Colombia city’s electrical wheelchair tours demonstrate Medellin from new angle
MEDELLIN, Colombia — Wilson Guzmán dropped the use of his legs at age 17 when he was shot in the back while hoping to recover a stolen bicycle in his hometown of Medellin, Colombia.
Two decades afterwards, he glides via the city’s streets using an electrical hand-bike attached to the entrance of his wheelchair. He not too long ago gave a tour of Medellin’s parks to 7 men and women who followed him down bike lanes and up steep hills on identical autos.
“Every individual who gets on these wheelchairs leaves with a smile,” claimed Guzmán. “They also find out what it’s like to be in the shoes of a person with a disability.”
The wheelchair tours that Guzman prospects at the time a week are the most recent vacationer attraction in a city that is slowly shedding its popularity for drug violence and has develop into a single of Colombia’s most frequented locations.
They are structured by MATT — which stands for Mobility, Accessibility, Time and Perform — a start-up started past 12 months that aims to build careers for individuals with disabilities.
For the equivalent of $25, both folks who can and just can’t stroll can get on the electrical wheelchairs and take the 3-hour tour of the city’s riverside parks, which involves stops at a espresso shop and a bar that does beer tasting. The gadgets speed up speedily and can attain speeds of 30 kph (19 mph).
“We think this will be a winning proposal in phrases of training and inclusion,” reported organization founder Martín Londoño.
The excursions began in October and their routes are continue to being altered. Londoño explained he wished to provide them previously this 12 months but had to hold off the start thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and travel constraints imposed by the Colombian govt, which were being lifted in September.
The hand-cycles, created and built with the assistance of area bike workshops, are driven by rechargeable batteries and latch on to wheelchairs with steel bars and hooks. The steering and brakes are like all those on a standard bicycle, even though accelerating only demands pushing a button on a person of the handles.
Londoño, 31, commenced to perform on the hand-cycles four decades back to strengthen his individual mobility. He lost the use of his legs right after breaking his spinal chord in a traffic incident at age 18.
Londoño took inspiration from Batec, a Spanish firm that can make electric powered hand-bikes and sells them for involving 4,000 and 6,000 euros. He preferred to make a edition that was much more reasonably priced for individuals in Colombia, in which the least wage is about $250 a month.
Just after a number of attempts, Londoño managed to establish a functional hand-bicycle for himself, but his endeavours to provide them for around $2,000 weren’t successful.
“We realized that most men and women with disabilities in Colombia have quite meager incomes,” stated Londoño, who grew up in a rich community of Medellin and graduated from an global school. “They have no employment and many simply cannot even pay for a normal wheelchair.”
Londoño adjusted his organization model and launched MATT. With his savings and these of his organization companions, Londoño has designed a fleet of 15 hand-cycles. 3 of them have been leased to folks with disabilities who perform for a supply support established up by MATT this year.
Londoño charges the shipping personnel a every month rate of $90 and states they will be allowed to preserve the hand-bikes when they have paid for them.
MATT utilizes the remaining hand-bikes for its wheelchair tour, which is even now in its early times and will have to contend against additional popular points of interest, like tours of spots linked with drug lord Pablo Escobar, a museum featuring the will work of artist Fernando Botero and a cable motor vehicle that ascends a steep mountain to a pristine cloud forest.
Londoño suggests he is trying to endorse his tour on social media whilst building partnerships with local vacation organizations. He dreams of getting the wheelchair excursions to other metropolitan areas in Colombia, Latin The united states and the United States.
“This is an additional way to show how our metropolis is changing” said Valeria Toro, a Medellin vacation agent who needs to list it on offerings for travel companies abroad. “It’s an practical experience that men and women are not most likely to forget about soon after they go back property.”
