June, hot. July, deliciously cool.

July! What a great month to be down here.  The rainy season started and cooled things off tremendously. We're back to blankets at night and the dogs are back to looking for sunny napping patches.  Just about every night we have a big lightning show and rain-perfect for snuggling down and sleeping well.
JQ came in the heat for too short of a visit, we zipped back to Albuquerque for too short of a visit, and Robert and Joy stayed for too short of a visit after escorting mom down.
While the Semrads were here we ate a LOT of fried cheese in it's many delectable forms.
We sat on the patio and read, colored in coloring books and embroidered.  Everyone has a kimble, everyone was good moving from chair to chair in their own quiet reverie.

At Joy's request, we took a field trip to Guachimontones-a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a remarkable little museum attached.  It's a pre-hispanic archeological site with circular pyramids built around what is thought to be a central pole for Voladores.  More about that below.

Robert sharpened all the knives in my small community.  Some are wearing bandaids today, lol.

Somewhere along the way, I got stung by a scorpion.  My lips got tingly and after three hours of waiting it out I felt like I was going to forget to breathe so we ran to the doctor's office.  She whisked me on to a table, got me hooked up to an IV and O2, took my blood pressure and pulse all in the time it took her to say "don't worry, I will take care of you."  Exactly what you want your doc to say.  48 hours later I was back to normal.

Mom at the market with ever faithful Evdad guarding her 6.  The streets are uneven and her walker is cumbersome, but she made it.  Isn't the chile beautiful?

Tonight marks the beginning of a ten day festival honoring the patron saint of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos. The guys in town who own horses have been polishing them all week.  They're so pretty.

This is the patron saint, Saint Santiago.  Click to see him in all his glory.  He will be paraded through town every day during the festival with a M80's kabooming in his wake.  Good stuff.

When I was a kid, I saw the Voladores de Papantla and it made quite an impression on me.  Tonight when the celebratory fireworks started we went up on the mirador with our binoculars to see what we could see and lo! the men were on top of the pole.  We ran as fast as we could on cobbled streets down to the square in time to catch their flight.  Ten days of this-will take mom down tonight.