TLDR - Please dont read if you don't want to hear - it might be a bit of a boring read!! Just wanted to document somewhere my recent experiences and to say hello again! but either way I had awesome time but very happy to be home!!!!
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As some of you are probably aware, I've spent the last 9 weeks living it up in places that weren't Wales and having to get by with some bare Spanish words and some great acting-out-phrases! I also got lots of good big news whilst away basically about the new beginnings I'll experience in the upcoming months!
My trip started with a few days in Miami which was fun as i LOVE America....
Next we headed to a small town in Belize where I was going to be living for the next month working in a hospital (apparently lol...). When I arrived, the place i was staying was 6 miles outside the town in the middle of nowhere, the internet wasn't working and i had no phone for contact. It was a bit of a shock to the system as my main concern was not being able to stay in contact with home and know how my family where doing whilst being away. It was a bit of a panic and i genuinely had no idea how i was going to last 4 weeks but its crazy how you adapt! Luckily there were a Canadian couple living quite close by who became like adopted family for the whole time. They went above and beyond to help us sort everything out and on top of that always invited us to social events and showed us the real Belize. Actually fell in love with Belize, it was so chilled and the people there were really friendly, would always great everyone with a very cheerful "g'morning" which you dont really see often in the UK! :P We had to use the Chicken buses daily which was a fun experience... some of the drivers were a bit crazy but it was a cheap way to get around. Initially we would get stared at a lot on the bus and i can understand why...not many tourists get on these!! But as days went by it felt like we became more welcomed and theyd always budge up on the seat so i could perch on the end etc.
The hospital experience itself was very chilled. We were in for 8am and home by 11! In the end we got signed off after a week so took advantage of this to explore more of Belize itself which is beautiful. It has stunning beaches, Cayes (islands) and jungle!! Even did some zip lining and jumping off waterfalls which i never thought i'd do cos im a bit of a catastrophe worrier so i felt this helped me adapt as a person and helped reinforce to not expect worse to happen!
Following Belize, we took a night bus up to Mexico. I LOVE Mexico! We visited a few spots along the coast, went to many cenotes from ones under ground in a cave, to one being the bluest water I've ever seen and to another with turtles and fish and underwater caves that was so deep and huuuuuuuuge! Went to Cancun for a night but in all honesty I wasn't that fussed about it, I preferred Playa del Carmen where i got a very bad hangover but that's a different story D:
Went to Chichen Itza and many other Myan ruins which are incredible. Especially because there are many other undiscovered Myan settlements that they haven't been able to find because so much over growth and jungle is covering it that it would be near impossible and take forever to excavate now! Few waterfalls, jungles and cenotes later from East to West of Mexico we reached San Cristobal which was the most Western point we were going on this trip. Here we visited an indigenous community which was really interesting.Coca cola was big in this community because they believe when coke makes you burp it's getting rid of all the badness in you lol... so burp away!!!
Next was time to go to Guatemala which was beautiful and id love to go back and see more of it. The picture in this blog is one of my faves i took after spending a night in a home stay with a Myan family. Their first language was Myan and Spanish was their second. They weren't able to speak English properly and so it was very interesting trying to communicate!!! But after dinner I ended up playing card games through the evening with their kids and goes to show despite language barrier, we were still able to understand and play games! It was really eye opening experience because they had no tv, no internet or laptops and so their evening was to eat dinner as a family on a table and play games and spend time together in the evenings.
After Guatemala popped down to South America to Colombiaaa. Went to the capital Bogota firstly which was high altitude and you did notice it!! I was getting out of breath from talking lol. It was a very cool city and huge! But it was temperature like the UK so I was very glad i chucked in a pair of leggings last minute before leaving!! We then headed to the Colombian coast and back to some heat.
Next up was Panama City which I've wanted to go for soooooo long after watching a cruise tv show lol and they were going through the panama canal!! The views from the plane coming to land were amazing and tbh wherever you were in the city, the views were stunning of the skyline and of the countryside too. We went to one of the canal locks and literally spent hours watching these huge ships being lowered and raised like 27ft it was crazy and i got a bit excited cos i thought it was sooo cool! #physics#weirdo.
Lastly was Costa Ricaaaaaaaa where I was not going home until I saw a sloth! First few days it was not looking promising and no matter how much i was walking with my head looking upwards tripping over pavement i still hadnt spotted one!! First place we went was to the volcano park which was coool even though the top was mainly covered in cloud it did come out from hiding for about 10 minutes whilst we were at a hot spring which led to a great candid photo (Y). After was to the cloud forest where we hiked for a whole morning. In August I had been to the one in Singapore so it was pretty cool to go to a real one and see how quick the clouds move in. There was lots of wildlife to see too so it was fun suddenly stopping when you saw a bush or tree move trying to spot what was causing it! on some occasion it was just wind though lol and i looked like a tit. STILL NO SLOTH AT THIS POINT!!! Even taxi drivers that i was telling about my sloth dilema by this point would drive very slowly past areas they knew sloths lived to help me try and see some!! last few days was spent on the coast and stunning beaches with the jungle behind it. and guess what was sitting on a tree outside the hotel after i arrived?! A SLOTH YAY!!! i loved it in this place because one evening just walking to get some food saw some sloths and lots of monkeys just chilling in the trees it was really cool and i spent like 10 minutes just watching this monkey jumping about and picking berries.
Finally it was time for home and as much as I loved the trip, the countries i visited and the experiences i had, it was definitely time to go home and see my family <3
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****As for the BIG NEWS i received on the trip: ****
- I found out i passed all my finals i needed to for Graduation so can officially say I will be a Doctor come July
- I successfully got a job!! It's in a hospital near where i live and my rotations will be breast surgery, Emergency and respiratory. Im so excited to start working but i am really nervous and dont feel ready or competent enough :|
ANYWAY before this trip I was quite nervous because some of the countries I visited have a bad reputation at home but looking back it was so unnecessary to worry! there is no point in this trip that i can pin point and think wow ye i felt unsafe. Only thing i can recall is in colombia the taxi driver would lock the door when going down certain roads but that is literally it. Obviously goes without saying to use common sense and having your wits about you but honestly all i experienced was kindness, friendliness, great sense of humours and people wanting to go above and beyond to help you.
lol sorry this is long, cudos if you read it all hehe. ill probably post more pics soon once ive gone through them! xoxo
welcome back oliviaxoxo! ive been to some of those places too and i loved it as well! as for being nervous and feeling you're not ready, don't let it get to your head, cause in the end you end up being your worst enemy! im also studying to become a doctor (almost there) and i know the feeling, it's completly normal... but i bet you'll do amazing!
i hope you enjoy your rotations!! i'm not a big fan of respiratory, but i love emergency and breast surgery :P
TLDR - Please dont read if you don't want to hear - it might be a bit of a boring read!! Just wanted to document somewhere my recent experiences and to say hello again! but either way I had awesome time but very happy to be home!!!!