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The franglais-riders strike back!

After spending a full week in the internet cafes trying to sort out spare parts from Germany, repairs on my bike, sending 1.5 million pesos to pay for new parts and dealing with insurance companies in Argentina and Chile, it became clear to us that we would not get any money from KTM boy´s Argentinian insurance.  We also realised that we were going about this all wrong.  Why, when we were the innocent party in all this, were we doing all the work and paying out all the money?  We sent KTM boy a message proposing that he pay us the 1.5 million pesos we had already spent and that HE deal with the insurance company in the US to get a refund. 

His very curt response was "I don´t have the funds to do this". We were furious.  He certainly had money to pay for a 33 day organised tour that cost over 8000 USD, then carry on travelling for a year, all the way up to Canada, riding a brand new KTM worth about 20,000USD! We had already paid an advance of near 1700GBP (1.5 million pesos) to get the parts ordered from Germany. A small company in Santiago was dealing with this. As usual, the only BMW dealer was not interested and never replied to my emails and basically sent me packing when I phoned them! So the usual rude incompetent people at BMW, what a surprise!

I was starting to feel really angry (not with BMW, I´ve given up on them!). The repairs  and parts were costing a fortune, finding a repair workshop in Coyhaique, then someone in Santiago that would be dealing with importing BMW parts from Germany had not been easy! And then KTM Boy was on his merry-go-round while I was left dealing with all that crap! We had given KTM boy the opportunity to do the right thing.  Now it was time to take action.

The owner of the cabaña we rented last week told me that the neighbour was a judge. He introduced me to him, and the judge advised me to put a "denuncia" against KTM boy at the police station. So the next day, a Saturday, I went to the carabineros (again!) and filed a complaint. I was given an appointment with the judge´s office for Monday morning.

On Monday morning, spot on 10, I went with my ticket to the judge office. I was told as the denuncia happened on saturday, the police had not transferred any documents yet. I pleaded my case saying it was urgent and I was told to come back at noon.

So at noon I was back. I met with an assistant, and to cut several hours short, after painful explainations and discussions, I managed to get a judge´s order so that KTM Boy would not be allowed out of Chile and for his motorbike to be immobilised and taken  to a police compound until the case was resolved!

I suspected that around Monday, KTM and his merry-go-round Tour would be in Ushuaia, Argentina. However, to cross the Magellan straight and join Ruta 3 to ride north you have to cross the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego! The border points there are in a barren, empty country, almost a no-man´s land, the border is only a couple of buildings in the middle of nowhere! It was now only a matter of waiting for KTM boy to move and fall in the net!

That same day we phoned AIG, the US insurance of KTM boy. It did not look good, they did not even recognised the Policy number. We sent them an email with the copy of the policy, copying KTM boy at the same time. We only got an automated email from AIG.

On Wednesday, as we went to Puerto Aisen, 60km away, the only day we decided to take a "day off" from dealing with all this, we had a phone call. It was the judge´s office. They had stopped KTM boy and he was at the border with his tour. Basically they were trying to lie their way out of Chile by accusing us of delays on dealing with the insurance and that they had an email that proved that the insurance was going to pay us. Basically the judge´s office was trying to get me to drop the case, based on these lies. I was furious and said that it was all lies and that the insurance had not contacted me. I was asked to go to the office the following morning to see the email that the tour leader had sent to the judge office "proving " that the insurance was going to pay. As Alistair said, it was hightly unlikely that such email from  the insurance company existed, insurances never say that they are going to pay!!

The next morning at 9 am I went to the judge´s office. They gave me the famous email. The tour guide, a mexican, wrote (in spanish) a long email explaining it was our fault that there were delays for the insurance dealing with this case, because we did not send the right documents to KTM boy, that the email he forwarded was the proof that the insurance was going to pay us.  Well, the forwarded document was just AIG automated response (in English) to our email that we got on Monday! The mexican tour guide was counting on the judge´s office poor knowledge of english to convince them with all these lies! It would have been funny if I had not been so stressed. The woman at the office also told me that my bike would have to be immobilised. I laughed a lot and told her that parts of it were in Santiago, the main part in a workshop in Coyhaique in pieces, some in Germany and bits of my bike were littered all over Carretera austral.  Good luck to the carabineros to seize it!

The fight was getting dirty and I was too stressed to deal with it on my own. It was time to get help. We went to see a lawyer!

As he walked us into his office and I explained the case, getting all excited and stressed about the insurance lies, sequence of events etc.. he cut me off;

"Let´s focus" he said, "KTM boy admitted fault, it does not matter that he has an international insurance, you have to issue  a demand for him to pay until he pays or faces prosecution". "How do I do that " I asked. "Well, you need a lawyer" was his answer. "You´re hired!"

I asked him "Do you think an insurance bought by a Canadian citizen in the US, would pay Europeans following an accident in Chile?" When he stopped laughing we got to work. After making a estimate of our total cost on repairs (Around 2 million pesos - over 2000 pounds) we issued  a document demanding that KTM boy pay us this amount. We got an email from him and then a phone call. Somehow he made his way to Punta Arenas. He told us he would make sure the US insurance paid us, but he did not have the money to pay himself, that what we were doing was illegal etc... We told him that it was legal in Chile, that his insurance was none of our concern and basically he had to pay us for the damages he caused on our bike or face prosecution. We made clear we had hired a lawyer and were following his advice.

That same afternoon we followed our lawyer advice and sent KTM boy an email asking him to liaise with us through our lawyer only.

The next day, by noon, 2m pesos, plus half my lawyer fees, were transferred to Marcos, my lawyer. He had been negociating with KTM Boy´s lawyer. So I only had to go with Marcos to the judge office and sign the papers to release KTM boy´s bike and let him leave the country! And take the money!

So now we only have to wait for our parts! Chilian justice rocks!  It is actually skewed towards the victims!  A strange concept in the UK!

Let me tell you a couple of anecdotes though to show you how nice Chilians are!  KTM boy was in a terrible hurry to catch up with his group. The judge´s office is normally closed in the afternoon but his assistants opened to us to close this matter. The judge was on a day off, fishing, but would be disturbed so that he could authorise the departure of KTM boy.

And then the 2 lawyers had forgotten about KTM Boy´s fine: 40,000 pesos, for driving dangerously I presume. Well, my lawyer told the office that as both KTM Boy´s lawyer and himself had forgotten about this and that they would pay it from their fees!  That´s probably the only country in the world where lawyers would pay a fine for someone else from their fees! They have big hearts around here!

Oh yes, you are probably wondering, how much my lawyer´s fee was? 700 USD flat rate. We paid half of it. Worth every penny!

So not much about motorcycle travelling today, but we will be back on the road sometime next week, for hopefully quieter adventures!

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