#11 Castles in the sky - Marlague

A leafy town with a population of 25,000, we weren't sure Marlague would offer much to the traveller but a trip to the information centre, and a couple of tourist shops around town, convinced us to stay an extra night than originally planned. After a night camping at the Municipal campground we headed 27km out of Malargue to Pincheria de Castillas, for what we hoped may be a more scenic camping experience. No signs were needed as we approached the cliff-faces overhanging the river and oasis beneath. Being a Sunday the place was fill of family's asadoing but it looked as if we may be the only overnighters.

Not the first bridge we have crossed where I feared for my life....

Luscious grass, shady areas, and fishing ponds, have been created at Pincheria using a series of mini-dams and a moat which is flooded during the night. This was not immediately clear to us when we set up our tent though i'm sure we were given a very good explanation of it by the host (note to self when water and cold are used in the same sentence it does not necessarily translate as the showers are cold!) A further explanation later in the day and we understood the tent had to be moved. Turns out we haven't come as far as I would have hoped on the traveller's learning curve.

Another mistake was made in not questioning the quality of the road out to Pincheria. Not aware it would be so tierra de natural we arrived ill-equipped with food supplies. As a matter of fact it worked out quite nicely as we had no choice but to eat at the restaurant connected to the campsite where on offer was the local plata we had been looking forward to trying: chivito (bbq'd goat meat).

You wouldn't describe Argentinian cuisine as creative: empanada for entre, dulce-de-leche for desert, and all you can eat meat, the usual beef replaced with goat in this instance, accompanied with a basic salad and potato seems to be the standard fare. For us the taste of chivito fell between lamb and beef steak with the fatty exterior of pork. After finishing off the first plate we accepted another, aware we only had a bag of pasta to our name. A walk around the castles, which to me were more reminiscent of Grecian ruins than castles due to their doric stature, and a relaxing afternoon in the sun did little to move the goat from our stomachs, so we escaped cooking duties for the evening.

To me the 'castles' were more reminiscent of
Grecian ruins for their Doric columns.