Silverside in La Angostura Dam

Visitors just need to come along in order to understand the nature of this regional story or fable told by the dwellers of the small village to tourists who go fishing in the dam. On the one hand, a fish; and on the other hand, countless mythological statues whose historical legacy has remained as a track of the existence of an ancient culture that lived in these valleys for years.

The truth is that at the foot of Mount Nuñorco, there lies this summer village named El Mollar. Although it features several tourist attractions, two of them stand out: the menhirs and the silverside.

The menhirs are statues from the Tafi culture carved in stone by the local dwellers approximately in 300 B.C. They have remained till our days in order to appear before visitors at Los Menhires archeological reserve. Today, some of these art pieces with strange designs which show carved faces, bodies and features in which circles and lines give shape to gods and sacred animals are displayed there.

Myths and Legends

According to local legends, the energy given off by these statues even today has managed to increase to superlative dimensions the size of the silverside artificially introduced by man into the lake today known as La Angostura, on whose shore there lies El Mollar.

The most ancient dwellers ever recorded in the area were the Tafi, for whom the menhirs used to represent a natural thermometer to measure changes in the weather or the proximity of storms. Even if the weather in this region is quite mild, the sudden decrease in temperature in these statues used to indicate the locals the coming of strong snowfalls or rainfalls. When the stones began to release dust, probable and future droughts were announced.

Even if there are many myths around these structures, the truth is that the silverside caught at La Angostura dam amply surpass regular sizes. Whether as a result of the menhirs or the good food in the lake, many anglers come along to the Yacht Club on weekends and set sail to test the veracity of the legend that remains alive.