Day 45 - so much more than oranges

Lloca to Constitution (65km) - Sunday 9th October

After two cups of tea and a leisurely breakfast in our own little home (and Ant's disappointment when the only thing in English on TV was Bridget Jones, which he'd already been forced to suffer last night!), we eventually hit the road.


And what a glorious coastal road it was too. Flat, right next to the sea, wind in our faces (of course but hey we're used to it now!), and not too much bank holiday weekend traffic.
As we'd passed many shops and restaurants on the way to Lloco, we assumed we'd easily be able to pick up lunch on route. 20km out of town and we soon realised this wouldn't be the case! The holiday resort esplanades had quickly turned from shops and empanadas, to trees, cows and fields. Luckily it was beautiful enough, and we were strong enough, not to worry about the lack of lunch too much. We pushed on and when the road turned inland for 20km we decided to stop to scrape together what lunch we could muster from our food bag: Half a bag of mini oranges, two bananas and some crisps; a lunch of kings! Still so very grateful to the kind truck driver for his orange donation. Oh and some sugar syrup mixed with sweeteners that called itself pineapple juice!

The turn inland also brought with it a few more hills to grind up, but we didn't mind, we had Spotify to keep us company (and road crossing spider number two, but I'd prefer not to think about him right now if you don't mind!!).
The road got more busy and slightly less beautiful as we approached Constitution, but we had managed to find ice cream at a shack on route so we were happy!

As we came into town we were full of dread - warehouses, industrial estates, supermarkets bigger than a big Tesco - not quite the idyllic seaside town we'd been peddling for. But at least once we hit the centre we were likely to find a hotel...

... Or were we?! The plaza approached, as did the noise, bbq smoke and jovial music that can only mean one thing... A bank holiday weekend festival (we later found out it was a festival of food! Amazing!!). But it did give us a few nervous moments cycling around the plaza worrying the hotels might be fully booked. We found the 'neuveu hotel constitution', expensive but with a room, so we checked in and scrubbed up, ready to hit the town as only one can, when one is a knackered crazy gringo cycle tourist on a bank holiday Sunday at a food fete. A pork kebab, three sausage sandwiches (yes three please... No don't look at me like that señor - I'm a hungry lass!), and a rack of pork ribs later and I was finally full! OK so Ant did have one of the sausage sandwiches and half the kebab, but in this race we can safely say he was falling very far behind! I'm sure he enjoyed his toasted bread, portion of chips and natural mango juice as much as I did my dinner though (yeah right!!?!).

Whilst Ant was purchasing his mango jugo natural, I was busy, kebab in hand, asking the store next door exactly what they put in their big jugs full of strawberries and dark red liquid, "um... Red wine, strawberries, and I think the strawberries were soaked in Pisco brandy..."; "brilliant, I'll take one!".  And after all of this we stumbled (almost literally!) across a beer tent, with multiple stalls selling multiple ales!!! Two pints later and it was time to stumble back to bed, but not after Ant's final supper piece - a visit to the chocolate tent and 4 coconut truffles. And I HAD to get some popcorn for the road tomorrow - and might have been super happy when the smiley lady serving it put a scoop or two in the bag for free!

So we trotted back to our room slightly merry, but incredibly happy and ended the day with me explaining to Ant that I'd always thought I had a lisp and always thought I couldn't say 'S' very well - see I can't even say 'Southsea show'. Well the last part at least was true, I couldn't say 'Southsea show', but as far as I can remember I've never thought I had a lisp and have always been able to say my 'S's'... Except when I'm drunk of course! (it just so happens the next morning I could say Southsea show perfectly!).