It's been a few weeks since the last update, so here goes. In May I went to Maya Day at Tumul Kin School. It was a celebration of Maya cultural life in the district and about 800-1000 people showed up. There were speeches and booths with food such as armadillo and fresh cacao drinks. There were also a lot of competitions in such things as wood splitting (with a machete) and carrying (with a tumpline on the forehead) and tortilla making. Spirits were high and everyone had a good time despite the heat. It was the hottest day I can remember in a while. Shady spots were popular. 
One day Ethan and I hiked with a couple friends to the top of the largest hill in the study area to look at some ruins. They were badly looted but the hike as invigorating in the 100 degree plus temperatures. Along the way we passed a really beautiful farm a couple miles off the nearest road. It had a rancho (thatch corn hut) filled with maize and dried pumpkins. Very lovely. People farm in an umber of different ways, with large fields of corn, beans, pumpkin, and rice and smaller gardens near to houses. All this with technology no greater than a machete. 
The rains finally came about a week ago, ending a very long and severe drought. Work has been advancing on two fronts. First, we have been working on climate related projects, mostly monitoring environmental conditions inside a large cave and collecting data (rainfall, temp/RH) in the village. This is all part of a lager project to reconstruct rainfall for the last 2300 years. Most of the monitoring work is electronic, but we have been making pretty regular trips to the cave to check on electronic gear and plates collecting dripwater precipitates. The other part is the archaeological work. Excavations have been going well, but everyone was punished by the heat. We have a lot of small households under excavation and some larger operations in the core public areas of the site. Some of these are large and deep excavations being directed by graduate students.
