Luis Burgos: Lights in the Argentinean Lakes

[Readers of FATE Magazine will remember my article on Haunted Lakes in 2007. This article by our friend Luis Burgos of the Fundacion Argentina de Ovnilogia tackles the same subject in depth and focusing on phenomena in his native Argentina. I urge you to read this article with Google Earth at hand to enhance the experience! – SC]

Lights in the Argentinean Lakes
By Luis Burgos, FAO
www.ciencia-ovni.blogspot.com

The goal I set for myself in July 1969, when I set out on the long road of field investigation was to PUBLICIZE everything I’d done without concealing anything or covering up projects or cases. In this order of affairs, some thirty-five years later, I can calmly say that I accomplished my mission: research, methodology, statistics and hypotheses were disclosed, and continue to be disclosed, by the main broadcast media. It is precisely these, the hypotheses that unleash long and lasting polemics. The decimal hypothesis, the “laurel” hypothesis, the “windmill” hypothesis, the “isolated Argentina” hypothesis, the “landing print hotspot area” hypothesis, the “terrestrial UFO” hypothesis, the “window area” hypothesis, the “luminous train” hypothesis and the “phantom UFO” hypothesis are among the best known and most discussed. Others will come to light shortly. But today’s is disquieting and worthy of research: “Lights in the Lakes” – which shows us that the phenomenon perhaps dwells much closer to us than we believe. It is important to pay great attention to this, as there is a close tie between UFOs and Water at a time in which our country experiences massive pollution of its hydrous resources, even though this may be upsetting to many, whether they are ignorant, politicians, journalists, scientists or complacent members of the current administration. Finally, who controls our waters? Are there winners and losers? Is experimentation being conducted at unsuspected levels? Is the same happening in the lakes and lagoons of Chile, Mexico or Spain, to mention a few countries with considerable UFO activity.

In the first decades of global ufology, around the 1950s and ‘60s, countless episodes had lakes, reservoirs, dams and lagoons around the planet as their center stage. The most important cases are reflected in various books that circulate, hand to hand, among those who feel passionate about this subject, whether he/she is a researcher, journalist or reader. The same occurred in Argentina. Dozens of events that make up the national case history of 4000 cases (1947-2004) were unleashed in these watery surfaces. At the time, alleged UFO “bases” were associated with the sea and mountains, a habitat that would conceal these devices along with the infamous motherships. Truth be told, very few ufologists theorized about the likelihood of lakes and lagoons making ideal hideouts. But the answer was there and within reach. The database, transferred to our country’s geography, gave us a resounding answer: Beyond the alleged undersea bases at Bahia Sanborombón, the Gulf of San Matías, the San Jose and Nuevo Gulfs in the marvelous Valdez Peninsula, the Gulf of San Jorge, Bahia Grande in southern Santa Cruz and Bahia San Sebastian in Tierra del Fuego, and beyond the acknowledged standards of behavior, or poles of attraction, lakes and lagoons are directly connected with UFO activity in certain areas, even if only a small body of water is involved.

If we take an imaginary journey from the southerly reaches of the continent, ufology feeds itself on a Fuegian case history between Ushuaia and Rio Grande that is endowed with a suspicious permanent element – Lake Fagnano, with a military presence associated, in the opinion of southern ufologists.

In the territory of Santa Cruz, were the National Parks begin, Lakes Viedma and Argentino report movements of unidentified nocturnal lights, although the latter is known to many as the scene where the second landing of humanoids “supposedly” occurred on March 18, 1950, as witnessed by cattleman Wilfredo Arevalo, who was never located after the incident.

The lands of Chubut give us Lake Puelo, to the north of Esquel and south of El Bolson, as one of the places where UFOs are most frequently seen in Patagonia. To a lesser extent, it is followed by neighboring lakes Mascardi and Epuyén. To the east and near Comodoro Rivadavia, Lake Colgué-Huapi and nearby Lake Musters have reported significant sightings of “unidentifieds”

The province of Rio Negro welcomes us with no less than the delights of Bariloche, surrounded by sources of water, where famous Lake Nahuel Huapi occupies pride of place, becoming a key component of Argentinean ufology, especially since the 1960s. Nor must we forget the majestic complex of El Chocón, a key source of energy for our country.

Following the same lake route, we find ourselves at Lake Lácar in Neuquén and near the imposing San Martin de los Andes. This is one of the lakes most frequently visited by flying machines, as well as adjacent Lake Traful. In Neuquén we also find Lake Pellegrini, which commanded the attention of ufologists and saucer hunters in recent decades.

Southern Mendoza places the region of Nihuil and its reservoir, near the Pampan northeast, as “essential” to UFO incursions. These have been investigated for a while by researchers attached to CEUFO (La Pampa) and CEFU-Hemisferios (Buenos Aires). Even in the midst of Santa Rosa, the Don Tomas Lagoon is a site for frequent apparitions, among them the important Flores Case of 1986 (a CE-3) and previous to that, in 1980, the controversial and dramatic Sayago case (another CE-3). In the same Pampan regions, the Utracán Lagoon has been a source of UFO alerts on more than one occasion.

Cordoba, with its enormous Mar Chiquita Lagoon, was the scene for the manifestation of an enormous mothership on November 16, 1967, witnessed by former Luftwaffe pilot Rolf Zikovsken aboard a Cessna 206, and the San Roque Lagoon at Villa Carlos Paz, frequented by tourists, must also be taken into consideration.
The lake at the San Roque Dam, in the Punilla Valley, is also the location of important cases in Argentinean ufology. San Luis, with very few lagoons, nonetheless has numerous UFO sightings near its capital, and the majestic La Florida Reservoir, a nocturnal enigma, still remembers the 1978 close encounter involving fishermen [and the unknown].

Heading toward the Argentinean north and northwest, the geography does not contain bodies of water suitable to our study, with the exception of some reservoirs and dams such as Cabra Corral to the south of Salta, in the midst of Valle de Lerma or Las Lomitas, southwest of the capital city of Salta. On the other hand, the coastal provinces offer us intriguing liquid masses. Let’s see: the province of Chaco’s mysterious Laguna La Leonesa, and the Iberá marshlands of Corrientes give us a long history of UFO flyovers, researched by regional ufologists Osvaldo Sanchez and Pablo Omastott.

In Entre Rios, from the intensification of activity in Victoria in 1991, there was a notorious activation of Laguna del Pescado and Laguna Grande. The same occurred at Laguna Setubal in Santa Fe, which took first place in the early ‘90s, coinciding with [the UFO activity] in Victoria. But to the south, Laguna Melincue surprises us every so often, such as the mini-flap that occurred around it in 1999 – events we were able to research “in situ”...or sighting in neighboring La Picasa Lagoon, whose waters flood the surrounding fields.

Now in the vast province of Buenos Aires, laden with bodies of water, we find Laguna De Gomez to the north near Junin, where the best Argentinean UFO sighting ever recorded occurred in 1987, and which I researched personally. Lake Epecuen in Western Buenos Aires, in Carhue and the fringe of lakes toward Guaminí are rich in UFO reports since the 1978 UFO wave (the second most important one in the country). Reports received from lagoon such as Cochicó, El Pincén, Chasicó, etc. etc. are well known. To the east, two lagoons acquired importance in different decades: Chascomús, which received media attention in the late 1960s, and Lobos, which had its own wave in 1994. The Atlantic littoral gives us three lagoons that are highly enigmatic when it comes to luminous nocturnal manifestations: Mar Chiquita and Los Padres, both near ever-present Mar del Plata. The third in contention is Sauce Grande, located between Monte Hermoso and Bahia Blanca.

Other lakes and lagoons in the provinces perhaps contain notable events that remain unknown, but their main witnesses make them known to a friend or relative. I’m referring to none other than “fishermen”. What is real and factual is that the aforementioned bodies of water harbor “amphibian” UFOs, and therefore acquire great importance during regional flaps, right under our noses.

Perhaps a few lacustrine locales are missing, but over time these shall gain better position in this virtual trip that I though I’d share with you as part of this “hydric tour” of my country, marvelous places I visited during over three decades of chasing a phenomenon...

(Translation (c) 2010, Scott Corrales, IHU)