By Olivia Keetch

Aliens live among us. No, I’m not being euphemistic, referring to the ghastly tourists who swarm upon Buenos Aires and indeed the rest of South America in the hope of ‘finding themselves’. I am talking actual extraterrestrial, Encounters del Tercer Tipo, high possibility of ‘probing’, aliens. And they are right here in Argentina. Specifically Córdoba.

Photo By: Olivia Ketch

Over the town of Capilla del Monte, amongst the gorgeous sierras, where condors swoop, gauchos are real gauchos, and alfajor factories make the air sweet, looms Mount Uritorco, an ‘energetic center’, towards which many UFOs are said to gravitate.

Everywhere in Capilla, on office walls, are posted photographs of ‘sightings’. Everyone here has seen a UFO, or believes whole-heartedly in their existence. On 9th January 1986, the mountain became the subject of much scrutiny when 11-year-old Gabriel Gomez and his grandmother Esperanza saw a large luminous object in the sky. According to official accounts, the following morning they found a huge fire and soot imprint, 122m in length and 64m in width, on the side of Mt Pajarillo, near Uritorco and forming part of the same small mountain chain.

Since that day, Mount Uritorco has become one of the most mythically important locations in the world, written about in thousands of papers, on the internet, in books, and of course, visited by thousands upon thousands of people who come searching for enlightenment, exercise, and maybe a peek at ET.

Photo By: Olivia Ketch

Rare light visions have been seen around Uritorco for centuries. One rational explanation for the phenomenon could be that under certain meteorological conditions, the rock, rich in quartz, favours electric discharges of sparks, also known as St Elmo’s fire. Capilla itself is otherwise an ordinary small colonial town, so clearly the tourist board is monopolizing on their claim to fame.

During my investigation, I managed to get an audience with Jorge Suarez, the director of the UFO Information Centre in Capilla del Monte. What struck me most was the zen-like quality to his character. He has written five books on Mount Uriturco, and has studied UFOs for over 20 years – a veritable alien-guru. Open-minded skeptic that I am, it was hard to swallow everything he said with a straight face: “The angels in the Bible were aliens? Oh of course – they were only given wings in pictures because people couldn’t think how else they would be flying…”

Right.

I asked him what he thought about the theory that extraterrestrial creatures have built a city called Erks under the mountain, which serves as the base for their operations on Earth, and is also apparently the gateway to the fifth dimension. He paused before admitting that although there is no proof, unlike the watertight grainy photos and first, second or sometimes third-hand testimonials for the UFOs, he does personally believe in it.

Photo By: Olivia Ketch

The mountain stands at just under 2,000m, so obviously it’s not Everest. At the departure point for the hike, on the outskirts of the town, street vendors offer stones with special ‘healing powers’ and dream catchers hang from the trees. This is not a place for philistines. Pay your $10 entry fee and leave your skepticism at the base of the mountain. Signs painted on the rock pointing upwards to the hill might as well say ‘Enlightenment lies this way, brave soldier, trek on’.

My hiking companion, a sprightly, energetic Argentine, actually confessed that he hadn’t wanted to bring his credit cards with him in case Uritorco’s ‘magnetic forces’ wiped all of his information. Cue lots of jokes about how the Erks were funding their earthly operations. And then an awkward silence in which everyone resolved to check their bank balance as soon as they got back down the mountain.

Despite the dreamy, hippy vibe, the climb isn’t in any way laid back. It’s a hefty four-hour trek, though my companion had me bounding up the rocks rather impressively for the first hour or so. He lost me when it started getting a bit more difficult, preferring to clamber on ahead, thoughts of nirvana no doubt spurring him on.

He left me, be damned ten-a-day smoker that I am, struggling up the rocks, falling over, and at one point getting so frustrated with the stupid path that I gave way to a furious hissy fit in which I pounded my walking stick on the ground and shouted rude words into the ether. A passing marathon runner advised me to ‘Have a rest, Señorita’. Ever the lady-like hiker, I responded, quite truthfully, that I was ‘quite all right; it’s just the path is pissing me off!’

Photo By: Olivia Ketch

The sierras themselves are jaw-dropping. And quiet… Every so often I would stop, catch my breath, promise ten-fold to quit smoking, and take in the view. I felt detoxed, fresh-aired, liberated, at one with nature, and very, very sweaty. Still no aliens though.

The summit is unassuming; a cross marks the highest point, festooned with bits of material, trinkets, a small shoe, a sleeping dog. I scanned the horizon for a good half an hour, double-checking every bird, every cloud: literally every flying object. Alas, I could identify every single one. So down we went, where I fell over some more, had another hissy fit, and got left behind again by my extremely keen Argentine hippy.

I once read an interview with Bill Bryson in which he commented that one of the best things about being a travel writer was that even if nothing happens, you can usually write something about it. With this in mind, I am slightly less disappointed that my strangest encounter in Córdoba was with a chivalric Peruvian businessman. Maybe the timing was wrong, maybe there was too much light and I wasn’t far enough into the wilderness. Maybe, oh just maybe, they don’t quite exist…

But I have an open mind. Ish. And I will always wonder when I look up into the sky at night, is the verdad really out there? As Suarez maintains, it is a bit ludicrous for human beings to believe we are alone in the cosmos. But, as he also mentions, the Earth itself is a ‘wonder’, so why do we need to look elsewhere?

Capilla del Monte, four hours from Córdoba city. See www.capilladelmonte.gov.ar for more information

Centro de Informes Ovni (UFO Information Centre)
Int. Cabus 237
Capilla Del Monte
Córdoba
03548 482 485

See www.ciouritorco.com.ar for more information or email cioluz@hotmail.com .

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