Paris-Dakar moves continent

_"Buenos Aires is crazy at the moment, the Paris Dakar is here." said Roger, Pura’s man in Argentina.

Roger is normally quite lucid so I didn’t challenge his decidedly odd remark and just let it niggle away at me for the past week.

Well, that niggle’s over: it turns out that the Dakar Rally started yesterday in Buenos Aires and will spend the next two weeks charging 9,000km around Argentina and Chile.

Over half a million people turned out to watch the opening parade of motorbikes, cars, quad bikes and lorries.

The 2008 rally was cancelled due to threats of Al Quaeda attacks so the organisers have moved the 30th Paris-Dakar Rally to the safety of Latin America, an effectively Al Quaeda free zone.

The name remains so we’re left with the slightly odd situation of the Paris-Dakar or Dakar Rally being held on the far side of the Atlantic.

The new route is a very pretty one. I’m not sure how much time competitors take to enjoy the scenery but they will cross the pampa, drive along the Andes through the Lake District, into the winelands, across to the Chilean coast, up through the Atacama Desert, back into Argentina at Salta and on to Buenos Aires.

You can see the full route here.

Not everyone is delighted about the move, however. From what I can tell Governments and Tourism authorities are very happy about the huge inflows of money. Many residents are less happy.

In particular the Mapuche people have been vocal in their oppostion – you can read a bit more about this if your Spanish is up to it here.

They have a point since over its history the rally has killed almost as many villagers as competitors.