Malargüe

It was an odd place to wake up on a mountain pass at 6500 feet, freezing cold but bright crisp and sunny. 

Rusty wanted a walk so we got out together and strolled together up to the shrine. We saw Correa Defunta first in Tierra Del Fuego after crossing from Chile. 

The legend says her husband was conscripted into the war between Paraguay Uruguay Brazil and Argentina and she went after him dying in the mountains. Her baby was found alive with her and her followers drop off bottles of water. Like most legends this one is slightly impenetrable in the details. 

Somewhere out there an hour away lay the city of Malargüe, a town of 27,000 famous in Argentina for its annual baby goat eating festival. It used to be a center of oil exploration and uranium mining but nowadays it’s all about tourism. 

They grow potatoes onion and garlic around the town whose name is an indigenous word for “stone corral” once again. They were obsessed with corrals around here it seems.

The road down the hill is quite spectacular. 

Happily we didn’t need gas but of course there was a line. 

I saw quite a few classic cars, Europeans this time. Fiat 600.

Fiat 127. The desirable car of my youth. Hard to imagine that. 

Renault 12. Aerodynamic and ugly made beautiful by time.  

We stopped at a butchers shop. The clientele was not very friendly and a cheerful good morning garnered me glares. 

The critical stop was laundry and they did our rugs, dog bed cover, sheet and seat covers. It felt lovely to get freshly cleaned stuff aboard. 

We were meeting Christoph and Monika in the municipal campground where for $13 a night we got electricity hot shower and a shady spot to park on the 80 degree afternoons.  

I forgot to mention one of our headlights went dark. We don’t drive at night hardly at all but since Peru we’ve had to have our lights on in daylight. Imagine my joy when I got two replacement bulbs first try for $4 each. 

I looked up car parts on Google Maps and they sent me here. Perfect.  And now I have a spare. 

Plus with a little help from YouTube I know how to replace them. It took me twenty minutes taking my time. 

Meanwhile Layne was inside in the baking heat removing yet another layer of desert dust. 

Monika and Christoph came over from their Mercedes Unimog for a glsss of wine as we reminisced about meeting in Puerto Montt and renting to side by side cabins in November while they waited for a drive shaft from Germany and Layne went back to Key West to get a regulator for our second alternator. 

And then an empanada lady came by. She took our orders and came back at nine with our hot fresh meat pies. That’s a first in Argentina or Chile, campground delivery. 

I like the campground here and I’d have gladly stayed more than two days. 

They had been here ten days already and wanted a change of scenery. 

Plans call for a drive to a lake.