Day 988
Downhill to Lima
When do you say enough is enough. At the pizza restaurant we explained to the barmaid we had ridden most of the day on half a packet of biscuits each. We needed food and lots of it! After our first beer, at about 4.15pm we ordered our pizzas. Well we tried too, but she explained the chef wouldn't arrive until 5pm, but she could bring us a snack. A massive plate of cheese wrapped in pastry with guacamole to dip them in. Perfect. At 5pm we tried to order pizzas again, sorry the chef doesn't arrive until 5.40. OK, more time for beer and more card games. At 6pm, 2 hours after we arrived we tried again, no pepperoni but no matter we'd have ham. Finally we were nearly there. At 7pm she was back, there were no pizzas tonight. We were dumbstruck, she was embarrassed. Yes, I know what you're thinking, we should have left, Suzie and Ed, fellow intrepid cyclists had recommended a chicken restaurant, Kentocky's, but we were comfortable, the beer was good, so we ordered something else from the menu, it shouldn't take long. The restaurant filled up but we'd get served first surely? No, apparently the other tables had ordered by WhatsApp and it was 8.45 pm before our food arrived. Nearly 5 hours after we arrived. Why had we stayed? Not for the food, freezing burger bun, lukewarm chicken and a handful of chips. I may have been a bit grumpy when I paid, never again!
Fortunately the following day Kentocky's was just as good as Suzie had promised and we were tucking in 13 minutes after we arrived. Tom had also found a bread and cake shop which did awesome pizzas, we just had to preorder the day before. So that was our last night in Oyon sorted. Food, as you may have guessed, is very important to us cyclists.
Helene had a bike problem. She needed two snapped bolts removing from her forks. A male chauvinistic person, ignored her request and soldered a rusty useless bolt on before she could stop him. No nut to fit either. We were frustrated, but then a young lad said follow him and he took us literally next to our hotel to a motorbike repair shop. The super guy there removed the rusty bolt and the snapped bolts, so Helene had her pannier rack fixed back on!
We went off to eat our bodyweight in pizza ready for more of the Peru Divide.
Now one thing I've not made clear, is just how well we four were getting on. Finding fellow cyclists on the road isn't that hard, finding ones who like to set off at similar times, ride at around the same pace, have a similar budget, like the same food, enjoy each other’s company etc. is very rare. Yet us 4 had bonded straight away. Tom and I were ‘mum and dad’ with our two ‘children’. We were all loving it, Tom and I hadn't planned to stay this high for so long but how could we leave the kids? What sort of biking parents did that make us?
So it was with a heavy heart after just 10 days riding together that Tom and I took the decision to part company. Helene and Jeff were heading for the mountains, wanting to ride the rest of the Peru Divide. It will take them nearly a month to reach Cusco. We didn’t have enough time left on our visa. Realistically I knew that the cold, the height, the rough roads and the torrential downpours would be too much for my body. Tom really wanted to see the gold museum in Lima. There's a Princess Di museum there too, and Paddington. It was 65 miles downhill to the sunshine instead of hill after hill and thousands of feet of climbing. With a heavy heart I explained our decision, we hugged, and waved goodbye. We are determined to reunite, maybe on the Salt Flats in Bolivia, which means a naked reunion!
We took 2 days to ride the 150 miles to Lima, I got two Queen of the (downhill) Mountains from Strava, we rode through dozens of waterfall flooded roads, one of them at least a foot deep, with fast flowing water and metal poles sticking up, nothing fazed us. It got hotter, the headwind funnelled up the canyon but on we went. Day 1 we did 93 miles, Day 3 53 miles. We've booked a great apartment for 6 nights, we have two pools, fantastic restaurants nearby. We can catch up with the blog, rest up, get some culture, but it's just not the same without the kids!
