By Markus Leiter Apr 24, 2007, 7:07 GMT
Capilla del Monte, Argentina - The Cerro Uritorco, in the central Argentine province of Cordoba, at only 1,949 metres, is not known for its altitude.
On the way to the summit there are no obstacles that could give climbers a sense of achievement.
The attraction of the mountain in the Sierra Chica lies elsewhere - spiritual and esoteric masters attribute energetic qualities to it, and UFOs are said to gather there.
The bus ride to the small town of Capilla del Monte, at the foot of the hill and some 725 kilometres north-west of Buenos Aires, already reveals the first unusual 'climbers.'
A couple of US citizens in their mid-twenties read to each other from a para-scientific booklet about places with special sources of energy. A full chapter is devoted to the Uritorco.
At the departure point for the hike, on the outskirts of Capilla del Monte, street vendors offer stones with special healing powers and other esoteric utensils.
Books about the Uritorco are available in several languages because the hill's positive forces cannot be felt without some basic knowledge of its 'spirituality reactor,' a vendor explains behind a thick cloud of perfumed smoke rising from huge joss sticks.
There, visitors find that indigenous natives already held the mountain sacred, and that its name derives from the Comechingon language and means something like 'hill of the parrots.'
During colonial times, natives are said to have been saved from being enslaved to the Spaniards in miraculous ways, although the credibility of the story remains controversial.
After crossing a wobbly hanging bridge over a brook, the hiker gets to the entrance cabin, where he can buy the Uritorco ticket for nine pesos (around 3 dollars). A look at the full cash machine shows that business is good. Visitors must be back down by 5 pm (2000 GMT) or at least those who are earthly creatures of flesh and blood.
For beings from other galaxies, requirements are not quite as strict. According to Uritorco mythology, extraterrestrial creatures have built a city named Erks under the mountain, which serves as the base for their operations on planet Earth.
Rare light visions have fed speculation that UFOs occasionally land around the Uritorco. One rational explanation for the phenomenon could be that under certain meteorological conditions the rock, rich in quartz, favours electric discharges of sparks, also known as St Elmo's fire.
For other esoteric doctrines, Erks is a metaphysical settlement meant to lead the renewal of mankind. Legend has it that inside there is a spherical temple and three mirrors which make it possible for the Earth to engage in intercosmic exchanges of data with other galaxies. From there, it is apparently also possible to follow the life of any single individual on Earth.
The crucial date for the Uritorco's UFO image is January 9, 1986 when a fire and soot print with a diameter of 100 metres was found, without a plausible explanation for its existence.
As if to prove that extraterrestrial beings continue to roam around the Uritorco - the highest point mountain on the Sierra Chica - to this day, the information leaflet El Vocero Turistico has published photographs of celestial objects taken recently, some of them very coarse-grained. Among these illustrations, some bear a resemblance with remote-control model airplanes.
The relevant literature and the internet do not mention accidents involving extraterrestrial creatures or of encroachments upon Earthlings by beings from foreign galaxies.
There are, however, abundant reports of sexual contacts which have allegedly taken place on and around the Uritorco. And according to the reports these have been fully satisfactory for both parties.
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