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On August 4, 2026, two cave divers in Playa del Carmen, Harry Gust and Rosalino Rivera, received a call from the Presidente of Uxpanapa, Veracruz, located deep in the heart of the rugged, dense Selva Zoque, the largest expanse of tropical rain forest remaining in Mexico.

Thanks to hotter and hotter summers all around the world, the recent Soccer World Cup saw mandatory three-minute hydration breaks during games.

Some cities may need them, but in my opinion, Guadalajara does not.

In 2019, a group of ladies in the Jalisco country town of Etzatlán crocheted their way to world fame and set a Guinness record.

Recently, the city of Guadalajara asked them to celebrate the World Cup with new derivations of what Guinness referred to as a “crochet craft pavilion,” but which the ladies call a “Cielo Tejido” (Woven Sky): a 2,800-square-meter canopy of hand-crocheted hexagons made of weather-resistant raffia, itself made from recycled plastic bottles.

Long ago, I reached the point where I could carry on a conversation in Spanish about practically any topic — a sign, I thought, that I’d mastered the language. I’ve spent years living in a Mexican community with very few foreigners, and my wife happens to be a first-rate Spanish teacher who never lets me forget cuando metí la pata (when I made a blooper).

In 1965, a handful of college students in Austin, Texas, asked their geology professor a simple question: Where would you look if you wanted to find the deepest cave in North America?

On April 7, 2026, a 42-year-old miner named Francisco Zapata was discovered alive after being trapped for 14 days at the far end of a three-kilometer-long tunnel full of sludge and water, 300 meters below the surface.