Day 42 - I can see the sea!

Litueche to Pichilemu - 5th September (70km)

Today our struggle was not trying to find a home, but making sure we had the legs to get there. We'd booked a place in Pichilemu (the natural surf lodge) so that we could just enjoy the ride, and a beautiful ride it was too. Ok so we had a fairly strong head wind, but he's been our friend for over two weeks now so we'd be lost without him (and travelling 10km/h faster!!). This in itself is an interesting one as we were under the impression the wind should blow North-westerly, it is very definitely South-south-westerly, which could make for an interesting next few months! The road was much quieter with much fewer trucks so we could chat and enjoy the views - of which there were plenty.

It started off as rolling green fields and trees, not too dissimilar to the South downs. Then mid-way the fields for greener, the trees taller (pines and eucalyptus), and the horizon turned into snowy capped whipped cream peaks. This was enough for us to gasp a sigh of beauty as we reached the top of one of the many mini climbs we'd tackle today.

Just after the South downs had turned into the Austrian Alps and about 40km of our day complete, we talked about stopping to eat some of the pastries we had on our racks (we seem to be surviving on cakes and crisps at the moment and unable to find sandwiches... This leaves us craving spinach, broccoli and carrots!!). Then I saw a mini supermarket and should probably have suggested picking up something healthy - but the heat, humidity and sweat led me to only one place - the vast ice cream freezer! We were more than happy with our two cornettos and a token large carton of ice cold orange juice (don't take this as healthy - damn coca cola company own so many drinks in South America and unfortunately they have a love affair with both sugar and sweeteners, so even if we try to get a good hit of vitamin C we end up on a sugar high. Brilliant for cycling (well except the sweeteners - seriously what's the point of adding sweeteners when you've already added sugar? Are you trying to kill off your population?!), but not great for any other time).

So we enjoyed our ice cream stop under a very shady tree (and I recounted my slight amusement as the guy behind me in the store, very unusually for South America, not only waited in line patiently for me to order and buy my sugary purchases, but also waited politely and sheepishly whilst I put my change away. I knew something was amiss and was relieved to be proved correct when he ordered a small square packet with 'lucky strike' written on it as quietly and sheepishly as he could. Ant thinks he was just ashamed of a smoking habit, but I've never seen cigarettes quite that small and square!).

As we set off, a quick glance up the road and in a blasé fashion I said "oooh looks like we're climbing out of here for a while". Unperturbed and ready to enjoy the uphill (sometimes we do!) we started off up the 10-12% gradient. After a km had passed, we realised that this was perhaps a longer climb than we expected, but were still enjoying working the legs back into their past climbing form. Then another km, then another km, then another... Man oh man! 5km up the road and we were even getting support from the traffic, which had unfortunately picked up (4-5pm rush hour!), but were just about giving us enough space to slowly wobble and grind our bikes uphill and were waving and cheering as they went passed! (well except the busses, they still wanted to kill us - have I mentioned I hate busses!??!). So the cheering at least spurred us on, but when even the cars coming in the opposite direction are slowing and cheering, you know you've still got a lot ahead of you - after all they've see the road ahead and are giving you kudos for what you're about to achieve! Damn. Oh well only one way! Up and up and into a head wind.

Feeling strong but knackered we were now digging deep. Even Ant was feeling the burn, but somehow we managed the 15km pure uphill and were now on to the uppy downy bit, that at least gave our legs some respite between punishment.

At some point on the climb, the wind had hinted that we were getting closer to the Pacific Ocean as the wind's annoying warm battering, had turned into an even more fierce, but cool and fresh punishment that was at least revitalising and reminded us what being by the sea felt like, but we'd still not actually seen it yet. After weeks in desserts, with little water, man we were longing for the sea! Our minds even played tricks on us up on the salt lakes in Bolivia, where the white salt had formed wave like peaks and mirages that looked like a rough sea, but yielded only dry mud and dessert sand. 

So when we were finally on something that resembled a descent and about 10km from our hotel, we had to stop and take a breath or too as we finally saw the beautiful wonderful ocean!  We both cheered "I can see the sea!" And smiled the smiles that only two knackered cyclists with burning legs can smile! All the high corners and viewpoints had been big trees and hills - beautiful but not what we wanted... But now, if you looked hard enough, you could see the deep blue pacific ocean behind the lines of trees to our right.

This was incentive enough to push on down to the town and battle the last remaining uphill kickers that it threw in. We'd picked a lodge 3.5km out of the other side of town as it looked beautiful and seemed the best value for money, but when you're two knackered cyclists trying to find an out of town lodge and the main street it should be on suddenly changes its name, and the wind gets stronger and you get more confused and numbers don't seem to count up the way they should anymore... You stop and buy a big bottle of beer. Well we'll definitely need some refreshment when we finally get there!


Despite the street changing its name half way we decided to keep on cycling and eventually saw the heavenly yellow sign that Indicated our place was somewhere up the dirt track to our left. UP? UP? Grrrr!

It probably wasn't the easiest lodge entry to navigate at the best of times, and our minds were definitely not the easiest to navigate at this time. So we wondered around the property, ringing bells like lost ducks, occasionally quacking the odd feeble "hola" to no avail. Eventually I came up with the mind blowing idea to walk around the back of the property towards the house that looked lived in... Perhaps there would be someone there?... Genious!! Of course there was and they were very friendly and had a cute cute baby and let us into our wonderful room, then told us we had the whole lodge to ourselves as none of the other rooms were taken. That meant two comfy leather sofas and a beautiful sea view and even a take away menu...!!!

We ordered fusion thai-indian-Peruvian food (no idea!!?!?) to go with our beer that actually tasted glorious when it finally arrived! (ok so perhaps Ant hopped back on fat Al to go get two more beers from the store at some point!).
We booked the place for an extra night so we can go surfing tomorrow, so nothing left to do but watch Poldark and snuggle up! Ahhhhhh