With Lenny and his possessions gathered and strapped to our bikes we followed the officials to the police station for formalities. Lenny, fully admitting fault wasn’t keen to drag this out despite Venezuelan law stating that it was the truck drivers fault and Lenny could be compensated. So off we went in search of help to straighten out the battered KLR. Eventually after finding a cheap hotel we found a garage with some willing mechanics to assist.
Lenny had his panniers expertly bashed back into shape with even some aluminium wielding thrown in. While this was going on I took the opportunity to give Des an oil and filter change before the fun began... What followed was a haircut by a passing hairdresser and several crates of beers with the mechanics. We had a right old laugh despite the language barriers, in many ways it was in relief of what had happen earlier. Eventually, understandably Lenny wasn’t able to continue though as he was now suffering with a sore back. So Venezuela...nice warm and helpful people then? This impression was immediately dispelled as we got followed into our ‘secure’ parking area of the hotel.
This guy demanded money from us for an unknown reason and was pretty determined as we played the whole ‘stupid gringo’ game with him for over an hour until he eventually decided that although slightly bigger than me and Lenny he perhaps wasn’t quite big enough. As I told Lenny “If he pulls a blade or speaks English we’ll have a chat but until then just take the piss...”
With Lenny and his possessions gathered and strapped to our bikes we followed the officials to the police station for formalities. Lenny, fully admitting fault wasn’t keen to drag this out despite Venezuelan law stating that it was the truck drivers fault and Lenny could be compensated. So off we went in search of help to straighten out the battered KLR. Eventually after finding a cheap hotel we found a garage with some willing mechanics to assist. 
Lenny had his panniers expertly bashed back into shape with even some aluminium wielding thrown in. While this was going on I took the opportunity to give Des an oil and filter change before the fun began... What followed was a haircut by a passing hairdresser and several crates of beers with the mechanics. We had a right old laugh despite the language barriers, in many ways it was in relief of what had happen earlier. Eventually, understandably Lenny wasn’t able to continue though as he was now suffering with a sore back. So Venezuela...nice warm and helpful people then? This impression was immediately dispelled as we got followed into our ‘secure’ parking area of the hotel. 
This guy demanded money from us for an unknown reason and was pretty determined as we played the whole ‘stupid gringo’ game with him for over an hour until he eventually decided that although slightly bigger than me and Lenny he perhaps wasn’t quite big enough. As I told Lenny “If he pulls a blade or speaks English we’ll have a chat but until then just take the piss...”
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