Martin Vidlička, a fourth-year student of General Medicine, writes about his journey through Latin America.
It was all planned. Everything. But we are all desperately hopeless in the hands of faith and that’s how the biggest journey of my life began. A year ago, when I signed up for an internship in Bolivia through IFMSA, I had no idea what the situation in the world would be like. As usual, my naivety gave me optimism that COVID would become history and the world would open up again. Today I know I shouldn’t have relied on my judgment.
During my sixth year in medical school, I travelled after every of the major blocks, and my urge to travel increased with every holiday. One day I couldn’t bear it any longer, and my curiosity about what the world was like – out there – outweighed my fears of nonconformity in the typical society. The fact I won a free flight to the Maldives in January and to Brazil in December, both with the Qatar Airlines, was the fuel that motivated me to take a gap year and thus enabled me to have an internship in October. After finishing my graduation exams in Pediatrics, I set out on what was supposed to be a month-long trip to Mexico – mainly to visit my friends and see some advances of the Mayan culture again. It turned out to be something much more unexpected. It’s funny how we are clueless about what lies ahead just round the corner.
Mexico
I arrived in Cancun quite easily, because I already knew that region. It feels safe, but safe it boring. I wanted an adventure. So soon I found myself hitchhiking south to the border with Belize. I didn’t forget to cool down in some of the most amazing cenotes or visit Mayan ruins, among which were the most amazing ones I have ever seen – Calakmul. In this city, 60 kilometers deep inside the jungle, there are two pyramids with the height of around 70 meters. It was stunning to experience the solitude of the jungle there. I thought I was as lonely in this jungle as I could be, but again, I was wrong.
Thanks to meeting my friend Alex, I found new places that intrigued me. Alex was crazy. He sort of reminded me of myself. I thoroughly researched every place he had mentioned and, despite his skepticism, I visited all of the remote areas that I had only dreamt of at the beginning of my adventure. Later, I could tell stories about them.
As the border with Belize was closed due to COVID, I had to move on to Tabasco and Chiapas. Oh, my dear beloved Chiapas. Can I call you my second home? It’s so funny to remember the time when all I could say in Spanish was: “Hola, como estas?” and “donde esta…?”. Thanks to Alex I fell in love with Chiapas mostly due to the remote and unknown Laguna Miramar. We travelled four hours on the roof of a pickup carrying supplies and then were hiking for hours to pitch a tent at the shore of these marvelous lakes. That was something that words cannot describe. It was one of those surreal adventures that seem impossible until they unravel before your eyes.
Guatemala
Chiapas appeared to have got stuck many years in the past and I enjoyed this “time-travel”. Unfortunately, time passed very quickly and I had to move on. My next destination was Guatemala and it brought about more challenges than I had expected. Only a few days after I visited Tikal, I set out on the most insane solo journey I have ever survived… yet. My solo hiking to El Mirador – an ancient Mayan site 45 kilometers away from the nearest village – was something no one had believed I could do on my own. Even I myself had some doubts. Which is exactly why I didn’t tell my family much about this craziness. In the end, I managed to finish the five-day hike in three days, or rather three nights, sleeping in a tent in the jungle. Alone. This was the point of my trip when I realized anything was possible. After that I set out on every crazy journey that came along.
Guatemala has much to offer but more than anything else it’s its unique climate. They call it a country of eternal spring. You won’t find a better spot for hiking volcanoes of Central America. My journey to the top of Acatenango (3 970 meters) meant my first real experience of watching an active, volcano erupting just a few hundred meters away. The sunrise at the top was cold but priceless.
El Salvador
I can’t decide whether more memorable were the people or the food of El Salvador. Either way, I am grateful for having been there. This tiny speck of land offers so much diversity and such beautiful nature that I was taken aback by all its undiscovered secrets. Yeah, sure, everyone will tell you about El Tunco or their hike to volcano St. Anna but you should go to places like Suchitoto waterfalls to truly appreciate the uniqueness of this country. #Make pupusas not war
Honduras
Many warned me that this might be the place where I would finally get robbed and yet it didn’t deter me from hitchhiking almost every day in Honduras. I regret nothing; all the locals I met were kind and genuine people. It was stunning to see the contrast between life in the Bay Islands and the mainland of Honduras. A small tip for anyone who wants to get a diving licence – please do get one in Utila, it is the cheapest diving spot I have seen.
Nicaragua
The only country I was a little bit scared to travel to. The border control was quite strict, but once inside, I quickly noticed that there was nothing to fear. There were the same people, the same traditions and the same food, – the only thing separating the two countries being just a thin line drawn on the map. As I stayed on a local farm and saw the day-to-day responsibilities including cooking and taking care of animals, there remained very little to surprise me about these people. I got used to the simple way they lived and I enjoyed it. I had never spent so much time in the countryside either. In Nicaragua, I have climbed eight volcanoes, most of them active, but the one I will never forget was Masaya. Waking up at three in the morning and looking for an unmarked path to see the sunrise at a lava-filled volcano is an experience that everyone should live through, not just read about.
Costa Rica
Ironically, the country that has been named as the Switzerland of Central America is the one where I spent the shortest time. Perhaps thanks to the kindness of people I met here. Making friends in Costa Rica was almost as easy as seeing waterfalls. There is no other place where you can explore jungle this safe. The only downside is the commercialization of nature, which I am not a big fan of. I also got to see sloths in the wild for the first time and even one with a baby, which was a very moving moment.
Colombia
After I took a flight from Panama, where everything is strongly affected by the US, my arrival in Colombia was a salvation, a welcomed relief. This culturally rich country not only offers delicious foods, though I liked the Venezuelan arepas better than the Colombian ones, but it also has countless natural sights to entertain you with. During my short stay, I decided to visit the famous Cano Cristales. After an exhausting journey to reach this destination on the edge of the Amazonian jungle, I was left speechless. There is nothing to beat this wonderful spectacle! I have never felt more respect and adoration for what nature can create.
Ecuador
I spent most of my time in this unique country on the Galapagos Islands. I still can’t tell whether it was fortunate of unfortunate. The mainland has so much to offer too – if you climb Chimborazo, you stand on the closest spot to the Sun. I did get a chance to stand at the 0 00 00 latitude marker at least.
The Galapagos Islands are a chapter of its own. Perhaps the craziest story I can tell is about meeting a couple of Czechs who had opened up a beer pub in Galapagos and sold authentic and delicious beer. And I was lucky enough to fly to the islands on the same flight as them.
The nature of the Galapagos is like a time capsule that our planet has preserved to show us how grandiose and uninhibited the nature used to be before we began to steamroll this place. Diving with sharks, walking past giant tortoises, swimming with sea lions – it is nothing uncommon in the Galapagos.
Peru
What impressed me most about Peru is its diversity. In afewhours’ driving from the Nazca coast, I found myself 4 300 meters high in the Andes with alpacas and llamas running around. But it wasn’t only the surroundings that had changed, the people had too. The locals living in the Andes are not used to tourists, at least in this area. Most of the towns where I stayed overnight had just one hotel. Sometimes my car was the only one in the village. The roads were narrow and winding, but no doubt, the fruits of my endeavors were some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. The icing on the cake was Machu Picchu. One of the new Seven Wonders of the World took my breath away when I first beheld it, arriving from the Sun Gate.
But that’s all history now. The irony of the whole journey is that I never reached my destination. Bolivia, where I was supposed to have my internship, had closed its borders. My internship was canceled. But I don’t want to complain, quite the opposite. I consider it all an opportunity. I am grateful for everything I saw, all the things I experienced and all the friends I made along the way. Those 212 days have now become an irreplaceable part of me, of who I am and how I am. But now it’s time to come back and start a different kind of a journey, the one called “being a doctor”. I may be clueless, but so was I when I started in Mexico, with no Spanish language skills and no idea of what life was going to prepare for me. But somehow I got through all of it with lots of laughter and funny stories to tell and I choose to believe this new journey that awaits me won’t be that much different.
