These is being posted a week later because we're back with a high speed connection.
A great discovery was that the Dakar 2009 off road rally was being held in South America for the first time. It began in Buenos Aires during our stay and ends there some 14 days later. The race heads south, turns west towards the western border, then north crossing the Andes into northern Chile. The race continues across the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, heads back south, turns east back across the Andes continuing east until the finish in Buenos Aires. The race covers 10,000 Kilometers of off road and finishers will arrive back in Buenos Aires on January 18th. The race goes in stages and support vehicles with parts, fuel and mechanics follow along.Teams showed up in the city during our second week here and many of the cars were exhibited at different hotels and other public areas.
We were up early Saturday A.M. and caught a cab for Plaza Italia in Barrio Palermo where the race began. There are more than 500 participants, cars, trucks, 4 wheelers and motorcycles and they start at one minute intervals. After the race vehicles are gone, the support vehicles left in groups. Spectators lined the narrow route away from the starting gate. We were within 10 feet of the cars as they flew past. Periodically an officer from the Policia Federal would travel by forcing people back away from the cars but the people simply moved back after he went by. It was great!!
The support trucks were as fascinating as the cars. They were enormous all wheel drive trucks of all types, with tandem axles in the rear. We saw several of them opened up prior to the start, complete rolling maintenance facilities. The rear looked like the back of the local Napa Auto Parts.Store. Chris took the picture below of one of the trucks during our New Years Day walk in Barrio Puerto Madero
Barney would have loved these trucks.....as would Chuck Duveneck.
After the last car left, we walked along the race route right through the center of the Barrio Palermo commercial district. The streets weren’t closed so the race vehicles and support trucks mixed in with the regular Saturday morning traffic. The cars couldn’t go flat out because of the traffic and they obeyed traffic signals. As soon as one or more of the cars were stopped, they were mobbed by spectators. They crowded around the cars, trying to high five the drivers and posing for pictures. When the Argentine team went bye the crowd went crazy! Great sport for everyone.
Here’s a couple of car and truck photos.
You can't tell from the picture but the truck must have been going 50 MPH through the city streets. Chris is heading for the sidewalk......
We continued along for several more miles, stopped for lunch at a sidewalk café and returned home for the usual afternoon siesta.
Up from the nap, it was time (past time) to wash a few things in the sink and hang them out to dry up on the roof. The roof of most apartments is set up with laundry deep sinks and clothes lines for laundry purposes. It's also where I was able to connect our little laptop to somebody's (?) WiFi connection.After that, it was out to dinner across the calle to San Miguel, the local restaurant for a final dinner of bife de lomo, thin sliced Argentine beef. Delicious. Photo of us at dinner below:
Back to the apartment to watch some of the Dakar race on television news and off to bed. We leave Buenos Aires for Foz de Iguazu by plane tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Click Location below for a map of the start of the Dakar Race.
Ciao, Alan and Chris
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