Dakar fever

Trip Start Dec 15, 2008
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Trip End Jan 16, 2008


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Where I stayed
Hotel Rincon de Valparaiso
(Valparaiso hotels)

Flag of Chile  ,
Thursday, January 8, 2009

What luck! We arrive in Valparaiso (which is a UNESCO world heritage site), just when the Dakar rally was coming into town. This is the first time that the Dakar has been in South America!  You canīt buy luck like that.  After being hounded at the bus station with sleeping options, we headed off with a lady to look at her accommodation - we could have leopard crawled faster.  Her place was promptly rejected and we headed off to one of the other options, much better. 

One the first night we checked out the old town which was beautiful and full of arty types.  The town has many steep hills with funicular cars which run up them, most of which are over 100 years old.  We met a local graphic designer and tested out his recommendation for dinner. 

Day two involved Vina del Mar, which is a beach town and we bronzed ourselves, though Wendz overdid it somewhat and ended up looking like a lobster.  The parks here are amazing and you can people watch for hours, they have kids on bikes, skateboarders, break dancers, couples and older folk watching over them.

Off to see the Dakar cars, there are even some of the team guys staying in our hotel, they were amused at the flood of questions from Wendy.  We stopped at a seafood place for locals and were confronted with a menu which we did not understand in the least.  The lady next to us, asked what we wanted and we said Fish & Chips, what we got was a massive plate of food, piled high with fish, eggs, chips and onions, cardiac ward here we come, especially after I  mistook the olive oil for vinegar!  We had a lovely couple next to us from Santiago and they bought us each a Pisco Sour (Pisco, lemon juice, sugar and egg white).  The local drunk, who did not want to be outdone then ordered us another round of drinks.  So we left for the Dakar rather mellow.  There were cars and trucks everywhere with masses of people vying for the best vantage spots, it was incredible to experience that.

We left back to Santiago after waking early to see the Dakar cars off, nothing like a dawn walk to make to pass out on a bus.
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