Travel

We drove past the outskirts of town to tour the mines. We entered one of several tunnels cut horizontally into the side of an ancient volcano crater. Above ground we clambered through rubble left behind by the quarrying, picking through piles of rock for clear quartz crystals and amethyst. Anything we could carry home we were welcome to take. I gathered small pieces to share as souvenirs, thrashing my goal of traveling light. We all darted around the man-made hills of sparkling stones like kids in a candy store.

Then my daughter made the most fantastic suggestion. “Why don’t you go to Uruguay.”