June 2026

The Summer Solstice Reminder: Our next Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere will be on Sunday, June 21, 2026. The Summer Solstice marks the official start of astronomical summer and the longest day of the year. From this point on, the days start getting shorter. Why not celebrate the Summer Solstice in your gardens? Plant […]

This month’s topic is fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes widespread pain, tenderness, fatigue, and other symptoms such as sleep disturbances and cognitive difficulties. It is not an autoimmune disease, but it can co-exist with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Anyone can develop fibromyalgia, although it is more common in women and

Chapala Sunrise Rotary Club “Boots on the ground” isn’t just a vague idiom for Chapala Sunrise Rotary Club (CSRC). It looks like this: volunteers standing in a rural village measuring contamination levels of raw sewage so they can design a workable sanitation system. It looks like a doctor teaching a small group how to manage

Above the Lake: Hiking Ajijic’s Hidden Trails Have you ever looked up at the mountains towering above Lake Chapala and wondered what’s up there? As it turns out, there’s a wealth of exploration right at our doorstep. These mountains are part of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, a volcanic chain that runs east–west across central Mexico.

The North Star of Rescue: Kelli’s Story What guides a person to devote their time, energy, and heart to animals in need, no matter the distance? For Kelli Bielema, the answer is as steady as a North Star. Based in Seattle, Kelli has been involved in animal rescue since 2007, but in 2020, during the

The Indigenous woman known as La Malinche— the enslaved interpreter who later had a child with Hernán Cortés—has long been cast in Mexico as a symbol of betrayal, her name synonymous with traitor or sellout. But who was she, really? Drawing on Indigenous accounts and recent scholarship, Noris Binet offers a far more nuanced portrait

Learning to See in Mexico The 19th century naturalist, Louis Agassiz, once handed his students a preserved fish and told them simply, “look at it.” Hours passed. Then days. Frustration grew as the students insisted there was nothing new to notice about the dumb, dead fish. Slowly, almost reluctantly, new details began to emerge, structures