QCOSTARICA – Sometimes it’s just birds, drones, helium balloons, and even ridiculous flying saucers. But on other occasions, after taking a photograph or a simple video, the doubt remains about what moves strangely in the sky, because it has a unique shape and shines without apparent explanation.
That is precisely why they are called ‘UFOs’, they are Unidentified Flying Objects that, for the followers of these phenomena, suggest the visit to Earth of beings from another planet.
The funny thing is that the report about UFOs prowling our planet increased considerably in times of pandemic.
In the United States, for example, the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) recorded a 51% increase in sightings in 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
In Costa Rica, though there is no such organization that keeps statistics on OVNIs (UFOs). However, on Facebook. groups specialized in the phenomenon report that 2020 was one of their most prolific years. Just take a look at their pages and posts to see that the reports on sightings are daily and come from different parts of the country.
“Today was something surprising, it happened like 8:30 pm. I was talking to my mother and suddenly we saw yellow lights. It looked like it was an airplane when it was taking off. We followed him and at a certain height he was static for about 10 minutes. It looked long and then its lights started to change colors. This was what I was able to record,” reads the post on the Facebook private group Ovnis Costa Rica.
Even from San Antonio de León Cortés there are reports, accompanied by suggestive images: “This UFO, in a saucer shape, was seen by several residents of the area … The images were captured on May 15, 2020, by Cristina Ramírez, who reports that it was a sunny morning with a completely clear sky when he managed to register the object”.
No doubt; There are hundreds of testimonies from Costa Ricans who have described their close encounters of the first type during the pandemic. In fact, Costa Rican scholars of the UFO phenomenon confirm that, in the covid-19 confinement, photos and videos by Ticos have multiplied. They are a boom!, in Costa Rica and in the world.
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“Of course, it is important to clarify that it is not that the cases have increased, the phenomenon always occurs, what happens is that the circumstances of the confinement caused the reports to increase considerably,” said Alejandro Sáenz, a long-standing Costa Rican in UFO observation.
“What happened, as the reports increased, is that people began to look up to the sky more. They were or are telecommuting or sharing with their family in the garden. That, clearly, gives more opportunity to observe and photograph objects,” he added.
Another factor that could contribute to this increase in reports is more conspiratorial. In times of pandemic, many people became more sensitive and the topics that talked about death, the economic crisis and even the end of the world, began to be exploited on social networks., explains Peter Davenport, In The Wall Street Journal, who heads the National UFO Reporting Center.
“The phone has not stopped ringing since the pandemic began,” said Davenpoort of reports reaching a record high of between 25 and 50 calls a day.
In all this framework, of course, the extraterrestrial theme was not lacking.
Even the Pentagon itself (headquarters of the United States Department of Defense) collaborated on all this, which in May 2020, in the heat of the pandemic, declassified three videos of UFOs captured by pilots of the United States Air Force. The images had already circulated on the Internet for years, but the fact that the authorities made the apparitions official, led to endless theories on social networks.
UFO surge due to the pandemic?
UFOs, according to their fans, are common in Costa Rica. Of course, they argue that there are days when the phenomenon breaks out and the networks go crazy.
“Anyone who saw a wave of UFOs over South West San José today? I saw, I think, 4 or 5 in total,” commented at the beginning of 2021 an amateur on the Ovnis Costa Rica site.
Immediately, followers of the site begin to answer his question: “I thought I was crazy, I saw 3 in a triangular formation”, says one; “It was too much today”, comments another, adding that “the sky had been super moved” and, of course, offering the videos of the sightings of him.
In these Facebook groups, believe it or not, not all videos or photos posted are considered to be actual sightings.
Many members upload material and the group’s followers immediately dispute its veracity.
More than one enthusiast, sure of having had a real sighting, is disappointed with the following observations: “Brother, that’s a bird”, “Mae, that’s a light effect from your camera”, “Compa, it’s a drone” and “clearly you can see that it is a birthday balloon.”
For fans of the phenomenon it is important that the sightings can be denied or verified. That, in a way, shields them from attacks and gives them a little credibility.
“We have always tried to be responsible. Since we created the group it has been like this. Do not upload things to upload ”, explained Róger Arce, member of Ovnis Costa Rica.
Arce – who firmly believes in the UFO phenomenon but who at the same time is listened to very cautiously in his opinions on the subject – says that his fondness for life on other planets is something innate, which means that it is not the product of some specific sighting.
“Of course, I feel that what came to increase my taste for this were programs like Cosmos, by Carl Sagan, and obviously the different UFO waves that have occurred in Costa Rica since the 70s,” said Arce, who is dedicated to plant trade.
So now you know, if during the pandemic you want to spend your free time hunting UFOs, you are not alone.
Let us know how it goes.
Adapted from the La Nacio’s Revista Dominical “En Costa Rica el reporte de ovnis aumentó durante la pandemia”. Read the original (in Spanish) here.
