**Hello friends and family! I am writing from my new apartment in Placencia, Belize, and hoping to spend some time catching you all up on my latest adventures! *Latest* starting...six months ago! I have a lot to share with you from underwater, in caves, and even some new countries visited! I think of you all often, and hope you are happy from head to toe! I hope you enjoy the stories and I will see all of you sometime very soon!** The Rio Dulce adventure dropped us into the town of the same name, at the mouth of Lake Isabel. Still known by its old city name, Frontera was the Guatemalan city that I was expecting and our first taste of this colorful culture! The vegetable stands were full of lush colors and monster size onions, ... read more

The Wandke Wanderlust hit me about 3 months after settling in Placencia, and I immediately looked to my southern neighbor for an adventure! I started mentioning Guatemala to people around town, and everyone had a fantastic review or fond memory of time spent there, so I knew this was my ticket! The week before leaving, I heard a friend of a friend was planning on sailing his boat down to the Rio Dulce and he would be happy to have the company! Giddy up! With this news, Antony, my friend who recently moved here from England, said he was up for a road trip and could these two visiting ladies he met join us as well? Bobby said Heck Yeah, the more the merrier, just don’t forget the rum! And with that, Bobby had his Mother ... read more

The last time I visited Belize, I had the fortune to go on one of the most unique tours on this continent, the ATM Cave Tour. Since being in that wet dark cave, I have learned alot about the unique creatures that live in absence of light and heat, and swore I would never be crazy enough to enter again. Until St. Hermann's cave last November....and now the cave at the mouth of the Blue Creek waterfall was calling me inside.... The Southernmost district of Belize, Toledo, has about 55 miles of paved road and the rest remains an expanse of hard to reach wonders! Blue Creek is really off the beaten path, and there are very few tours to this remote spot. We had heard about the Blue Creek waterfalls and cave from a few ... read more

Hello family! I'm doing my best to keep the stories coming, but I have been just too busy living them to document! Although its a few months later, I hope you still enjoy them! :) A few days after returning from our adventures up North, Megan arrived for a Holiday Extravaganza! She was our first visitor to the tiny peninsula we call home, and also my first time being able to meet my friend out on the jetway! :) It was an amazing sunny Christmas Eve, and Megan showered us with first world novelties for the entire first day! She brought anti-itch sprays, books, lotions, obama t-shirts, new magazines (whoa!), stickers (YES!), tahini, glitter pens and markers! I can't even begin to tell you how the stickers and markers have changed my life! Finally I can ... read more

Its Day Ten in Placencia and I have my laptop with me on our front porch. I’m looking at the two kayaks we paddled all morning, the coconuts our neighbors gave us, and my snazzy new Big Red Bike! I’m settling in remarkably well, and every day I’m learning a little bit more and knowing I’ll be staying a little bit longer! Within days of relocating to the tropics, my internal clock adjusted to match the eternal clock of the sun. If I somehow managed to sleep through the 99 decibel shrieking parrots at 05:45am, I have the pleasure of starting my day to a resounding chorus of birds, frogs, and more birds outside my window at 06:00! It’s OK, because all the action on the village street goes down in the morning - we are ... read more