Banos Beware.

Aaahhhhh Banos, what we thought was an uneventful bus ride, turns out later to find out that both Steve and I's backpacks were slashed while at our feet and they got my wallet! In there was a few hundred dollars my bank card and mastercards! F@K! Thankful we still have Steve's bankcards! :-) These guys were very swift and professional. Upon discussion with Cody he said he noticed a man come on the bus and sit behind Steve, he placed his jacket over the back of my seat and used that as his cloaking buffer!  Besides "the incident", the trip was so beautiful as we descended  through the Andes mountain range. The highways have been undergoing many upgrades, once having a reputation of some of the worst roads in the world to some of the best! Checked into our little hostel, Cody booked the Hostel Mariane online, nice big rooms, two big beds, with lush courtyard, and a kitty cat to boot! Funny thing when you book with booking.com sometimes the deal is better and sometime not? Had a bevy on our shared deck and then the Russians came! They loved Steve, which turned into a few shots and headbutts! Niet niet soviet. Out to dinner and a good nights sleep!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Our One to do thing was to check out a local waterfalls, the Pailon Del Diablo. We scoped out the rental shops and scooped two dune buggies, one for us and the other Cody and Lindsay! I did the paperwork, used Steve's passport, and signed it. The man in charge said okay. Meanwhile I've just signed a contract in Spanish, oh well. They hooked us up with helmets and big plastico ponchos! Off we went, leaving the little town of Banos and down the highway in our 150 cc dune buggies getting passed by every kind of vehicle, from motorbikes to large trucks! Drove for a bit then checked out the Puntzan canopy zipline where we watched a couple do the superman pose as they glided across this massive ravine over a river. Then back in the buggies to find the waterfalls. We went through 3  significant tunnels. One was quite huge! Quite the impressive blasting work! We drove for about an hour and half and decided to turn around, we knew our rides were slow and without an odometer it was anyone's guess. On our return still no sign of the great falls! At times they passed us and we'd pass them.  Steve and I were in the lead one time and we had a car pass us with the passenger waving and pointing back so we knew they had had problems. It took a few miles to safely turn around on this windy climbing roadway short on shoulders and no reverse! As we came around a climbing corner, the next sight was Cody running his unit up the hill while Lindsay was driving the puttering unit! LOL The buggy starting smoking and they found a good spot to push the buggy off the roadway in front a gentle old mans home to leave it! We decided that Steve could get back faster without my  extra weight in the gutless buggy, so off he went and the 3 of us started thumbing for a ride. It didn't take long for a family of four to pull over and in we jump into the back of their pickup truck! Part way on our ride they pulled over so mama and daughter could jump in the with us. The daughter, guessing 20ish had been studying English and this was the perfect opportunity for her to practice! Once in town Cody gave them $10.00, they refused but he just placed it on their dash! We walked to the rental place and across the street the famalia pulls up and gets out and wants a picture with us! Such kindness! Then we went from such a nice gesture to the rental owner being pissed when we showed up without his buggy. Knowing that Steve will be here soon, we all just waited. Then I see Steve walking up the street! OH NO what's wrong with his buggy? Fortunately he only ran out of gas! Then he informs us he had to pull over in one of the tunnels! Yikes! Not a lot of room! Oh well we are all back and safe! Well then the next part of the story begins! The owner is pissed and wants to charge us for the engine repair. He refuses to give Steve back his drivers licence unless we pay $400.00 for a new motor. A few of the staff were eye rolling knowing the boss and his wife can be quite the shysters. We go back to our rooms and shower up for the dune buggy conclusion and dinner. Back at the shop, things are heating up, the owners are mad and we are trying to reason with them. I wanted to call the policia from their place of business and they wouldn't let me, so Lindsay and I walked out to the streets to find one. Now the policia are everywhere in full force in all the places we have been and then when you need one you can't find one, so it's taxi to the station. They had us type the story into a translator and next both Lindsay and I were in the truck with 3 policemen heading back to the rental shop! There's more heated words as each side told their story, We overheard and were able to comprehend that regardless of the situation because I had signed the contract and it was with Steve's passport info the contract is null and void! Yipeee for a screw up in our favour! We spent 5 hours in heated discussion with owners, various policia, or anyone around who tried to mediate. The group of policia then gave Steve and I the address of the facilitator to go to the morning. So that we did, there we met with a facilitator and wrote our story on the computer translater. We were also joined by two representatives from the ministry of tourism. The man about 60 sharp dressed with no understanding of English and his beautiful chakita assistant who was able to translate. We all walked to the rental spot (small town) and waited for the owners to arrive. The policia were again present! Six in total! They where mad that the owner wasn't there! Then he pulls up driving a full sized city bus,  drops off his lawyer and drives away! Many words were spoken with many points of view. We got he jist that the shop owner is a scammer and bonus again me signing the contract makes it VOID! Mui Bueno! Hot Yolanda from the tourism office says we should report this in Quito at the consulate as the owner still has Steve's license. The lawyer calls in a mechanic and they do a report saying that we owe 250 for Cody's machine and 150 for ours! Bullshit we are not paying for his lack of maintenance! The policia say to us "don't pay" and so to walk away from your drivers license! To complete the story in a shortish version, we walked around with Yolanda as she took us to various official buildings to make our reports! Then getting paperwork authorized and having copies made, signed, and stamped at various agencies! What a days work! As in so many developing countries, "things" always take a bit longer! Dropped off chocolates (thank-you Anne and Lucy) to Yolanda and the policia along with a card of thanks! Anyways we are safe and nobody lost an eye.