Two Inventors Just Made Machu Picchu More Accessible to People With Wheelchairs Than the New York Subway

Caroline Goldstein: Artsy

Millions of people flock to Machu Picchu every year—but the first person in a wheelchair only visited the ancient Inca site last month.

Now, dozens more are due to follow thanks to the travel company Wheel the World, which will soon begin offering the first wheelchair-accessible tours of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The company, founded by longtime friends Alvaro Silberstein and Camilo Navarro, offers tours to far-flung destinations with the help of specially designed foldable wheelchairs.

The company was born when the two friends—one of whom uses a wheelchair, while the other doesn’t—set out to hike the Torres del PaineNational Park in Patagonia in 2016. Silberstein, who has used a wheelchair since he had a car accident at age 18, raised $8,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to purchase a lightweight, foldable wheelchair. …Read More

Pictured: Machu Pichhu. Image courtesy of Wheel the World.