UFO ROUNDUP Volume 6 Number 06
Volume 6
Number 6
February 8, 2001
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
FISHERMAN DISCOVERS A SMALL ANDROID IN BRAZIL
On Saturday, January 27, 2001, a fisherman casting his nets into the river at Camatari, a town near Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia in Brazil and pulled ashore a strange-looking artifact.
Salvador is a port city on Brazil's South Atlantic shore, located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Rio de Janeiro.
The oopart (out-of-place artifact--J.T.) was described as a "small android," an "alien toy" and a "toy from the future.
According to M. Fratel, UFO Roundup's correspondent in Salvador, Bahia, the object was described as "an artifact like a doll, of humanoid form about 10 to 15 centimeters" (4 to 6 inches) in length. The unusual doll "was translucent and changed color from blue to red" as the holder touched it with his hand. The color changes happened repeatedly as the object was held in differing positions. Also, ""they detected on the skin a liquid like transpiration."
Televisao Bahia, Canal (Channel) 8 in Salvador showed video footage of the unusual artifact in its evening news broadcast. The footage showed the spot where the "weird doll" was found and an interview with the fisherman who brought it to shore.
Brazil's Policia Militar reportedly took custody of the "android", which has "which is now being studied by specialists in Salvador." (See Televisao Bahia broadcast of January 27, 2001. Muito obrigado a M. Fratel por eso caso.)
CHUPACABRAS SEEN BY MANY IN VILLAGES NEAR CALAMA
Chile's ongoing Chupacabra scare continued last week as two more live creatures were seen in the villages of La Banda and Independencia Norte, on the rural outskirts of Calama.
"Patricia Valdivia, a resident of the village of La Banda de Calama, provided a revealing account of her encounter with the mythic Chupacabra after it appeared on her doorstep at Calle Lincan 1930 (street)."
Patricia told the newspaper La Estrella del Loa "that she heard some strange noises at approximately one o'clock in the morning while she engaged in housework."
(Editor's Note: Right now it's midsummer in Chile, and in the Atacama Desert, the daytime temperatures go well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. People wait until after nightfall to do their household chores because it's cooler then.)
"'It sounded like fighting. After hearing an impact, I walked towards the door, where I heard a strange howl and some fast, heavy breathing,'" Sra. Valdivia reported.
"At that precise moment, the woman lifted a curtain and saw three cats, more paralyzed than a photograph, spaced at approximately one meter (3 feet, 4 inches) from each other,. She then looked to the right, and 'There it was, sitting in front of the door. When it saw me, it jumped immediately over the outside wall and lost itself in the darkness.'"
(Editor's Note: In Chile, as elsewhere in South America, homes are built Mediterranean-style around an interior walled courtyard.)
"She noted that 'the strange being' measured between 60 to 70 centimeters in a seated position, while long legs protruded from its body, which was covered with leaden-colored (gray) hair."
"(Casts of its footprints--S.C.) were taken by ufologist Jaime Ferrer Who has been researching the (Chupacabra) case for some months now."
""The woman added that the 'animal' made a strange growling sound which caused the windowpanes to rattle, a situation that repeated itself when the Chupacabra jumped to escape."
"Not only in sci-fi films is it possible to find links between children and aliens, as well as other mysterious creatures. Similar things also happen in real life, which lead us to pay greater attention to reports of the presence of Chupacabras in El Loa province."
"Far stranger is the case of three youngsters in a remote section of Calama's district of Independencia Norte who were paralyzed with fright after facing a beast who description" is similar to the numerous reports from Calam region farmers "of a creature that has raided their farms, draining the blood of their cattle, frightening people to death and plunging UFO researchers into confusion."
Gabriel Herrera, Miguel Salvo and Jorge Salvo have told their stories separately and with surprising similarity. They recently saw the mysterious animal--reportedly described by ufologists as an alien--jump, land and escape."
"'It was about one meter (3 feet, 4 inches) tall and it was sitting there (in the interior courtyard of the building--S.C.) but jumped effortlessly when my brother (Jorge) opened the door. It scared us. It had spines running down its back. It was hairy and fray. We went to tell Mommy, thinking it was a rabbit. That's when it got lost. and we all searched for it,' said Miguel Salvo. 'It didn't have a nose or elbows, but it had shining eyes and legs that were thick at the top and skinny at the bottom. It jumped and hid under a pickup truck.'" (See La Estrella del Loa for January 30, 2001, "Eyewitness account of a Chupacabra encounter," and February 1, 2001, "Children have face-to-face encounter with a Chupacabra." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros, Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico y tambien Gloria Coluchi para eses articulos de diario.)
MORE ORANGE UFOs SIGHTED IN MALAYSIA
Malaysia's UFO flap entered its second week with a new sighting in Penang.
On Sunday, January 28, 2001, C.W. was outdoors in Penang and "looking north" when she and her companions "saw "saw a bright light approaching from the Esplanade in the northeast."
C.W. described the UFO as "bright orange with a yellow glow around it."
"The UFO was heading south. I saw the one bright orange light coming and then it split into two lights. There was a yellow glow around the bright orange light. The two lights hovered for a few minutes and then headed towards the east. Then a bigger light (same color--C.W.) appeared and stayed for five minutes and then left in the same direction (east) as the other two orange lights."
Curiously, C.W. added, the UFOs "came lower and were stationary" while they hovered over Penang, "and then they moved higher and faster away." (Email Form Report)
THREE UFOs FLY OVER SCARBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE
"Has Scarborough had a visit from another world?"
"Ian Baird was waiting for a lift from a friend outside his house on Settringham Road near Scarborough Head," Yorkshire, UK "on Friday night," January 26, 2001 "when he saw three unidentified flying objects high in the sky above him."
"At first Mr. Baird thought that what he was seeing in front of him was a satellite, but, he said, 'it was it was not going as quickly as most satellites do. It then went north before disappearing.'"
"When Mr. Baird's family came along, they looked up into the sky and saw the objects coming back towards them."
"It then changed direction and went in an east-west direction."
"Mr. Baird said, 'One thing a satellite tends to do is move quickly. It (the UFO) was just a single point of light at a very, very high altitude. There was also a lot of distance traveled in the short span of time.'" (See the Scarborough Evening News for January 29, 2001, "Were they UFOs?" Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for this newspaper article.)
MORE UFOs SIGHTED IN DERBYSHIRE DALES, UK
"The (Derbyshire) Dales UFO mystery has deepened yet further following two more close encounters."
"Over the last few months, Mercury readers have reported seeing flying saucers, balls of fire and wedge-shaped craft in the skies above the Dales and Peaks."
"Now another UFO--shaped like a bowler hat--has been seen by two people hovering over Curbar Gap near Culver."
"A 46-year-old Youlgrave man, who asked not to be named, said the object was jet black and had a diameter of 100 feet (30 meters)."
"He and a friend saw the UFO at sunset on Saturday," January 6, 2001, . It was 300 yard (270 meters) away from them and 1,000 feet (300 meters) high" off the ground.
"'We watched it for ten minutes, then it just disappeared into the air,' he said, 'It wasn't a normal aircraft. There were no wings or an obvious power source or jet stream (contrail in the USA--J.T.)."
"'It was just spinning" and "apart from a low hum, there were no lights or portals (doors). I was taken aback It was nothing like I've seen before. It was large. What it was I just don't know.'"
"Last Friday," January 25, 2001, "Bakewell woman Heather Shuttleworth was travelling toward Haddon Bank when she looked out of her car window near Beeley Moor at 5:40 p.m."
"She and her husband saw two bright lights, stopped the car and looked skyward through a pair of binoculars."
"Mrs. Shuttleworth added, 'I knew they weren't aeroplane lights. They were too bright.'"
"'We couldn't believe what we saw. The lights were the shape of the flying saucers like on (TV) documentaries.'"
"'My husband got back in the car and drove for one mile from Falden towards Stanton Moor. There was a red light ball and an orange light ball moving towards each other.'"
Other recent UFO sightings in Derbyshire Dales include:
January 13, 2001 - "a Matlock man saw a UFO with a pink glow above Crich."
January 17, 2001 - "Jean Power "saw a long ball of fire over the Tops in in Matlock heading behind some trees." (See the Matlock Mercury for January 31, 2001, "UFO tally hits 19." Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for this newspaper article.)
COUPLE SEES A HOVERING UFO IN DURRANT, IOWA
"A Durrant couple spotted an unidentified flying object Wednesday night" January 31, 2001, "and told the Muscatine County Sheriff's Department it hovered over their house for 35 minutes before disappearing over some trees."
"Timothy and Michele Samuelson who live on (address deleted for reasons of privacy--J.T.) called the Sheriff's Department at 9:10 p.m. They told a deputy that the flying object turned colors, changing from yellow to green to blue. They also said there was a red outline around the outside of the object."
"The object was gone by the time the Sheriff's Department responded" to the call. (See the Muscatine, Iowa Journal for February 1, 2001, "They're out there." Many thanks to Jim P. for forwarding this newspaper article.)
THOUSANDS OF BIRDS FOUND DEAD IN OKLAHOMA CITY
"Residents in the Northwest 54th Street and Portland area" of Oklahoma City, Okla. "have grown accustomed to annoying squealing and screeching from thousands of birds at all hours of the night. But Saturday morning" February 3, 2001, "those residents awoke to a strange unfamiliar sound--the sound of silence."
"They found thousands of dead birds covering the street" in Oklahoma City.
"Now they fear that those birds were poisoned."
"'I was crying. I didn't know what to do,' Ines DeDios says, It appears that the birds simply fell from the sky, but common sense told her otherwise."
"'This means birds don't just drop dead like this,.' Ines found a still moving. She wrapped it in a warm blanket, placing it inside (another) blanket. Despite her best efforts, the bird still fell victim to the same killer that wiped out his entire flock."
"'My son was scared. He's only two (years old). He didn't want to come out of the house when he saw all of the dead birds laying down there.'"
(Editor's Comment: Smart boy!)
"'I think there's a better way to control birds., if this is what people are trying to do.'"
"Tara Fuller says they their constant noise isn't the only reason (why) someone might have wanted to kill the birds. She said the massive mess they leave behind could be another reason why."
"But Ines calls this a weak excuse. 'The excremental or whatever waste the birds may produce doesn't bother me as much as a massacre.'"
"However, it apparently hasn't bothered the remaining birds. Thousands are back, filling every branch of the same tree while the others lay below."
Oklahoma City "Animal Control officers tell us that the incident is isolated, although there have been some cases of polluted water killing entire flocks of birds. They say poison could very well be the culprit" in this case. (See the KFOR-YV news broadcast for February 4, 2001. Many thanks to Jim Hickman for this report.)
(Editor's Comment: This case is identical to the mass death of birds in Bastrop, Louisiana in 1998. What's going on here? Are these bird kills a result of some unknown natural phenomenon? Or are they "unintentional collateral damage" from Project Cloverleaf and the chemtrails?
HINDU ASTROLOGER CAUSES PANIC WITH HIS PREDICTION
"A week after a brutal earthquake," the worst in India for half a century, "ripped through the city of Ahmedabad (population 5 million) in Gujarat state, the city has been gripped by panic following reports of Hindu astrological predictions of an even more destructive earthquake."
"'We will go inside (the city's buildings--J.T.) only after the 3rd or 4th of February, when the ill effects of the conjunction are over,' said Naresh Dinghvi, who owns a small paan (leaf from the betel tree. People in India chew it like gum--J.T.) in Gujarat's prosperous capital of Ahmedabad."
"'This is going to be a very severe earthquake, more powerful than the first one,' he added."
"Rumors of a fresh disaster have been flaring thick and fast since a Gujarat publication quoted a Hindu astrologer was quoted as saying a powerful earthquake would tear through Gujarat on Saturday," February 3, 2001.
(Editor's Note: It didn't. However, there was a small earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale in Guilford, Connecticut that day.)
"Hindu astrologers say that Pluto, the planet of death, and Mars, the planet that spells war and aggression, are aligned ominously at the moment."
"Many of the city's five million people--including panic-stricken Muslims--have been staying away from their high-rise apartments."
The Ahmedabad earthquake "measured 7.9 on the Richter scale." (See the Times of India for February 2, 2001. Many thanks to Steve Wilson for this report.)
(Editor's Comment: During the past week, there were no earthquakes in either Houston, Texas or Wilmington, North Carolina, where the mysterious sky booms occurred. However, there was a flurry of small quakes around the world. In addition to the Guilford, Connecticut quake, there was an earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale in the South Atlantic just east of Rio de Janeiro and another quake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale near Adak Island in the Aleutians, southwest of Alaska. So, does the present Mars/Pluto conjunction mean we are now in "earthquake season?" Or is it a portent of a major war in the Middle East once Ariel Sharon takes power in Israel? Stay tuned.)
GORILLA ON THE LOOSE
A 150-pound female gorilla escaped from her cage at the zoo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, February 5, 2000. But how she managed to escape is still a mystery.
"Zookeepers in Pittsburgh are trying to figure out how a gorilla got loose."
Once free, the gorilla proceeded "to wolf down muffins, cherry pastries and soda at a concession area. About 250 people cowered inside nearby buildings at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium for 45 minutes after the 150-pound female gorilla escaped from the Tropical Forest Complex by crossing a wide moat and scaling a 14-foot (4-meter) wall."
"The unnamed animal, which is three-and-a-half feet (1 meter) tall, found her way to the zoo's outdoor concession area and began digging through trash cans. Zookeepers finally lured her into a women's restroom, injected her with a tranquilizer and returned her to captivity." (See USA Today for February 6, 2001, "Female gorilla's escape rattles zoo in Pittsburgh," page 3A.)
From the UFO Files...
1969: BHAJA--INDIA'S CAVES OF MYSTERY
In July 1973, your editor took his first trip to Peru. The day we visited Mount Huascaran, the highest Andes peak in the country, our group ran into some diehard hippies from the USA who were winding up their years-long world tour.
(Editor's Comment: Yes, kids, it's true. Hippies really did roam the earth back then.)
While we were having a late lunch at Lago de Llanganuco, on the mountain, we got talking. At the time I was a real "ancient astronauts" enthusiast. I had read Erich von Daniken and W. Raymond Drake, and I had only days earlier seen the enigmatic pre-Mochica ruins at Cerro de Sechin, near Casma and Chimbote. So I was just gushing about von Daniken, ancient astronauts and that weird "saucer" stone carving at Cerro de Sechin. When I finished, Tim Shelton, one of the hippies, grinned and said, "Hell, Joe, I can top that."
And he did.
First, a bit about Tim. He was from Madison, South Dakota and graduated from high school in 1964, the year the Beatles first came to the USA. He was a rabid Beatles fan and went to every one of their concerts whenever they were over here. He also got into the hippie scene early, living in Haight-Ashbury when Janis Joplin was still waiting tables and singing at small clubs.
So when the Beatles embraced the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968, so did Tim. He told me that he actually met the Maharishi, who inspired him to visit India. So Tim hooked up with a bunch of hippies, and they went first to Mumbai (Bombay) and later to Pune (Poona).
On their way back to Pune, they stopped in Lonavla, to see some of the caves that were visited by Prince Siddhartha Gautama, better known as Buddha, a couple of millennia ago.
It was a three-kilometer (two-mile_ hike to the nearest cave, Bhaja, which became a Buddhist shrine back in 200 B.C. The cave, he explained, is about halfway up a tall hill that has two ancient forts, Visapur and Lohagad, at the summit.
He admitted that he "was a little strung out when we got there" because he had "smoked a pooper with Cindy Cooper." And in this altered state of consciousness, he and the gang explored the 18 caves that served as viharas (Buddhist monasteries--J.T.) and the large cave that was the chaitya (Buddhist temple--J.T.)
By mid-afternoon, Cindy and the others were eager to move on and visit the nearby Karla cave. But Tim wanted to have "a quick toke" so he told them to go on and he would catch up in twenty minutes or so.
After they left, Tim looked around for a place "so I could smoke some reefer in private." But there were a lot of Indian guards around, and their presence was making him paranoid. So he went deeper into the cave, past a number of stupas until he came to a waterfall. Behind the waterfall he could make out the dark outline of another cave.
Perfect! Tim thought. He stepped through the cascading water, letting it stream off his broad-brimmed hat and Buffalo Bill jacket with its fringed sleeves. After moving further back into the cave, he took off his backpack "and got out my smoking material and rolled a joint."
(Editor's Comment: Don't do this at home, readers. Like Nancy Reagan says, "Just say no.")
As the cigarette smoldered down, Tim said, he began "feeling pretty weird. Things were moving and turning, and I didn't really know what was happening. I smelled this stranger odor. Like hibiscus or frangipani. Like being at the florist's shop, you know? It was really far out."
Reshouldering his pack, Tim decided to further explore the waterfall's cave. "I saw this skinny guy with a long beard and really long hair in a dhoti (white loincloth--J.T.) sitting in a side cave in the lotus position. I said "Hey! What's happening, man?' But he didn't move. It was like he didn't even hear me. Weird!"
(Editor's Comment: He probably didn't. Sounds like the sadhu was in a state of samadhi, a meditation trance in which he tunes out the outside world.)
"The tunnel just went on and on. Now I'm starting to get hyper. I'm like, 'Hey, how do I get back to the waterfall?' It was getting darker and darker in there."
Next Tim heard some soft footsteps. He suddenly found himself face-to-face with a pretty Hindu girl wearing a sari. She had jet black eyes and her black hair was pulled back in a bun. "What really impressed me were the diamonds. I mean, I didn't think they were diamonds at first. But she had on diamond pendant earrings and a big diamond necklace and a silver-trimmed gold-colored sari that hung from one shoulder. She had very thick kohl (black mascara--J.T.) all around her eyes, and I noticed that she didn't have that red dot on her forehead."
(Editor's Comment: Alarm bells should have been ringing right then and there. First, what is a Brahmin princess doing in the inner recesses of a Buddhist shrine? Second, since when does a Brahmin appear in public without her caste mark?)
Thinking the young lady was a tour guide, "like at Disney World," Tim asked, "Say, honey, how do I get back to the waterfall?"
Folding her slender arms, the girl said in halting English, "You are not from around here."
"Nope! I'm from the good old U.S. of A."
Laughing, she grabbed his forearm. "Come with me."
"Yeah. Okay. Sure."
They went down a number of dark tunnels. Tim said he started to "get hyper again." All of the tunnels led downward--deeper into the hillside.
He balked. "Maybe we better turn back."
"No, no, come." She tugged insistently at his wrist. "This is the way out. You'll like it. You will see."
Further along, he related, "the tunnel began to lighten" and "I could see figurines along the walls--golden figurines--looked like the illustrated Kama Sutra. Pretty heavy stuff."
(Editor's Comment: Hindu erotic bas-reliefs in a Buddhist shrine!? Fella, something is definitely not kosher here.)
As if sensing what he was thinking, the dark-haired girl smiled flirtatiously over her bare shoulder. The tunnel began to get lighter. Then they walked into a broad underground chamber. "There was a dim light coming from somewhere, but I didn't see where. I wasn't tracking too well right then. Anyway, the chick starts laughing and giving me these really flirty looks."
There were slender pillars and ornate archways and a tiled floor. But what Tim really remembered about the chamber was the ghat or pool. Its rectangular shape reminded him of an Olympic swimming pool, and there were stone steps leading down into it.
"So the chick reaches up and pulls the clasp on her sari. And down it comes. And she's just standing there in her birthday suit with golden bracelets and anklets on. We are talking Playmate of the Month, if you know what I mean. 'Come on. Join me,' she says. Down those steps she goes, giving me that come-hither look."
Well, Tim didn't wait for a printed invitation. He shed his jacket and T-shirt and tie-dyed jeans and Mexican huarache sandals and followed his shapely guide into the pool.
"I expected the water to be cold, but it was warm, as warm as a hotel bathtub. She was treading water over near the stone wall. I swam over there, and we started kissing. I'm thinking, Nobody's ever going to believe this. I'm making it with some Hindu chick in a temple pool.
As their lips parted, the girl put her hands on Tim's bare shoulders...and, with surprising strength, pushed him underwater. He came up sputtering, only to see her laughing with glee.
"You caught me by surprise," he said.
And she dunked him again.
Her laughter grew louder. Every time I came up, she pushed me under again. First couple of times it was funny. But then I couldn't catch my breath."
Surfacing again, he gasped, "Baby! Let me get some air!"
And once again, she thrust him underwater. Beneath the surface, Tim's lungs were beginning to burn. He felt something else strange, as well. Something was tightening around his upper arms--and his waist!
Opening his eyes underwater, he saw three large tentacles--and two more reaching for his lazily-kicking legs. As he came up for air, he saw the body of a huge black octopus--with the girl's laughing head on top of it.
"I just freaked out! I pushed with both hands. Her head smacked the stone wall, and she went kind of glassy-eyed." Instantly the tentacles relaxed their grip. He broke away and swam for the steps, "making better time than Mark Spitz (USA Olympic swimming champion in 1972--J.T.) He scrambled up the steps, grabbed his clothes and, hopping around barefoot, tried to pull his jeans on.
Slipping on his huaraches, he saw the girl's head and black octopus body in the middle of the pool. He yelled, "Wh-What are you!?"
"But the chick didn't answer. She gave me this pouty look and ducked beneath the water. Then this cloud of black ink appeared in the water. Black tendrils spread all through the pool. In a couple of minutes, it looked like a pool full of ink. And then things really got weird. It wasn't even liquid anymore. It was like air. I was standing there at the edge, looking down, and it was like I was looking out a big window at a dark night full of stars. I didn't recognize any constellations. It was just a vast star field with a few spiral galaxies behind the stars."
"And then I felt this wind behind me. Dust and flower petals flew by me. It was like all the air in the room was going out through the pool. My lungs started to hurt again, and I yelled, 'I can't breathe!'"
"I didn't even grab my backpack. I ran straight to the tunnel's mouth. Only there wasn't a tunnel there any more. It was just solid rock. I was pushing at it, shouting, 'Where's the tunnel, man!?'"
"Then I felt something ice-cold touch the back of my neck, and I passed out."
When Tim came to again, he found himself lying in an alleyway, looking up at the dark Indian sky. His backpack, which he had left behind, was sitting on his chest. He had his jacket on but it was unbuttoned. As he sat up, he looked around and saw some people. But they kept their distance from him.
"I was back in Lonavla, right behind the post office. Don't ask me how I got there. I tracked down my friends, and they were really worried about me. Turns out I'd been gone for two-and-a-half days! The whole experience was just so far freaking out, can you dig it?" And turning to me, he added, "So if it's weird you're looking for, Joe, don't fool around with Cuzco. You gotta go to India, man."
We listeners were silent for a moment, and then Mary Beth broke the silence with "What on earth were you smoking, anyway!?"
Admittedly, Tim (not his real name, of course. I don't want the guy to be embarrassed should his grandchildren read this--J.T.) wasn't the best eyewitness. He smoked a mind-altering substance twice before his encounter with the creature, and the whole thing could have been a dream, induced by the dope and the strange flowery smells behind the waterfall.
Then again, the caves of Bhaja do have an interesting history. Before the Buddhists arrived in 200 B.C., the Mora fishermen of the region worshipped Elkiti, a Hindu goddess of the sea there.
So what did Tim run into down there? Some kind of Rakshasa (demonic entity--J.T.) The goddess Elkiti herself? Or a drug-induced nightmare?
Are there really hidden caves and tunnels reaching deep into that Visapur-Lohagad Hill?
In a land as old as India, who can tell? (For more on the Bhaja-Karla cave system, see India by J. Thomas Gayn, Lonely Places Publishing, Hawthorn, Vic., Australia, 1997, pages 840 and 841; and India: The Rough Guide by David Abram, Harriet Podler, Davdan Sen and John Williams, Penguin Books, London, 1980,)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days when we take another look at UFO and paranormal happenings from around the world, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
