Dakar in Perico

I said it on face book but I may as well follow it up here.  There are a couple/few ways to watch a rally race.  One is to go out on the coarse somewhere and watch as each moto, car, or truck rips by and cheer them on from there.  The other is to join the masses that gather at the finish of the stage to cheer all the drivers in.  I chose the later of the two, and by masses I mean over 150,000 people ready to have a rip roaring good time.  I spent the better part of the day trying to get a good position for viewing the melee but after a bit figured to hell with it and went to Kombi to get a beer and some water.  After a couple I figured it was worth one more shot  at getting a spot .  People had been gathering for over 6 hours at this point and only support vehicles(of which there are hundreds) had come in so far.  I’m pretty sure most of the spectators had no idea the difference between a support vehicle and an actual race vehicle.  They gave each and every vehicle with a sticker of any sort on it what so ever a hero’s welcome to the finish area.  The police did there best to restrain the crowd but over the coarse of the day  they were worn down and eventually just gave up.  I happened to be on the bridge just before the finish at the very moment the police gave in and with a full 24oz beer, a camera, and a smile I nestled into arguably the best seat in the house, directly over the road into the finish.  With no police restraint the first moto riders were completely mauled by the crowd.  To the point that it was definitely dangerous, but at the same time (from my vantage point) really entertaining.  Exhausted, dirty moto riders being molested by drunk, fiesta crazed locals, GREAT!  I rattled off a bunch of picture for a couple of hours then resigned to the fact that a really big party was about to happen .  Kombi was parked right in the heart of the action so after hanging a couple of flags on her(Chile/Argentina)  I posted up with a bottle of wine and proceeded to get to know the town folk.  After a couple hours of socializing, wining it up, and taking pictures with people/families I decided to catch a few hours of sleep before the party started again. 
I crawled out of Kombi at 4:45 in the morning to see a few thousand people still going strong and ready to cheer the drivers on as the rolled out on stage 4 of the Dakar.  What an amazing deal these people have managed to pull off.  This is the first time the Dakar has ever come to the town of Perico and they certainly made the most of it.  With 150,000 they set the bar for the most spectators yet this year!  After a solid downpour settled in around 6am I retreated to Kombi to get a couple more hours of sleep.  I got it together at 9 or so this morning then set out for Corrientes, Argentina and eventually Asuncion, Paraguay.  The plains of Argentina are enormous and beautiful if not redundant.  It reminded me a lot of something like combining Virginia with Nebraska.. . At 45mph.  But Kombi is running like a dream these days, I gotta thank my blessing for that. 
I’m picking my buddy Josh from Alaska up at the airport in Asuncion in a couple of days so it will be a bit of a change of pace having a co-pilot.  I’m looking forward to it.  I wanted to be alone and I’ve definitely had plenty of that.  Time to mix it up for 10 or so days.