Comments on: South America http://abilitytrip.com/south_america/south-america/ abilitytrip.com Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:00:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mark Felling http://abilitytrip.com/south_america/south-america/comment-page-1/#comment-92 Mark Felling Sun, 18 Jul 2010 23:46:59 +0000 http://abilitytrip.com/?p=174#comment-92 Bogotá, Colombia has a modern, wheelchair accessible public bus transportation system with wheelchair lifts and spaces with flip up seats for wheelchair users. An acquaintance sent me some website links and video clips. Apparently almost all of the routes throughout the city are covered by wheelchair accessible buses, only the trip from the airport into town is not yet but should be by next year. I spent some time traveling around the Yucatán in Mexico and in Honduras last year. I speak Spanish fluently and research Latin America extensively. But I have never found a city outside of North America with a completely wheelchair accessible public transportation system. Consequently I was quite astonished and intrigued to learn this. I had not planned to go to Columbia anytime soon, but now it looks like I will have to visit there in the next few months. One of the biggest problems is how you get around you get to the destination especially when you use a power wheelchair primarily as a quadriplegic! If anyone has any information on ground transportation in Panama, I am very interested in Panama both short and long-term for business and their free-trade zone, excellent banking opportunities, and even better Pensionado program with great discounts for anyone/any foreigner who lives off a pension such as Social Security. A great resource for more information about these type of programs and Panama Ecuador is frugalretirementliving.com which is focused on retirees but also applies to disabled individuals. Bogotá, Colombia has a modern, wheelchair accessible public bus transportation system with wheelchair lifts and spaces with flip up seats for wheelchair users. An acquaintance sent me some website links and video clips. Apparently almost all of the routes throughout the city are covered by wheelchair accessible buses, only the trip from the airport into town is not yet but should be by next year.

I spent some time traveling around the Yucatán in Mexico and in Honduras last year. I speak Spanish fluently and research Latin America extensively. But I have never found a city outside of North America with a completely wheelchair accessible public transportation system. Consequently I was quite astonished and intrigued to learn this. I had not planned to go to Columbia anytime soon, but now it looks like I will have to visit there in the next few months. One of the biggest problems is how you get around you get to the destination especially when you use a power wheelchair primarily as a quadriplegic!

If anyone has any information on ground transportation in Panama, I am very interested in Panama both short and long-term for business and their free-trade zone, excellent banking opportunities, and even better Pensionado program with great discounts for anyone/any foreigner who lives off a pension such as Social Security. A great resource for more information about these type of programs and Panama Ecuador is frugalretirementliving.com which is focused on retirees but also applies to disabled individuals.

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