Day 578
Alfonso and Mariana
We decided not to take up a career in shelling corn and left Tienda Elias and went looking for Paris. Well actually ‘Venta de Bravo’, a town laid out in a spider’s web style as Baron Haussman did for Paris. There the similarity ended. We enjoyed riding round in circles until we found our way out and back on yet more dirt roads. The miles we rode were few, mainly uphill and hot and exhausted we looked for yet another wildcamp. This was proving to be a tough week’s riding. As we neared the top of yet another steep hill we spotted a long abandoned property, the house just a shell and the garden returning to the wild. There was no gate or any ‘No trespass’ signs so we decided it would do. Unfortunately, though we had tucked ourselves well away from the road our bright blue tent was still visible. We had just settled down for the night when we heard footsteps and someone whistling to get our attention. It was Frank, a security guard, checking up on us. He thought we were the early arrivals ready for a rave, when he realised we were just two weary cyclists he wished us a good night’s sleep and even left his phone number in case any ravers turned up to bother us, now that’s what I call service!
Tula was now just a day’s ride away. We are turning into tourists and off to look at ancient statues and pyramids with two nights in a hotel, yippee, but first we have to get there. Naturally we wanted to stay well away from the smooth flat tarmac that is the toll road and instead headed up and over a steep sided mountain, OK, well a hill but it was a full-on mountain bike challenge. I even stretched my calf muscles out of sections of the downhill. The final 20 miles were, according to Komoot, downhill. Well there was an awful lot of uphill for a descent is all I will say. I managed to stay upright when a pack of dogs chasing a horse skidded on a rare bit of tarmac and slammed into me. It was turning into a trying day. We stopped to eat lunch, we had cake as a treat as for breakfast we had eaten something from the bottom of our kitchen bags that looked like cat sick. I don’t know what cat sick tastes like but I imagine our breakfast came pretty close. As we listlessly studied the map to see if we really had to take the rough looking track, we did, a red pick up drove by. It suddenly slammed on its brakes and reversed down the hill, pulling to a stop besides us. Out burst Mariana slowly followed by Alfonso. Mariana beamed at me, held out her arms and enveloped me in a wonderful bear hug. Now you can quote your covid restrictions to me, but I needed a hug and somehow Mariana knew this. We spent some time chatting, were gifted a gas stove despite our protests, advised not to take the rough track, we obviously ignored that, then Tom and I got more hugs. Wonderful people. Restored, it was yet another rough track and to Tula for us.
