Day 995
Gabriel’s Place
Finally we managed to tear ourselves away from Lima. We're not really city people, but with Lima being by the sea, having awesome cycleways, brilliant restaurants, Paddington, ATL's nephew, it was definitely changing our point of view. I needed to move though as my clothes were all getting tight!
Neither of us were looking forward to riding out of the city, however it really was pretty good. We started out on a cycleway that just went on and on, occasionally disappearing for a short while then back again. 30 miles later we were still on it, way-to-go Peru!
We had heard that wildcamping near Lima could be dangerous so we had planned to head to a hotel, but the sea looked so beautiful, we were so tempted! Around mid-afternoon we arrived at a series of bays, lined with restaurants and endless gazebos to provide protection from the sun. We spotted that one of the restaurants was named Gabriel, which as my eldest niece is Gabrielle we took to be a sign. We headed over and ordered some food, boy it was good. The owner's niece came over and introduced herself, she was called Gabriella and was keen to practise her English. She was only a teenager but she really took care of us. We asked about camping and were told we could camp there, under an awning, our bikes would be stored in the restaurant. She even brought us over deckchairs and a table so we could sit in comfort. Her Aunt explained that we were so welcome and she wanted us to feel safe and relaxed. She even left open a toilet all night for us. We spent the evening wave watching, boy they were fierce, time and again the sea swamped family after family whilst we sat smug, high above, safe and dry. By early evening virtually all the weekend visitors had left and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. After a quiet night, well apart from the crashing waves we were treated to breakfast by the restaurant owners. We sat for a while chatting to them and when we finally left we were given apple pies for our second breakfast. The kindness of strangers!
The road was quieter today, we had a great hard shoulder to ride on, a few rolling hills, massive sand dunes and the sea to gaze at, this wasn't the Cordillera Blanca but it was pretty good. The horrendous headwind we had experienced when riding along the coast when first in Peru had virtually disappeared, it was actually a rather pleasant cooling breeze, so though still very hot, low 40s it wasn't too bad at all. We were heading to a camping spot, Biosol Eco-camping. We had the place to ourselves, set on a cliff above the sea, a swimming pool to cool off in, showers and toilets, a lodge to relax in, and though no restaurant we could buy cool drinks, not bad for a tenner a night.
We now had just over 90 miles to Ica where we had decided to have a couple of days off. We made the decision to ride just under 60 miles to a hostel leaving a shorter day to Ica. Though tough going, there were a few too many rolling hills, we made it in time to relax in the pool and take advantage of happy hour, enjoying a few Pisco sours. Unfortunately both Tom and I were pretty ill in the night. We think the egg whites were off, not the quantity of Pisco sours we drank! After a very disturbed night, Tom who is normally up and about by 6am actually slept in and we didn't get going until virtually midday. Even with the shorter mileage it was a very tough day. We limped from cafe to petrol station to restaurant, eating little but drinking endless bottles of water. We spotted a pair of cycle tourists, Marc and Helene from France. They had just arrived in Lima and looked a bit shell shocked by the heat. Finally Ica came into view, a few miles on a destroyed hard shoulder with a sandstorm blowing all around us wasn't much fun, but the wonderful welcome we received from our Airbnb host more than made up for it. We're having a rest, updating the blog, and Tom has a garden plan to design for friends from home, our official escorts from our Grand Depart, and tomorrow we may cycle to an oasis. No Pisco Sours for a while though!
