Quad-Buggies can't climb mountains!

Many places around town hire out Motorbikes, Bicycles and Quad Bikes and we decided to rent one to go for a drive. The Quad-buggies looked safest as they had seats and seatbelts and a roll cage. We hired one for a couple of hours for $20usd and headed off through town to go to a lookout high up on the ridge. Going through town was fun and we had a speedy downhill run for a couple of kilometres out of town to a junction when we started uphill.
The buggie was pretty slow going up the steep road but we made it to the lookout and had an awesome view over Baños and the surrounding valley. After a picnic lunch we went a little further up the hill and then did a u-turn to head back into town. The buggie had automatic gearing with just a forward and reverse lever and shortly after the turn it seemed to pop into neutral and we couldn’t get it back into forward gear! Luckily we had a several kilometre downhill roll back to the junction where a kind local rang the hire place and a guy came to meet us in his ute.

He seemed a bit angry that we had gone up the hill and said the buggies were only for the flat, something the person that hired it to us had neglected to mention when he was pointing out places we could go on a map!! He hooked the buggie to the back of the ute and we drove back into town stopping briefly at another broken down buggie on the way. Obviously something that happens regularly….. Back at the hire place we were worried they were going to try and charge us for a new gearbox but we got my passport (left as deposit) back without any fuss.