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Welcome, Tony. As a recent escapee from Chicago, I can understand wanting out of that weather (and other things).

I live in Quito, but I'll venture a guess that a wheelchair might pose some difficulties in Cuenca. But those who live there can answer that concern better. Here, some neighborhoods would be bigger problems than others.

In any case -- good luck.

Bob

Not to be Downer Debbie or Negative Nancy, but no, Quito is not the best handicapped accessible city. In fact, it's fairly easy to find a huge hole to fall into in the sidewalk.

But if you can find a way to deal with those things, you're right to check out Ecuador. It's a wonderful place.

Brandon: It might be important that I was just using Quito as my reference point -- Tony is planning on Cuenca, and maybe it's better.

Bob

PS: I don't think the sidewalks here are all that bad (but maybe that's because of my experience in Cebu). But they are very narrow in the Centro Historico.

Anthony Bassak wrote:

My first  question is whether the streets and transportation in Cuenca are handicapped friendly?

Hi Tony,

The public buses that I take almost daily do not have the equipment to load wheelchair passengers. Maybe there are buses dedicated for this purpose, however.

As far as the sidewalks go in downtown, I am not sure there is enough consistency in terms of width or condition to get around effectively in a wheelchair.

There are some handicap  ramps being put in in some of the crosswalks but they are at a steep angle and are few in number.  I think that would be the biggest problem in navigating Cuenca. Lots of stores have steps and few is any  that I can remember have ramps installed. Not trying to be the spokesperson of doom but Its like it was in the states in the 50s and not really all that geared to a wheelchair.  I hope that info helps.

Bob, you're right. I was thinking about another thread I had just posted to when I thought about Quito.

Cuenca is indeed much better. There's cobble streets all over so I don't know how that affects the handicapped, but the streets and sidewalks were certainly maintained better.

The short answerd is, no.  they have some accomadations but not in general not muchÂ…Â…..

No, Cuenca is not even remotely handicap friendly.  I broke my ankle a week before moving here, and it was _very_ difficult even getting around with crutches.  In the 7 months I have lived here, I think I have seen a total of maybe 3 wheelchairs -- and they are always being pushed by someone who can help.