru selves, but who cares about that when we were moving at a pace that you wouldn't need a time lapse video to detect! We were now certain of a hotel, shower and bed for the night. Our ears would definitely be grateful for this opportunity to remove the streams of sand!

About 5km out of town, and just passed the 4100km marker point that this time yesterday I never thought we'd see, I saw him... Gulp... The biggest, yet most lethargic, tarantula type spider that I've ever seen was making his way slowly into the road ahead. I squealed, threw up a little bit in mouth, swerved and cycled as fast as my little legs could carry me up the surprisingly steep hill he'd chosen to cross in front of. As I was sweating and shivering at his memory at the top of the climb (I might also have been trying to fashion a 'D' out of my arms to decorate the Belen sign with a childish grin on my face!), I peered back to see Ant off his bike and taking photos of the little (gigantic!) creature. Apparently he made it very casually half way across the road, got spooked by a pick up truck and narrowly dodged by a couple of other cars, came running back towards Ant at high speed (gulp!), veered away from Ant (scaredy spider!), then hunched up in the safety of the side of the road breathing fast in an adrenalin rushed, post event panic attack (I don't really know if spiders have any of the above capabilities, to be honest I doubt it, but I'm just relaying the story as Ant told it and if you remember when you nest see him, you must get him to act out "the plight of the road crossing spider"... Its a masterpiece!).

Other than spiders and the potential for future recurring nightmares, Belen(d) turned out to be a very pleasant town and not at all the "sleepy town that shows all traits of being in the middle of nowhere", that the guide book insinuated. The main hotels were fully booked (joys of Friday night cycle touring), which was a shame as we felt we'd earned a tiny bit of luxury, but we found a mediocre (isn't everything!) hostal (Fredy) to tide us over and offer a hot shower.

A parillia fed us brochetas and black pudding sausage (nom nom nom) even if we did have to wait an hour for the chef to arrive after they opened (9pm eating man, they love it here!). But that gave us plenty of time to demolish a bottle of local white wine (finally!) and very tasty it was too!

We were soon in the beautiful square with two giant ice creams, listening to a band play what I'm convinced was incy wincy spider, whilst some strange local latin dancing group waved a few white hankerchiefs and then it was time for bed... And time for me to miss my mouth completely and tip the remnants of mint choc chip all over my navy trousers... Eeek!

Tomorrow we head for another 100km empty plain... But let's worry about that then... Today was a good day... Now I shall dream of spiders... Adios!
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