The day started off fine with beautiful riding on roads with un-expectedly good surfaces. We also climbed steadily from about 3000 m to over 4330 m.
We had another picnic lunch, with the truck parked in a field behind a police station, complete with roaming pigs and dogs. Willy outdid himself with soup for lunch including lamb, then salad followed by canteloupe and strawberries and cream. It was truly excellent.
The road then deteriorated with massive road humps in many small towns plus some gravel sections. I ran third in the group coming into the town on my own and had an excellent experience buying petrol this time from two very helpful young ladies who willingly accepted a credit card this time, rather than cash. Entering cities is often a very demanding ride but I was on my own and had a very simple run of it, following my GPS to the Grima Hotel (which we later found is part of the Westin Group, despite being three star).
The rooms are large and clean but there are no other services, so we went out looking for a bar and restaurant, but in a town that sees very few tourists, this was a challenge. We did find a place to have a negroni but had no dinner which was fine by me, given the large lunch. Overall it was a fine day at altitude but we are all looking forward to reaching Huarez tonight and getting some washing done at last!
No comments:
Post a Comment