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Lucas “LazyLegz” Patuelli

Costa Rica Highlights - Zoo Ave

By Craig Grimes

Zoo Ave

We didn’t actually have enough time to go into Zoo Ave but it’s another private park foundation that rescues wild animals and rehabilitates them as well as working in conservation. From the entrance we could see that the paths were asphalted and that access has been thought about when planning the park. Some of the pavements looked like they had steep inclines so some wheelchair users may require help getting up and down them. For ambulent people with disabilities it may well be a good idea to take a wheelchair with you as it could well be a long walk!

The carpark had well signed parking for people with disabilities as well as a ramp to the main entrance. John Tansey, the person that was showing me around Costa Rica has been in the park with wheelchair users and assures me that it is fully accessible.

This tour can be arranged with adapted transport and accessible accommodation through AccessibleNicaragua or email me at: accessiblenicaragua@gmail.com

Posted in Guided Tours, Costa Rica, AccessibleNicaragua, Venues, Central America, Travel | No Comments

Costa Rica Highlights - National Parks

By Craig Grimes

During my visit to Costa Rica we visited the accessible National Park of Volcan Poas. It cost approximately $10.00 to get into for non-nationals but they are worth it. There’s disabled parking, a small Visitors Centre and a restaurant and gift shop which are both on the first floor which is accessible by ramps (some electric and manual wheelchair users may have problems getting around the tight corner to get to the first floor).

The volcano itself is accessible via a asphalted road which is about 700m long. Once at the volcano rim the views are incredible, right out past the crater to the Carribean Sea on a clear day.

This tour can be arranged with adapted transport and accessible accommodation through AccessibleNicaragua or email me at: accessiblenicaragua@gmail.com

Posted in Costa Rica, Guided Tours, AccessibleNicaragua, Central America, Travel | No Comments

Costa Rica Highlights - Café Britt

By Craig Grimes

Café Britt

Telephone: (+506) 2277 1600

Email: info@coffeetour.com

Café Britt offer a full coffee tour from the plantation to processing to packing. Not only are the guides experts in coffee, they are also professional guides and at the end of the tour their is a theatrical finale in the Café Britt theatre. I didn’t actually have time to go on the tour, but I did get a tour of the facilities and access for people with disabilities.

Getting through the plantation may be a bit of a farce for some people as they have small hexagonal paving stones on the floor which don’t always fit perfectly together, but to be honest, this is the biggest criticism of Café Britt that there is. The access is good, the toilets for people with disabilities are spacious and the processing plant has good level access. Not to mention that Britt coffee is pretty damned tasty, which you will also get to taste on the tour.

This tour can be arranged with adapted transport and accessible accommodation through AccessibleNicaragua or email me at: accessiblenicaragua@gmail.com

Posted in Guided Tours, Costa Rica, AccessibleNicaragua, Venues, Central America, Travel | No Comments

Costa Rica Highlights - La Paz Waterfall Gardens

By Craig Grimes

La Paz Waterfall and Gardens

Telephone: (+506) 2225 0643

La Paz Waterfall and Gardens complex is another privately owned park which has 5 different waterfalls. Unfortunately for us as people with mobility issues only one of them is accessible. On the bright side, if you’re only interested in seeing the waterfall and not going into the park the best viewing of it is from the roadside so you don’t have to pay to get in! As you come up to the visitors entrance carry on past it and keep going down the hill until you come to the bridge that crosses the river. From here you get great views of the waterfall but be careful of oncoming traffic!

The ticket booth and restaurant both have ramped access and then to get to the first exhibition of the birds of Costa Rica you can jump in their little electric golf cart, put your wheelchair (if it’s manual) on the back and they give you a free ride down. From there you’re pretty much on your own to wander through the enclosures which are all connected until you get to the end and call the cart to come back.

The bird exhibition was very impressive as you went through the enclosure with birds flying all around you. There is also a seperate enclosure where you can enter to get a close up of the Tucans.

After the bird enclosure there are insects, butterflys, snakes, frogs and much more. One of the things to be said about this park is that although there are ramps everywhere, they are not always the best. Many wheelchair users, including myself, may require some help at various points in the park where there are cobbles or steep slippery turns. I really wouldn’t reccomend this park to electric wheelchair users as I could imagine various problems. Having said this it really depends on your electric wheelchair, your skills and what both you and your companions are willing to put up with. Of course, the other alternative is to leave your electric chair at home for the day and go in a manual.

The park, apart from having the enclosures, also attracts wildlife such as humming birds through putting up sugar water and leaving bananas out for other species. I’d never seen so many humming birds in one day! A great place for children and adults alike. Something else to point out is that their hotel, “Peace Lodge” is not wheelchair accessible but you can stay there if you’re willing to be carried up and down numerous flights of stairs. I personally decided it wasn’t for me, so I didn’t even go in to assess the situation.

This tour can be arranged with adapted transport and accessible accommodation through AccessibleNicaragua or email me at: accessiblenicaragua@gmail.com

Posted in Guided Tours, Costa Rica, AccessibleNicaragua, Venues, Central America, Travel | No Comments

Costa Rica Highlights - INBioParque

By Craig Grimes

INBioParque

Reservations: (+506) 2507 8202

Email: reserva@inbio.ac.cr

INBioparque is a private park which presents Costa Rica’s 3 main forest habitats from the Central Valley, Rainforest and Dry Lowlands and also the animals which live in them. The access is great along asphalted pavements through the forests and displays which are also at a good height for wheelchair users. The entire park is accessible for wheelchair users including the various displays of frogs, snakes, spiders, insects, reptiles fish and the butterfly garden. I even saw a sloth for the first time curled up in a tight fuzzy ball high in a tree. The guides are friendly, speak English and they even have a couple of manual wheelchairs for the elderly and ambulant people with disabilities that find walking a long time a struggle. INBioparque is easily one of the most accessible parks that I visited while in Costa Rica. Below are some photos of their displays and exhibitions.

This tour can be arranged with adapted transport and accessible accommodation through AccessibleNicaragua or email me at: accessiblenicaragua@gmail.com

Posted in Guided Tours, Costa Rica, AccessibleNicaragua, Venues, Central America, Accommodation, Travel | No Comments

Do You Know the Way to San José?

By Craig Grimes

I know, steeling more song lyrics is a bad thing but it’s a habit I just can’t break. I got up at at 3.00am to be ready for my taxi driver Don Rene to take me to Managua at 4.00am. After a sleepy goodbye with Edurne I headed off on my solo adventure to Costa Rica. We arrived at the TicaBus station at around 6.30am for the 7.00am departure. A couple of things that you should know about TicaBus. Firstly, you should turn up at least an hour before your departure time or the company reserves the right to sell your seat to anyone that maybe on the stand-by list. Secondly, the disabled stciker in the back of the bus only seems to mean that the first two seats on the bus are reserved for people with disabilities, it doesn’t mean that the bus is actually adapted.

I quickly made a couple of friends at the TicaBus station, a guy from Belgium and his partner from Brazil that were traveling back to Costa Rica from Honduras. This was fantastic as they were a great help getting on and off the inaccessible bus. The journey was long, about 11 hours in total, but Alex a friend I met in Barcelona some 5 years ago was there to meet me in the Costa Rican capital.

During the previous week I’d been trying to find cheap accessible accommodation and I found a place through the Hostelling International website which claims to havefacilities for people with disabilities. I’ve used the Hostelling International website to make reservations several times in Europe, so I decided to trust their assessment. When Alex and I arrived at Casa Yoses hostel it turned out that there are 2 steps to get in and no adapted bathroom. However, the bathroom is big enough for a wheelchair user and so I decided to stay. There is a lip that you have to get over to get into the shower and I got the staff to put a plastic patio seat in there which makes it accessible enough for me. This turned out to be a good move as the staff are really friendly and accomodating which makes all the difference when the facilities aren’t quite up to scratch.

After dumping my stuff at the hostel Alex took me to an Ex-pat party where I happened to meet a woman that works for the Rainforest Alliance Tourism Department. We got talking and now I’ll be meeting with them to examine how they can include facilities for people with disbailities in their programme. I’ll keep you updated on this as it progresses.

Later this week I’ll also be meeting with John Tansey that owns an accessible guest house just outside San José, I’ll be staying there for a couple of nights and then we’re heading off to visit a few things in th area to see some active volcanoes and protected rainforest.

Posted in Costa Rica, Accommodation, Central America, Travel | No Comments

Ashoka Changemakers Challenge Winners Announced

By Craig Grimes

The Ashoka National Geographic Changemakers Challenge winners were announced yesterday. Unfortunately, AccessibleNicaragua didn’t make it into the finalists and even more disappointing is that none of the inclusive travel for people with disabilities entries did either. I guess that we have a long way to go in our particular sector and have a lot of work to do in the geotourism area.

One of the positive things is that one of the winners is Rios Tropicales a sustainable adventure tourism company in Costa Rica. It just so happens that I’m going to Costa Rica this Friday and I’ll be meeting up with Rafael Gallo one of the founders of the company. I hope that we can discuss how Rio Tropicales can improve facilities and services people with disabilities so that there is more inclusive tourism available in Central America.

I’ll be blogging the trip, so look out for the posts in the coming week.

Posted in Adapted Sport, Costa Rica, News, Accommodation, Central America, Media, Travel | No Comments

NO QUEREMOS BIPARTIDISMO!

By Craig Grimes

Las mujeres nicaragüenses a lo largo de la historia hemos sido gestoras de la democracia, luchamos contra la dictadura, promovimos la paz, reivindicamos nuestro derecho a vivir sin violencia en todas sus expresiones, por ello hoy nos convocamos para unir esfuerzos y desde nuestra ciudadanía encabezar la defensa de la democracia en el país que tanto dolor, sangre y sacrificio a costado al pueblo nicaragüense.

La Red de Mujeres de Matagalpa te invita a sumarte a esta marcha nacional, BASTA YA, NO QUEREMOS BIPARTIDISMO, no permitiremos que limiten nuestros derechos.

Saldremos hacia Managua,

este viernes 20 de junio, a la 1 de la tarde,

desde el Parque Morazán

Defender la democracia, la libertad, el pluralismo político, tiene que ver con defender la posibilidad de hacer realidad nuestro derecho a la vida, a la salud, educación, vivienda, a una vida digna y libre de violencia.

Posted in Women's Rights, En Castellano, News, Central America, Nicaragua, Politics | No Comments

An accessible & inclusive travel blog for people with disabilities

Costa Rica Highlights - Zoo Ave

Costa Rica Highlights - National Parks

Costa Rica Highlights - Café Britt

Costa Rica Highlights - La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Costa Rica Highlights - INBioParque

Do You Know the Way to San José?

Oferta de Trabajo, Director de Ecoturismo, San Ramon, Nicaragua

Ashoka Changemakers Challenge Winners Announced

NO QUEREMOS BIPARTIDISMO!

Rains on the Sea Wolf