Without being aware of it at the time, in March 1993, during a trip to the beautiful mountain and forest area of Puerto Rico’s CARIBBEAN NATIONAL PARK (known familiarly to the Puertoricans as "EL YUNQUE" - the ancient Indian name. G.C.), two young men from the Municipal Region of Bayamón, Nelson Berríos and Joaquín Ruiz, took a number of photographs of a strange being of humanoid appearance, lurking behind a rock. Could this not perhaps have been one of the many, many mystery creatures that have been seen and reported from this area of the island of Puerto Rico over a long, long period reaching right back into the past?

They had made their way up to a waterfall known as La Mina Cascada, with the intention of having a dip in the two large pools there below the Falls. Nelson Berríos had his camera, so Ruiz began taking some snaps with it, of themselves and of the place. But next day, when they called to pick up their developed film, they were astounded to hear from the technician who had developed it that several of the seven or eight photos that Ruiz had taken showed an entity, in precisely the same spot, peering out from behind the rock. They say "We had the impression that it might have been hiding there in order to escape being shown up by our ‘flash."

As Joaquín Ruiz explained, "I saw nothing. I was absorbed in watching and photographing some young folk who were splashing about in the pools. The thing in the photo seems to have been about the size of a child, bald-headed, with oval-shaped eyes, pretty deeply set, and wrinkled sort of features, as though old."

AND ANOTHER CASE

But Ruiz then went on to describe to us another, and previous, incident that he and some friends had experienced, also in the Yunque.

As he described it: "It was some time back. We were camping up there, not far from the main ElYunque peak, when we saw lights shooting about very fast from side to side and, as it seemed, joining up from time to time, some of them light-coloured, white, and some red. They were round, and, as I say, joining up at times and shooting fast from one side to the other. It looked as though they were actually coming out of the mountains! We were scared - I must admit. And we did a lot of imagining about what it all might be. But definitely they were something weird...."

When we asked them what they thought the thing photographed by them might have been, Nelson Berríos answered:

"In my opinion, that’s not from here. It’s not from here, because if it had been a person, we would have seen him. And people have long been saying that strange things are happening in the Yunque and that UFOs and suchlike are being seen there. I’d say that they are HERE, with us, and that we’re not alone. That is a fact. They are here. Although the U.S. Federal authorities tell us that they are not here, the fact of the matter is that they ARE HERE. They are there in the Yunque, and in many parts of Puerto Rico, even though the Authorities want to cover it up."

A THIRD CASE

Then Nelson Berríos went on to describe yet another previous experience that he, along with many other people, had had - years ago - at a place called Catano, also in the Yunque. "About 20 years ago, something was also seen at Catano. A flying saucer!. A round thing, with lots of lights all round it that kept flashing on and off. It was at about 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening, and the thing had come down from up around the Catano Spillway. The authorities said later that it had been a helicopter. But a helicopter isn’t round, doesn’t have so many brilliant lights all around it, and doesn’t fly round and round like that did! It came down over an area beyond the Buchanan Basin, where there’s a big mangrove swamp."

FOUR PHOTOS ORIGINALLY

The two young men told us that originally they had had four photos showing the mystery creature, at first peering from behind the rock, and then, successively, in several movements, rising up, and then going down behind the rock again as though intent on hiding.

Unfortunately, not long after they had taken the photos, somebody broke into Nelson Berríos’s van, in which he kept a valise containing the negatives and the prints, and stole the valise. The identity of the thief is of course unknown.

[But, most fortunately, we at EVIDENCIA OVNI already had the one print that Nelson Berríos had requested the photo lab technician to send to us, so we are able to include this photo in this article.]

Although a bit unclear, this photo that we have is unquestionably highly interesting, for at least it permits us to see that, for example, it is certainly no "head of a monkey" nor is it "the head of a normal human being." for, as Joaquín Ruiz had told us, it does show what seems to be a rugged or furrowed face, deep-set eyes under a prominent brow, a very tiny nose, and what looks like straw-coloured hair swept back on the top of the head.

AND TWO MORE EARLIER CASES

The creature’s face reminds us, moreover, of two other cases in which similar humanoid beings had already been seen in the area of El Yunque.

The first of these two cases was the one when, at 5 pm one evening in August 1992, near the junction with Highway No. 191, close to the Colinas del Yunque Housing Settlement, a number of people - adults and children - encountered two humanoid beings about 4ft high, calmly walking along the road. Senora Soraya Collazo, and her three sons, Saudi, Didier, and Gabriel, and a daughter, all testified to the encounter. The two beings were, it seems, very similar to what is shown in the photograph.

Moreover, these four children - plus several of their friends and playmates - actually followed the two entities on their bicycles, for quite a few minutes! Then, finally, the little humanoids turned off the road into the thick woodland and vanished, and the children broke off their pursuit and turned back!

We interviewed Senora Collazo and all of her children - each one separately. They all stated that the entities had greyish-green coloured skin, rather large heads, dark almond-shaped eyes rather deeply set, and noses that were scarcely detectable. Their mouths were thin slits, without lips, and, just like the thing in the photo taken by Ruiz and Berríos, their hair looked as though light brown-creamy coloured, and swept upwards, as in what is called the "punk hair-do".

The second other earlier case, which we will now describe, was that of two policemen and their wives, who also met two entities.

It was during the last days of February 1991, and at about 3.00 o’clock in the early morning, just by the car-park next to the Forestry Service’s booth where they sell souvenir photos and maps of the Yunque. (This booth stands just in front of the swimming-pool beside the 191 Highway).

Of the Police party, we interviewed Officer Luis Torres and his wife Margarita, who live at San Isidro, in the Municipal Area of Canóvanas.

They had been with a group of friends, visiting the Yunque, and at 3.00am as stated, they were astounded to see two extraordinarily strange beings a short distance from them, walking down the main road.

They described the entities as about 3 1/2 ft. high, with big heads and huge dark eyes, slender in build, and with long arms. They were dressed in what looked like "ninja-type costumes", as they are called in Puerto Rico. (That is to say, like leotards, such as are used in exercises and gymnastics). Sr. Torres said these garments covered the entire body except for the face and the hands.

Although it is true that the two beings mentioned in this case may not seem entirely to resemble what is shown in the Ruiz/Berríos photo or what was seen by Senora Soraya Collazo and her family, we make a point of mentioning it here because these two entities seen by the Policemen and their wives ran away down a mountain path to precisely that same waterfall, La Mina, where Ruiz and Berríos had taken the photos of their entity!

Well now - is all this "mere coincidence"? The only thing that WE can say about it is that such a lot of "coincidences" have certainly set us to some furious thinking! Don’t our readers agree?

N.B. Very interestingly, the type of creature shown in the Ruiz/Berríos photo greatly resembles humanoid types of beings that have been seen IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CHUPACABRAS at various places on the Island of Puerto Rico. Another "coincidence"? DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT!

EDITOR'S NOTE

This case of the two entities seen in February 1991 by the policemen and their wives will sound familiar, as we have already published another account of it, with the same sketch of the two entities. (See Magdalena del Amo-Freixedo’s report PUERTO RICO: AN AREA OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL EXPERIMENTATION?, in FSR 39/1 (Spring 1994).