Artigas

We took a day trip to Artigas on Saturday, which is on the northern border of Uruguay. We did manage to cross the river and enter Brazil for a short time, but mostly just to say we had done it. Artigas is known for amethyst mines and other semi-precious stones (quartz and agates, mostly). We tried to find some amethysts ourselves, by crushing rocks along the side of the road. Alas, we didn’t have any luck, although we had fun throwing rocks and finding tarantulas and lizards underneath.

Following the advice of others, we found a purple shop in town that was known to have reasonable prices. We arrived just after our lunch, though, and found the doors closed for siesta time.

Fortunately, a woman came out of the shop next door and told us to go around the corner and ask the shop owner if he would open his doors for us. It turns out he lives behind the shop, and was more than happy to open the doors once he saw a group of gringos ready to spend their money. His shop was amazing, and it was even cooler once we found out that the shop owner actually owns the mine from which all the stones come from. He seemed very happy to talk with us, and pleased that we were interested in his work. He showed us not only his small storage room adjacent to the shop, but also walked us through his living quarters to show us his most impressive find that was stored in his garage.

We spend a good hour or two in the shop, browsing and figuring out what to buy. They were just packing up our purchases when a tour bus with 40 people showed up. The owner seemed a little nervous to have that many people in the shop with their swinging purses, but laughed with us when we all agreed that their purchases would probably be worthwhile.