Accessible Everything

Here are 3 videos from our zip wire experience at Parque do Sonhos, Socorro, Brazil courtesy of Scott Rains.

Me saddling up…..

Me videoing the ride down the zipwire

Me videoing from the bottom as Ricardo comes down the zip wire

Aventura Especial have sent through some more photos of their activities and information in Portuguese so I thought I’d share it.

  ong-aventura-especial.pdf         aventureiros-especiais.pdf

As part of the trip to Sao Paulo for ReaTech a group of us went on an excursion to Socorro, organised by Nunes Joedson and Ricardo Shimosakai of Turismo Adaptado. The group consisting of Scott Rains (Rolling Rains Report), Jani Nayar (SATH), Nélida Barbeito (TTS Viajes), Bruna Castro and myself went to see the project in Socorro to implement a basic standard for people with disabilities throughout the town including adventure sports. We first went to Portal do Sol, a hotel that has several rooms adapted for people with disabilities.

After which we then went to Parque dos Sonhos where they offer a whole host of adventure sports for people with disabilities, we tried a 1KM long zip wire that reaches speeds of over 50 KMPH. A great experience, and although not 100% suitable for everyone, a fantastic example of Inclusive Adventure Sports.

Next up was Base55, an inclusive off-road facility on quad bikes, something that I have always wanted to try and lots of fun.

We also visited the accommodation at Parque dos Sonhnos which is universally designed to be accessible for as many people as possible.

All photos courtesy of Scott Rains and the Rolling Rains Report

ReaTeach is now over and I’m back in Nicaragua, here a few highlights of the exhibition:

One particular stand was a group of PwD’s that mouth and foot paint (Pintores Com a Boca e os Pés) that although I’ve seen this at other exhibitions it’s always great to see these guys doing what they do. On another stand there was “Movimento Superacao” a PwD reclaim the streets movement. This charity organise huge street parties to raise awareness about the fact that access needs to be improved in Sao Paulo for PwD’s. Their next street party is on the 6th December and this type of event is exactly what we need to raise awareness and get younger people involved….. Revolution through fun

The other obvious stands that were of interest to me were to do with Inclusive Adventure Tourism including Aventura Especial, offering inclusive adventure and ecotourism in Socorro, EcoAcao in Brotas and Juquitiba, Mao, na Borda and Escola de Surf do Pirata, offering surfing courses for PwD’s in Brazil. There was also a great stand for a company called Mog who build accessible jeeps, known as the Mog Rampa. These are just a few examples of some of the great projects that are happening in Brazil, I thoroughly encourage everyone to attend a local disability exhibition to see what is going on in their country.

Some of the international contacts that I met face to face for the first time include, Scott Rains the author of the Rolling Rains Report and a well respected pioneer of Inclusive Travel projects and studies, Jani Nayar from the Society of Accessible Tourism and Hospitality (SATH) and Nélida Barbeito from TTS Viajes (Argentina) that have a department that specialise in holidays for PwD’s.

More importantly than the international contacts, ReaTech had a small ranch where I got to meet some sheep! They also had horses where people with disabilities could try horseback riding.

For me, even though I’ve been to too many disability exhibitions in the UK, ReaTech was interesting to see facilities for PwD’s from a Brazilian and South American point of view.

Below more photos of ReaTech courtesy of Scott Rains:

Although this article has very little to do with traveling for people with disabilities, I just thought I’d share it with you. I was wrong yesterday when I said that the taxi drivers were the scariest part of Sao Paulo.

I was let down by my hairdresser in Nicaragua before I came to Brazil, so todays main objective was to get my long scruffy hair cut. I found a place just near my hotel and after being carried up a coule of stairs they agreed to cut my hair. Language was the first problem although we could kind of understand each other. To make matters simpler, the hairdresser gave me a magazine and told me to choose a style!

I think the scariest bit was where he took all of the hair on the top of my head in two bunches, twizzled it around into kind of a pony tail (like Bam Bam from the Flintstones) and then just cut it off! When he’d finished faffing around, cutting bits here and there it didn’t even resemble the picture that I had shown him!

Anyway, not a total disaster, below you can see my hair as he left it and then the other photo is after a Craig-Style rescue session……

P.S. I’ve managed to work out how to make the resolution smaller on the camera! Oh and Happy San Jordi!!!! (St. George’s Day).

For the last couple of days I’ve been wandering around Sao Paulo and just trying to get by. It’s wierd being in a non-Spanish speaking country, they just don’t understand me very well, nor me them! I ventured out to a local bar the other night and even with miscommunication I managed to meet some locals, one of which, decided it would be best to tal to me in Czech rather than Portuguese! Hmmmmm not sure I understand the philosophy behind that!

I went into the centre of SP today and visited the Paulista area, I was a bit concerned about getting lost, but all went well. The day started off amazing with blue skies and sunshine but rapidly turned into a massive thunderstorm in the late afternoon. By this point I figured it was time to go back to the hotel and write my blog.

People tell you that Sao Paulo can be dangerous and while I don’t doubt that for a second, the scariest thing I have encountered so far is the taxi drivers. They’re Nuts!!! I guess it’s the same all over the world, but a taxi ride here is more frightening than any roller coaster that I’ve been on!

Tomorrow the rest of the posse turn up and it will be good to meet them all. A few friendly faces and people that speak Spanish and English! Reatech starts on Thursday and I’ll be sure to write about it.

I’m having some minor problems with the camera that I’ve borrowed for the trip as the memory card fills up after taking about 9 photos, hence the lack of photos and lots from the hotel window as I can download them onto the laptop and empty the card. There must be a setting somewhere to lower the picture quality and make the files smaller but I’ll be damned if I can work out how to do it! I’ll have another look and hopefully the photos will come through thick and fast in the next few days…….

Well, I’m on the road again, I’ve come to Sao Paul, Brazil for Reatech which is a Latin American disability exhibition. Their should be suppliers from all over South America and I’m quite looking forward to seeing what’s going on in this part of the world as well as meeting people face to face for the first time that I’ve known and worked with through the internet for the past few years.

The trip down was fine, I decided to do an overnight flight from Nicaragua - Panama - Brazil and try to sleep through it. The journey to Managua International Airport was uneventful and so was the check-in, however, the staff at the airport were just a little over bearing and wouldn’t leave me alone for 2 seconds! A word of warning, Panama International for some reason do not have aisle chairs, so make sure that the company that you fly with have one on the plane. I flew with Copa Airlines and the experience (at least coming here) was fine, nothing special, I’ve flown with better and I’ve flown with worse. The main thing is that me, my wheelchair and my bags all got here safe and sound.

I arrived at Guarluhos International at 5.30am and I’d booked 1 night in the IBIS Congonhas Airport so that I knew I had somewhere accessible to stay the first night. I’d already decided to catch the shuttle bus from one airport - the other and then catch a taxi but while at Guarluhos I decided to ask the price of a direct transfer to my hotel just in case and it was R$98, so I stuck to my plan and bought my R$28 shuttle bus ticket instead. When I was buying the ticket I asked if the bus was accessible and I was told that it was, of course, it wasn’t. A couple of guys helped me on and off the bus with no problems and as we arrived at Congonhas Airport I could see my IBIS just over the road. There was an overpass to the hotel but it had steps so I had to catch a taxi for R$11 instead. A total cost of R$39 rather than R$98, not bad I thought!

I was expecting to just to drop my bags off at the hotel as check-in wasn’t until midday and it was 7am, but they gave me the room key which was a great relief as I was shattered and my spasm was terrible. I crashed for a few hours and now, refreshed and revived I’m going to go to try to find a cheaper hostel.

Sol y Paz in Argentina have six accessible cabins that adapted for wheelchair users on the ground floor. The cabins were designed by Vega German who is himself a wheelchair user (see photos). Unfortunately, the do not give any details about the facilities in the bathroom on the website apart from saying that it is totally accessible. I contacted them to see if I could get more information about the bathrooms and they sent me some photographs.  
 

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