Paratransit Tour Service in Costa Rica Vaya con Silla de Ruedas, S.A. "Go with Wheelchairs" Tel/Fax: (506) 2454-2810 / Cell (506) 83915045 email: vayacon@racsa.co.cr www.gowithwheelchairs.com

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Accessible Summit By Adam Lloyd In Cartagena, Colombia, and Limon, Costa Rica - where transportation is an absolute necessity to see anything of interest - further research was needed. Alas, the quest for an accessible vehicle in Colombia came up empty, but in Costa Rica I struck gold. Vaya con Silla de Ruedas - translation: "Go with Wheelchairs" - is a Costa Rican tour company run by affable American expatriate Erik Shiozaki. Using a Ford van, equipped with a wheelchair lift and four-point tie-downs, Shiozaki takes mobility-impaired visitors to a variety of accessible tourist sights. I chose to visit a small butterfly farm, Costa Flores (a tropical plantation featuring acres of gorgeous heliconia), and a private rain forest, Carhay. Wheelchair access at each site is surprisingly good, if somewhat rugged. For me, the most exhilarating and profound of these visits was to Carhay. A family-owned reserve, this area of rainforest has been left completely undeveloped. Using naturally felled wood, the proprietors have built a wheelchair-friendly, 700 meter boardwalk deep into the jungle. We didn't spot any sloths or monkeys, but as a longtime wheelchair user, normally confined to paved city streets, the experience of simply breathing sweet, damp jungle air and sitting amidst the lush greenery of a Costa Rican rain forest was incredibly moving. The availability of accessible transportation and several progressive Costa Rican tourist attractions turned out what might have been just a port-by-port shopping cruise into a genuine adventure approximating the experiences available to able-bodied cruisers at every port-of-call. Originally published in "Cruise Travel" December 2002. Reprinted with author and magazine's permission. In order to see entire article visit www.travelprose.net under articles.