Headed Up The Mountain

The miner's wife that I had met on my previous visit to the top of Takeo's Topaz Mountain walked up and talked to us during our most recent visit. I had come back to the mountain two weeks later to determine once and for all if the blue stones that her husband and relatives and neighbors were digging up was in fact Aquamarine or not. (It was :)

She is such a lovely woman. I asked what she was carrying and she let me look in the straw basket that hangs off the front of the stick across her shoulder. Cooked rice in a blue plastic bag. Four small fresh fish, and a cup of coffee with milk and ice carefully placed in a clear plastic cup, covered with a plastic cap, but with a straw already inserted. An empty capped plastic jug hung off the stick between her and the coffee. On the back five kilograms of uncooked rice

She had an hour climb ahead of her, but was remarkably cheerful about things.

Like I said, a lovely woman.

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