My lovely mother-in-law has just turned 80 years old. She is adorable, and thankfully she thinks the same about me! (I must confess that I have been fortunate with my potential mothers-in-law because I have enjoyed their approval ... But hey, this is not an essay about the nonsense that some women usually commit in order to see their married daughters, so let's go to the bottom line)

As I was telling you, my mother-in-law has turned 80 and she decided to celebrate such a milestone in her life inviting me and her sons and daughters, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law and grandchildren to spend a weekend in a Thermal Hotel and Spar so far from our town. Of course, I couldn’t refuse. And we decided to travel there. After all, I’d do everything for my dear mother-in-law.

To reach our destination we had to travel a few kilometers and cross a tunnel under the Paraná River. It was there that I thought: “Well … this is like traveling to Shangri-La, the mythical lost city in the Himalayas where everyone is happy and nobody gets old”.

I started immediately to envision what it would be like, imagining a series of pictures and elaborating a good story. The weather was beautiful, and surely the site would be very crowded, with pilgrims searching for the elixir for eternal youth.

But nothing turned out as I had expected: the weather changed markedly, it rained throughout the night, the temperature dropped noticeably for this time of the year, and the groups of pilgrims missed the appointment.

I still was able to make some shots, yes, but not as many as I would have liked, sorry. At some point I felt like Nemo in a fishbowl full of sharks: a fool in a bathing suit, holding a camera, in a place like that does not inspire much confidence. One of the security guards approached me and kindly asked me to put away my camera as some fish was starting to show their teeth. Obediently, I became another one of them, diving into the hot miraculous waters.

After traveling 850 km to return home, my bones are still waiting for the miraculous effects of those waters… Should I go back? I don’t think so, unless my dear mother-in-law asks me to!