For the the first time since my accident my wife and I went abroad to a third world country. We are in Oaxaca Mexico for almost 3 weeks. Oaxaca is a city we have traveled to before. We remember the city as relatively flat with a lot going on and want to use the trip as a test case for further travel we may consider abroad. It was very clear that many of the easy assumptions you could make in the US since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities act would not work. The question is how bad could life get..
The first issue we ran into was in the airport when the wheelchair barely was able to squeeze through the door of the bathroom. Of course the idea of a stall wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair is out of the question but the is a nicety not a necessity. The rest of the loo was at least functional.
The sidewalks are also interesting. While a number of intersections in the city center have curb cuts, eight blocks away where we are staying there are none and even many of the existing curb cuts are so deep it is difficult to get a wheelchair either up or down. Where we are staying there is no way for me to move more than a block or two without an assistant to help get the chair onto and off of curbs. Many buildings have a few steps to get in and few if any have ramps.
We took a cab to town (forcing me to try for the first time getting in and out of a car without using a transfer board) This worked well but once disgorged there were sidewalks blocked with parked motorcycles, ladders and even carts as well as the curbs to climb and descend.
At the restaurant where we had lunch, the loo was down a flight of stairs and up two. I did not even look at it for size.
My wife and I did explore about a mile through the city center. We found a great church with a ramp tp get in (not ADA shallow but usable especially with a companion to help.
In the next week we have a series of trips to outlying districts scheduled and will really see what is and is not possible.
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