Argentina: Enigmatic Brealito Lagoon and Recta de Tin-Tin

Source: El Tribuno de Salta and Planeta UFO

Date: October 2, 2006


ARGENTINA: Enigmatic Brealito Lagoon and Recta de Tin-Tin

A mysterious region filled with odd stories and accounts of lights, UFOS and monsters reaches from El Cajoncillo to Brealito Lagoon in the departments of Cachi and Molinos.

The area's landscape, which begins at the very heart of the Los Cardones National Park, assists in letting human imagination run away: the traveler is surrounded by a marvelous landscape at Cuesta del Obispo, runs into Recta de Tin-Tin, crosses the town of Seclantas and reaches the edges of Brealito Lagoon, resembling a landscape from another world. Recta de Tin-Tin is a perfectly straight stretch of road that extends for 11 kilometers and forms part of the ancient Inca road network, employed centuries ago to link the various points of the Tahuantisuyo, whose capital was in Cuzco.

In the 1980's a team from Diario El Tribuno made a report on Brealito Lagoon and gathered accounts that have not been forgotten to this very day. At that time, a police officer from Seclantas - now deceased - known as Gringo Guzman, told the detailed story of an apparition that caused him to lose sleep until the end of his days.

An avid fisherman, he would visit the lagoon regularly, as it was only 24 kilometers from his home. At that time, he made ready to spend a night at the edge of the enormous pond, which has a capricious shape and is surrounded by mineral hills and whose southering wing stretches into a rocky defile. He lit his lamp and settled under a gigantic black carob tree (a characteristic species of the area's damp microclimate, with red soil and green thistles. He cast his line and suddenly the waters became agitated. A splashing sound was heard as something large and heavy began to move around. Curiosity got the better of him and he did his best to see what it was; at the border of light and darkness he thought he saw a large dark figure, but the image was fleeting. As he didn't quite understand what had occurred, he calmed himself and prepared to cast his line into the water again, but as he was about to do so, the splashing returned--this time much stronger-- and no lamp was needed to see the gigantic figure that emerged scant meters away from him.

He was able to make out the shape of what he said was a gigantic reptile or "pejerrey" with a scaly back. Horrified, the man ran away, falling several time. Although -- he said -- once he had recovered from the shock, he did his best to calm down and return for his belongings, he found them completely soaked in water, in spite of being 4 meters away from the water's edge, as though swamped by a gigantic wave.

Brealito is surrounded by scattered houses occupied by local residents, no more than 10 of them. Many in Seclantas report that the site is filled with eyewitnesses to very strange events.

Gloria Aban, former national deputy and a member of one of the oldest families in the region, said that: "Brealito is a source of phenomena that have been reported since the dawn of time" adding that there are two key individuals living near the lagoon -- Tomas Pastrana and Estanislao Lopez -- who have seen the monster. Aban is a physician and currently a member of the Provincial Insurance Board.

Mrs. Funes, owner of the "La Rueda" hostelry in Seclantas, claims that executives from the now-vanished COTAS corporation(which was the largest passenger transportation service in the capital 20 years ago) told her of having had an experience similar to that of Gringo Guzman. These businessmen visited the area every year to spend a few vacation days with their families, and after running into the creature, made a quick getaway and never again returned to the site.

They told her that while sitting at the lagoon's edge, the children's attention was drawn by a strange waterspout that was heading toward them. The waterspout made an ululating sound that echoed amid the rocky mountains that surround the lagoon. Amid the water tornado that came out of nowhere on a calm, sunny morning, they claimed to have seen a semi human figure of colossal size. According to their story, the entity had the figure of a woman covered by a watery veil. It isn't hard to imagine how those people jumped aboard their vehicle and never returned.

Geographer Flavio Aban, who knows the area very well, has attempted to get to the bottom of the area's history and mysteries with the aid of one of his nine brothers, Fido Aban. "...this area contains not only the mystery that concerns you (the journalists). It is also customary for local residents to see strange lights in the mountains, especially the ones toward the west. Large luminous eyes that cover the area without their origin ever being determined. No one can deny that there isn't at least one mysterious presence living under the waters of Brealito, or that something unknown is taking place there. We have determined the existence of strange movements in the water, which repeat frequently at dusk. These movements cannot be due to a current, unless it is a source of energy that comes from the depths. Furthermore, the lagoon's waters are brackish, have a strange mineral taste, and their true depth has never been ascertained."

Walter Aban, mayor of Seclantas (a distant relative of Gloria, Fido and Flavio) does not believe in the monster, but agrees that inexplicable things do happen in the area. "Look, anyone traveling between Salta and Seclantas knows that strange lights appear in the sky from the Recta de Tin-Tin onwards. Are they UFOs? I don't know. But I can assure it's no fantasy."

Aban's words were confirmed by another area mayor, Hector Legoburo of Payogasta. "It's true, the Recta de Tin-Tin is a mysterious place at night. The lights that can be seen crossing the skies overhead are not a product of human engineering. Traveling from Salta to Payogasta I witnessed, I was tailed by a luminous object for a number of minutes. The people with me thought it was the lights of a construction vehicle, but it was impossible for a wheeled machine. And when the glare became brightest, we saw it vanish into the sky. I have no explanation for this."

(translation (c) 2006, Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU). Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)