OVNIRADIO ICOU
"There Goes One" - Astonishing Tales
[Intro Voiceover]
A compilation of anecdotes of fifty years of travels and skywatches in fields, mountains, rivers, lagoons, hills, ranches, chapels and graveyards. An interesting diary of UFOs and the paranormal, between reality and fiction, the credible and the incredible...Astonishing Tales...a visual compilation you must listen to...if you are a skeptic.
[Voice of Luis Burgos]
Atalaya is a province in the Province of Buenos Aires on the shores of the River Plate, belonging to the Department of Magdalena, south of La Plata, the provincial capital, by some 50 kilometers. And it was there in Atalaya, that we lived through some of the most remarkable UFO and related experiences in the 1980s.
We lived on the beach, we went there nightly, weather permitting, because people would tell us that they were seeing not only lights, but also 'harebrained' tales, as one might call them, involving apparitions, mysterious lights, ghosts, and even a little boy who told me that he would ride his bicycle at night and came across a white coffin hovering in the air, over by a wire fence, a meter or meter and a half of the ground. The poor thing got home as pale as the coffin.
But anyway, we went there because people advised us of the existence of strange luminous phenomena, and the skywatches back then - 1985, 1986 - were held in some local field between Atalaya and Magdalena, on the outskirts of the town of Atalaya, at the public beach, which is a lovely, very quiet place, or on the old wooden bridge - a wooden bridge used by local fishermen to spend the day.
Between one skywatch and another, events would occur, and they would fill our heads with more and more cases. Not only current ones but older ones too, which often happens when one goes out to conduct field research or nocturnal observations. Juicy anecdotes, some incidents very thoroughly retold by the witnesses, some sketchy, others unreliable...much like occurs with the folklore in any community in Argentina.
But let me repeat - we have had very deep experiences in Atalaya regarding the UFO phenomenon, when compared with the town of Ugarte, Gobernador Ugarte, over by Chivicoy in western Buenos Aires. So to these skywatches we always brought something to drink, something to eat, sandwiches, and I remember that one evening we went to a local night club around nine o'clock in the evening. Then we went off to the countryside, stayed until dawn, and headed back to La Plata.
And what I'm going to tell you now pre-dates the landing phenomenon, the ground marks, the famous one hundred and fifty marks which became a world record in UFO landings, unmatched anywhere in the world, a field with 150 landing traces. We still hadn't made this discovery. We were still in diapers - this all happened much later. We discovered that field weeks later, and then devoted all our resources to investigating it, which is adjacent to the El Espinillo creek. And that's when we had the experience on March 4, 1986, involving the UFOs that approached us.
We reached the town one night - we were six or seven members of FAO-La Plata - and we were waiting for a young fellow who would act as our guide to take us here and there. We ordered some beer, soda, peanuts, and sandwiches, and in the meantime got our photo equipment ready, decided whether to return to the same spot or try a new one, etcetera. A quiet evening, as there was other locals there, drinking gin, wine, and suddenly a little local fellow turned up. We saw him there with a wild look in his eyes, very odd. He scanned all the tables and then focused on our own, and we were all sitting together. With a local accent, he said "You're the UFO guys, right?"
We looked at him, he looked back. One of our number said: "Yeah, that's right"
To which he replied: "There goes one!"
Well. When he said that, beer spilled all over the floor, soda poured freely, peanuts scattered everywhere, chairs fell over, and we ran outside to see who'd be the first to spot the object, because the local fellow was telling us it was happening at that very moment.
We ran outside, rubbed our eyes and asked where, where is it?
"There it goes!"
When we saw it, it was an airplane. An airliner that flies every so often over Atalaya, and makes a turn over the River Plate on its way to Montevideo and Brazil. Some wanted to kill the poor little guy, but he wasn't to blame - he was just excited to tell us that a UFO was present, having heard all the stories circulating in town, the vox populi. He wanted to help, to be a witness to the phenomenon.
And we always look back upon the moment, because we spilled everything onto the nightclub floor. We straightened things out, paid the waiter, but this took its place among the list of anecdotes..."There goes one."
Well, stories like these will be broadcast week after week in "Astonishing Tales"
[Translation and transcription (c) 2021 Scott Corrales, IHU with thanks to Luis Burgos, FAO/ICOU]