- "I'd never been so scared," said one of the
protagonists of the strange and extraordinary adventure.
-
- A team of three mechanics from Salta, who had ventured
out to rescue a minibus belonging to a Canadian scientific expedition on
the Chilean side of the Andean region bordering the provinces of Salta
and Jujuy, had an unexpected brush with the unusual: an unidentified flying
object (UFO) of considerable size, spherical, and having an "impressive
white luminosity" followed them for over two hours on a straight road
that links the communities of Susques and Punamarca through the international
Jama Pass.
-
- "I'd never been so scared. That thing didn't belong
to this world. It moved at an impossible speed and at one point came so
close to us we thought it would collide," said Raul Eduardo Oviedo
Tomas of the "Forani" mechanic shop in Salta. The north american
researchers were stranded at San Pedro de Atacama. Headed by Dr. Randall,
the scientists were conducting a survey of Cordilleran flora.
-
- "We left Saturday on 4:45 from Salta toward the
Cordillera. I asked two friends--Marco Figueroa and Alejandro--to accompany
me so I wouldn't have to do either the work or the journey alone. This
was the first time I had driven those roads,and I was truly impressed,
not just by the landscape and the desolation, but by the hardship. One
has to climb a 70 kilometer-long incline to reach Chile, which can destroy
the engine of any unit driven by a inexperienced motorist," said Oviedo
Tomas, 37, with an athletic build.
-
- He added: "We reached San Pedro de Atacama around
14 hours on the same day, but [upon reaching the site] we realized that
it would be impossible to tow the Canadian minibus with my S10 Chevy--it
weighed over 5000 kilos and one good look at its structure and equipment
sufficed to establish that the only way to get it out of there would be
using a "mosquito truck" or something similar. We therefore decided
to return home."
-
- Without hestitation, taking deep drags of a cigarette,
Oviedo Tomas went on: "The road on the Argentinean side is trully
horrible, especially when contrasted with the Chilean side, which is like
a paved pool table, with signage and road markings. At that point, shortly
before reaching Susques, the stones caused us a blowout, which caused us
to continue the trip under stress, since there was no other spare tier.
We thought to repair it in the little town [Susques] but the tire repairman
was on holiday, so we had to continue regardless. It was still Saturday."
-
- "At around 20:00 we left Susques for Punamarca.
We were listeing to music and remarking about the impressive darkness and
loneliness of this area, which is an upland plateau. Suddenly the lights
and radio went out. I braked because I couldn't see anything at all due
to the darkned. "Stop fooling around!" Alejandro told me from
the back seat."
-
- "Meanwhile, I was moving all of the knobs and to
see what had happened. Nothing worked, only the engine. Suddenly, on my
right and at an [undetermined] distance, I saw a strange light. It was
a small sphere that irradiated an intense white light. 'Did you see that?'
asked Marcos. I never got to answer, even though I thought [the light]
was what they call 'la luz mala' (the evil light), because it started moving
swiftly toward us until it became enormous. It stopped and remained static.
'Don't look at it!' I told my friends, although I don't know why. I accelerated
and poured on as much speed as possible, however, that 'thing' started
to fly again in a perfect straight line. It didn't make a single sound.
Suddenly, it gained speed and in less than a second it vanshed toward the
bottom of the plain."
-
- "We were quiet and didn't make a single remark,
although all of us asked each other many times 'Did you see it? Did you
see it?'. We went on in silence, although not for long, because other things
happened that were truly unbelievable."
-
-
- Translation (C) 2003 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic
Ufology. Special thanks to Mercedes Casas and Luis E. Pacheco.
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