Chile: The Cerro de Damas "Apestronaut"
By Osvaldo Murray
Two witnesses to a strange alien being, witnessed on scant opportunities worldwide, found themselves faced with the strange character. It has only been possible to glean the story of the encounter, but not the identity of the characters. What "Revelación" (newspaper) is able to say is that one of them was an architect and his companion a judge, who later became a supreme court justice and very recently heard one of the most important cases to have occurred in Chile. This senior magistrate has never wanted to discuss the matter in public, which was published seventeen years ago (anonymously, of course).
Note: This article was written in the year 1996.
The events took place during a weekend in November 1979, and both hikers were climbing Cerro Punta de Damas, east of Santiago [de Chile]. Upon completing the ascent of a plateau, they witnessed - to their utter astonishment, a circular object with multicolored and very bright lights.
This all took place shortly after noon, and they found the craft's color very striking, which was beige in color with a pinkish hue - a very odd coloration. As often happens in these cases [the witnesses] try to compare it to something familiar, but there was nothing to compare this vehicle to.
However, their astonishment over the object's color or disk-like shape was brief. There was something else attached to their craft that made their hair stand on end.
Standing to one side of the disk, the judge and the architect saw the strange being anyone could imagine. It was something looking like a human being, having a head, torso and arms, but without a neck. The head sat squarely on the body, and the character was covered in hair. That is to say, it was some kind of gorilla, and the two startled mountaineers could never ascertain whether the strange being was hirsute by nature or wearing an outfit made of hair.
Nonetheless, as far as the hikers were concerned, the being was simply a gorilla of a very unique kind.
Then something unexpected happened. After developing a clear idea of what they were looking at (all in a matter of seconds), they decided to head for the adjoining plateau where the vehicle and its apelike occupant stood. To accomplish this, it would be necessary for them to descend to a small valley linking both plateaus. By the time they began their descent, they realized that the strange creature was now boarding the disk. They hurried to cross the valley, and as they began to climb the adjoining tableland, where the vehicle sat, it began to rise amid a display of bright colors, quickly vanishing into space. Both the judge and the architect, upon seeing that the ape was making a move, began calling out to it loudly, hoping to draw its attention and keep it from departing. They hoped to exchange words with it or at the very least, see it up close and make sure that they were not living a nightmare.
In a statement given to a journalist, the judge declared: "I've had the chance to witness a phenomenon for which there is no explanation. I have many doubts in this regard. Both of us were tired from the hike and the climb. I cannot say, in the cold light of contemplation, that this was the presence of a UFO. Duly considered, and over time, there is no reason to suppose or imagine that there was no explanation for it. I neither affirm nor deny the sighting. I do not feel reasonably qualified to accept it".
Later on, the magistrate said that his architect friend had greater belief and curiosity about the matter, and was trying to find an explanation for it. Shortly after, it was learned that the architect and the judge gathered a group of friends - equipped with binoculars and photo and cine cameras - made a series of ascents to Cerro Punta de Damas itself and neighboring Cerro El Plomo, but the outcome of these efforts was never known.
[Translation (c) 2023 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology, with thanks to the late Osvaldo Murray]