Two Athletes Claim seeing Large Biped

[From “Inexplicata”. 2003.]

Two men training for the biathlon last Saturday along the forested trails of Cerro Termal and a gaucho passing through the area on horseback, some 6 km east of Rosario de la Frontera, claimed having run into the strange hairy beast which has been the cause of over twenty reports since cattleman Rogelio Martinez made a detailed and fantastic report to the authorities in 2001.

According to the established facts, the gaucho, surnamed Posadas, in charge of a farm owned by agribusinessman Oscar Férez, was crossing the sector --high and densely forested --in the early hours when we ran into a strange being standing over two meters tall, covered in hair from head to foot, long arms ending in sharp claws, an oval-shaped head and an enormous mouth with menacing fangs.

Posadas did not wish to make any statement to El Tribuno, but third parties to whom he retold his experience said that the man, impressed by the sight, got off his mount and reached for the shotgun on the saddle, but the hominid had vanished by the time he looked up again.

However, biathlete Humberto Sosa, 52, who has won over 100 trophies in nationa, regional and provincial competititions, did not hesitate to make known his extraordinary experience.

"We were training with Susana Romano, 32. At around 17:00 hours, upon reaching a curve," he said, "we felt the crushing of branches from the hill. We stopped to see what it could be, and amid the foliage, we saw it briefly. It was a large animal, some kind of ape, moving with great agility."

"Susana and I exchanged glances as though to confirm if what we'd just seen was a product of our imaginations or real. We remained still with our eyes riveted to the place where we'd seen it jump and become lost in the vegetation. We tried to listen, but everything remained silent. Suddenly, all of the birds flew away, as though fleeing from something. And once again, with the same speed as before, it jumped."

"It was like a giant ape. We were scared and decided to run as quickly as possible toward the unforested area. However, that "thing" seemed to follow us, running parallel to us some 10 meters down the slope, through the wilderness, which is impossible for a human to do given the thickness of the vegetation. Through the leaves and branches we could see its enormous silhouette and every so often could hear how timber was violently shattered, which led us to believe that the creature's weight was tremendous."

Sosa, an electrician by trade, is a beloved and well-respected man in this city by virtue of his career, both as an individual and a sportsman.

"I had heard and read people's stories about this beast. I would laugh and I'll admit to not believing anything that was said. What's more, I ascribed all of those tales to some sort of collective hysteria or psychosis. However, now I have no doubt that what people said was true, since I experienced that terror in person."

Thin, serious and stern, the biathlete continued his story: "It was evident that this critter was following us and I therefore feared it would attack us. I felt fear for my companion and asked her to run as fast as she could. I told myself that if the situation reached the brink, I'd give my life for her. We ran and ran, always feeling that the animal was running beside us among the dense woods. In a given area where the vegetation isn't quite so dense and the possibility of observing was greater, we stopped to look around us. But the noise stopped and the jumping shadow that had followed us had vanished. In the distance, we could see that birds flocked together, as if frightened by something."

Sosa added that he customarily trains at Cerro Termal in the company of a group of sportsmen. "This time we were only two, and it was our turn to undergo a traumatic experience. In my 30 years of covering these trails, I'd never seen anything like it."

WCSRO, 2006.