The Good News Thread

As I've noticed the previous bad news banking thread, I had a good experience -

In Quito trying to use the ATM at Banco Pichincha, which just wasn't cooperating. The nice lady behind me in line who spoke English tried to help and she also couldn't figure why the machine wouldn't dispense cash from my card. She then went into the bank, brought out a manager and they hashed out the problem in Spanish. Turned out that Banco Pichincha didn't process foreign ATM cards.

They determined that Banco Boliviariano processed foreign cards, then the nice lady from behind me in line took me by the hand two blocks down the street to show me the ATM that I could use.

And no, it wasn't a set up.

Just yesterday me and a stranger took ten minutes to help another stranger by rocking his car back and forth on the ice until he finally got out of the alley exit and on to the street, for which he was very grateful.  The good news is you will never have to give or receive such services in most all of Ecuador.

(If Mugs can post US stories so can I)

Just two weeks ago Mr. gardener1 exited the bus at our homestop in our US city on a Friday evening. In his inside coat pocket was an envelope from the bank with our weekly cash allowance. Apparently somehow the envelope with several hundred dollars fell from his coat pocket onto the sidewalk.

Two days later I got a call from an utter stranger saying that she had found an envelope of money on the ground in front of the bus stop she believed belonged to us and wanted to return it.

We met up a few days later and she handed me the envelope of cash. Very pretty young woman of about 30, very nice. Of course I thanked her profusely for her trouble, and she would accept no reward.

And this just days after our neighborhood blog had reported an armed holdup at the local supermarket and two middle school kids who had been robbed of their cell phones while waiting for the bus.

You just never know do you? No matter where you live. Everywhere there is good and evil.

gardener1 wrote:

(If Mugs can post US stories so can I)

But mine had a strong connection to Ecuador, as in things one can avoid by moving to Ecuador.

- I just can't stop myself with banking/cash stories -

China, Beijing~
I went into the nearby bank in our neighborhood, Merchants or Farmers Bank or somesuch absurdity, to use the cash machine. In the vestibule there were 3 automatic machines, they all looked pretty much the same except that one was a much larger device than the other two. In front of the two regular looking machines there was a line, but for the big machine there was no line. So I thought hells bells, the big machine is fine with me and I don't have to wait in line.

So I went up, popped my card in the slot and then nothing happened. The machine ate my debit card (the only one we had) and refused any kind of transaction. I had no clue what was going on, I started pressing every possible button and then began to pitch a kicking & swearing fit. After enough hell I had raised one of the bank people came out and told me in English that it was some kind of corporate transaction device that did not issue cash. She had to go back into the bank, wangle a key, unlock the the actual casing of the machine, open up the insides and find my card. Which she finally handed back to me scowling and no doubt cursing my stupidity in Chinese.

But I should have known better from the get-go. If nobody else is going there/doing that, it's something I should also avoid. I knew better and and ignored my own learnings.

Since our good news thread has gone international. S Korea is hands down the best place in the world to lose your wallet or cell phone. The Koreans pride themselves of their honestly and integrity... So long as it doesn't involve intellectual property.

Both me and my brother have had cell phones returned in Korea, and folks will go way out of their way to track you down and return your property.

If you want to meet good friendly honest people from all over the world, get on a cruise ship.
The people I have met, except two couples from New Jersey, are happy and have no complaints.
The Canadians ON CRUISE SHIPS are very polite, do not think themselves better than USA Americans, and have no complaints, they just bring their own maple syrup.  On most cruise ships the greatest asset is the crew, and on a majority of cruises this means the friendly smiling faces of many Filipinos and Filipinas.  In addition the musicians and other performers such as Second City act like they are part of the fun, very approachable and happy to share about almost anything.  It is 72 days until our next cruise, counting down the days.

I love this thread! Thank you to the person who started it. We've been to EC 3 times, the last time for a full month in which we drove a CuencCarShare vehicle all over the country. There were so many times we were helped, pointed in the right direction, given a police escort in Chamba (we'd still be there looking for the road to Guano), extra blankets when my sweetie was ill, translations offered in a couple of situations....on and on. Basically people are good and the world is wonderful.

I love stories like this because," I think" we always hear about the bad crap...it sells newspapers,,and again..., "I think"  we have a tendancy to perceive a world that sucks...now more than ever...don't get me started... and we never hear about the "good stuff." 
Years ago, traveling in "the states", coming home on a late Fri night from a long business trip, I was flying into LGA from, I can't  remember where...some of you have been there.  I've got stories.   
I had called ahead and set up the CT limo service to pick me up at LGA;  I figured that after the week I had been through, I felt empathy for Henry our company driver and why screw up  good night's sleep for him?  Why screw up his night?   
We finally landed in LGA, happy,  happy passengers, (airline unnamed ) and we shuffeled off the flight, dragging ourelves, like the walking dead off the plane, stumbling down the offway to the elsalator to the "merry-go-round"....and .......we waited...........and waited for the sound of the obnoxious blarring horn and the grinding and groaning of the merry-go-round that wiould deliver our luggage..unscathed..
Oh please, GOD, oh please,..PLEASE., Let it be now.  We all  stood there hipnotized by the carrousel going.. round...and round...and round and then untill FINALLY... forty five minutes later....a PIECE  OF LUGGAGE. EUREKA!   Would you believe, no one claimed that price of luggage.  That thing went around and aound forever.  FINALLY.....our fight's "stuff".  Needless to say, my "S#@t" was last...you'll notice, it's no longer "crap".   I  "schlelleped" it outside to where the "limo" was supposed to pick us up ...and yes, I was the last one all four and the driver had been waiting for...of course!  (Keep in mind:   Everyone was worried that CT Limo would even show up at that hour of the morning. )  BUT IT DID!!!!!!  KUDOS!
Everyone piled into the "limo",  Conversatiuon was at a lost.  Everyone was "on-their-ass" at that point.
We all offered a sigh of relieve, leaned back and closed our eyes knowing that our luggage was safe and secure and that we would be heading home, sleeping in our own wonderful beds...soon.
Thiirty minutes up the interstate...."MY PURSE.  WHERE'S MY PURSE?"  You have never seen people scramble like that before. It was like a drug raid...or what they tell me it's like.  Like someone had thrown a hand grenade into the limo and NO ONE was ready to throw themslves onto the weapon to save any of the rest of us.  We all scrambled.
.,. LMAO,,,after a frantic search for the purse,.........NOTHING BUT SILENCE.....I mean...DEAD SILENCE. It was like the countdown to a moon roket shot. 
"Twenty minutes and countinng............fifteen minutes and counting"........finally the driver came on the intercom:  "OK...how many want to go back?...How many want to go on?" AGAIN! 
Dead silence. I mean... Dead silence.  STILL...Dead Silence.  FINALLY...SOMEONE SAID, "LET'S GO BACK."
( Believe me, IT WAS NOT ME. ) 
AGAIN  A LONGER PAUSE.  The driver; "PEOPLE?"  Long pause.. "WE GO BACK!".  ( LOUD CHEER!)  The driver pulled into the first stop and made a U-Uturn and here we go back on our way back to LGA.    YAAAAAAA!

But that's not the end.  I know I have dragged this out forever but the ,"learning experience" is here to come.  We  got back to LGA...our asses dragging, knowing that it was all in vein, but wehad made the effort,  after having left for an hour and an half ago.  The driver went into the "Lost And Found"...and ..........YES..it was there.  And everything in tact...cash..credit cards...adult toys. 
She had set her purse on the curb, got into our limo in her excitement and forgot it. ( If her husband happens to read this, you're a real dick-head! )  The point being, everybdy comes down on NYC..and our country, me being the first and the worst, but we still take care of our fellowman, because it's the right thing to do.
I've had many great things like this happen in my many years of traveling but as much as I love this country, it's changed.   This is not the country I grew up in.  8ut I will always have the memories.

It is the country you grew up in, it changed and so did you.

You were able to read that? Kudos.

I use my British debit card at Banco Pichincha without any problems. My British credit and debit cards work fine in all the main Ecuadorian banks except produbanco. For some reason Produbanco is a dead loss- their ATM's just don't seem to work.
Russell