Buenos Aires, December 31, 2009. That’s what happens here if you don’t behave well… you wanna mess with the Charlies and the Loctite people? they are gonna glue your shows with Loctite 401 and hang you up as they did with this poor visitor! You better don’t mess with the Charlies.

Today at the Rural, during the technical scrutineering, the Charlies were there at the Dakar Village. Many visitors asked for stepping into our Loctite truck. A sunny day, 28 degrees the Argentinian mild summer is fantastic if you come from -20C. Jean Gaborit, head of the Charlies finally met our two new crew members: Martin-Daniel Gonzales and José-Luis Cornejo will be the new technicians following the whole race for 10000Km and offering reparations to competitors at the Bivouac every day. Day and Night for 15 days.

Dakar means adventure for all the participants, not only the drivers. The Loctite Charlies and myself were already stuck for 16 hours in a bus which was supposed to drive us from Copiapo to Fiambala crossing the Andes, when at over 4100 meters altitude and half way to go, road workers would not let the bus pass. “This is a piste, the bus will fall down”… We started getting worried when the bus driver did a u turn at the top of the mountain and informed us we would drive back to Copiapo. 

This turned out to be some kind of misunderstanding between the bus driver and these people. After a second u-turn and 1 hour delay on our schedule we kept going direction Fiambala. However this is not the end… we soon realized that the bus driver was chewing some stuff. After a couple of hours of travel through magnificent landscapes, pistes which are really not made for a bus, and life threatening curves, and less confidence in the driving skills of our driver, we received the news that the bus driver had missed the road to Fiambala, and we were going directly to the next stage, in La Rioja with no change of clothes, no tents, no equipment, no food since this morning (as everything is in the Loctite Truck) and no possibility tonight of supporting competitors. After that, I received a hint that the swollen cheek of the drivers was due to coca leafs, as they say coca minimizes the effect of hight sickness. As I write this post I am still in the bus, and have no idea where we will land tonight. It seems to me we are lost in the middle of Argentina.

Rally Dakar 2009, originally uploaded by dunerider70.

For the last few days the City of Buenos Aires has been witnessing the presence of more and more vehicles, which usually by this time of the year are to be found in portugal or in Africa…. Around the area of the Obelisk, right in the center of Argentina’s capital, many Dakar 2009 advertisement billboard create an interesting atmosphere in this fantastic city. The local TV started sending many features about the upcoming race, and also in south america, people are very interested when it comes to roaring of a powerful engine. I’m in the press room right now, with dozens of other journalist and you can sense the tension raising in the air. We are all looking forward to the start of the race!

Jean Thene inside the Loctite Support Truck

Jean Thene is one of our truck Loctite drivers. This morning at 7:30 am he was ready for departure as the support vehicles had to depart this morning to reach in the evening the first Bivouac at Santa Rosa. They will arrive this evening after more than 600Km.