Where in the World is Natalie Suderman?

Base camp had no shortage of wildlife. Most were unpleasant like chickens and sandflies, but some were quite fun to have around, like geckos and iguanas, and crabs...so long as you don't step on them. So I've dedicated this page to the wish willies of base, because they just need they're own page. Girl look at that body. I thought it was tremendous fun having all the iguanas around base. Wouldn't you love waking up to this face in the morning? He thinks he's blending in, but he's not. In addition to iguanas we had plenty of anoles and geckos running around too. These were much smaller and harder to photograph, but here's two I managed to snag. Look at the wee baby anole. So cute! And don't forget about the geckos, they made their presence known, but rarely seen. You ever heard a gecko mating call? Me neither, but it is astonishingly similar to a rusty door hinge...but louder.

For our final stop in Belize, we traveled to San Ignacio to explore some Mayan ruins. Our first excursion however, took us out of Belize and all the way across the border to Guatemala to Tikal, which are some of the biggest Mayan ruins in Central America. Getting there took two and half hours driving through the countryside, but it was a beautiful countryside with plenty to be in awe of, so the time passed quickly. Just a bit of blue skies and rolling hills Although the day started off looking beautiful, by the time we had pulled into the parking lot to begin our tour, the rain had started. What began as a light fading drizzle soon turned into a tropical thunderstorm, with the sky dropping buckets of rain with no end in sight. But it was tour time and none of us were deterred, so with a few ponchos and muster we weren't about to let a little rain get in the way of our day. There be jaguars in these parts We're a lot wetter than we look This is de...

Our second dive expedition was out at another highly recommended site: Spanish Bay. I had never heard of it before coming to Belize, of course the only thing I had heard of was the Blue Hole, but turns out the ocean is a whole lot bigger than that. Thank goodness. This dive we had company. We were joined by 4 others for a total party of 8, including Armando, our guide. Spanish Bay was an entirely different experience than Esmeralda, but without a doubt, just as cool. We did both of our dives swimming along this massive wall of a reef. It was stunning. The reef loomed over our heads and grew in such directions and orientations that would be impossible on land. The coral was so cool here, every kind you could think of could be found. It was a whole mountain of coral But the winner at this site were the sponges. There were huge barrel sponges several feet tall and sometimes a foot or more wide. Like this Ignore the blurry fish, appreciate the huge spo...

Although my six weeks as a volunteer is over, the fun isn't. My family is visiting for another week, which means the adventures can continue! To kick it off, Connor and mom expedited themselves out to Caye Caulker to get jump start on our diving. They had already been in Belize city for a few days prior, along with my aunt, uncle and dad. Reunion! Look how tan I am I had booked a hostel room for the night, since I had packed up and left base camp, and while I could sleep in it comfortably, with the three of us, it was cozy. Its not a shed, its my room But it did the job. I showed them around a small part of the island to find food before heading off to bed. The next morning I introduced them to fry-jacks, aka best food ever invented on earth. If you're hip to mennonite cuisine, it was like a kroler, but savory, and filled with cheese and eggs and chicken. And oh my gosh yum. Plus they only cost 2$, so I couldn't say no. Safe to say I had consumed my all...