The Peña de Juaica is a majestic mountain located 45 minutes from the Bogotá savannah, between the municipalities of Tabio and Tenjo. At a height of 3,100 meters above sea level, today this enigmatic place has a magical connotation that attracts many visitors and onlookers. In the world it is already known as an open door to other sensory dimensions since according to experts it allows us to observe lights and unidentified objects on its top. There are even those who maintain that they are UFOs.
The inhabitants of Tabio themselves assure that they have had sightings of mysterious lights on that mountain. From different points of view, the subject raises all kinds of explanations. Those who approach the matter to try to frame it in the analysis of inexplicable phenomena, or those who investigate why with their eyes they have seen strange elements. What they do agree on is that the rock of Juaica is a natural spectacle that has a special energy that invites us to believe that we are not alone nor are we the only living beings in the universe.
According to the ancient inhabitants of Tabio, the Muisca Indians worshipped this mountain and performed cults, payments and sacrifices in honour of their gods. Mainly to the goddess Huiaka, to whom they asked for good luck and abundance in planting their crops, rain for their lands and fertility for their women. In addition, the indigenous people stood guard at the top of the mountain to see those who were approaching the valley in the distance. In times of colonization, there were mass suicides of indigenous people as an act of dignity before being subjected.
There are those who affirm that part of the energy load that the Juaica rock has is attributed to these events. Systems engineer William Chaves Ariza, an accomplished ufologist, that is, a student of the UFO phenomenon, has been visiting that mountain for more than 30 years. Currently, from his position as director of Ovni Contact in Colombia, an organization that spreads knowledge about the presence of UFOs in the country, he testifies that several times he has seen disk or plate-shaped lights circulating in the sky of that wonderful place.
On his experiences, Chaves wrote the book Juaica, the door of the gods. In addition, today he divides his time between Bogotá and Tabio and coordinates visits to the site. According to him, one night he had eye contact with space beings. And at least 15 people who camped in the village of El Santuario can attest to this. That was on September 24, 1994, after a heavy downpour. Chaves says that two orange lights appeared, one of them settled on the tree, and then luminous human figures appeared.
The sudden characters accompanied them for 20 minutes, before disappearing. The researcher adds that on another occasion, this time during the day, a UFO landed on the same tree and people who later touched it and had physical ailments began to improve. For this reason, William Chaves baptized it as “The tree of life”. In contrast, Enrique Smendling, a philosopher and inhabitant of the municipality, asserts that he has not seen anything, but that he recognizes that this rock is a special place. The strange thing is that most people don’t understand it.
Smendling insists that miracles do not exist but that there may be manifestations of superior technology. “Strange events are named in the Bible that today we could call UFOs. The truth is that it is obtuse to think that we are alone in the universe. I rather believe that the world is full of life everywhere,” he says. And remember that one day he went up the rock with his brother and some friends and saw a black stone similar to a meteorite. One of them touched it and later said that it had a special energy.
When they came down the south side of the mountain they ended up realizing they were on the opposite side. According to Smendling, these things have happened to many people who have ended up lost two or three hours from the main road. From his perspective, when human beings reach a more advanced spiritual level, they also begin to acquire higher levels of human consciousness. Spirituality not only strengthens respect for one another but also makes new situations to be perceived around them.
Juan Sebastián Castañeda Soto is a psychologist in training, but as a researcher of UFO phenomena, he has lived in Tabio for more than 15 years. He is fond of gazing at the sky and wondering what lies beyond. From his experiences, he recounted that once, at a friend’s house, while feeding a small pet, he saw a very large blue light at the top of the rock that moved fast and then hid in the mountain. It could be the reflection of an aeroplane, a comet, a shooting star or a meteorite, but Sebastián Castañeda does not rule out that it was a UFO.
The same is stated by César Eduardo Bernal Quintero, a journalist from the National Radio Broadcasting Company of Colombia, who says: “I have always thought that those of us who were born in the municipality of Tabio, what happens to the people who live near the pyramids of Egypt. The wonders of the universe are majestic, and just as they are in contact with history, it is enough for the tabiunos to open the window of the house to contemplate a magnificent mountain. What happens is that seeing it every day becomes normal, as is seeing lights on the site.”
César Bernal insists that the subject can be approached from multiple perspectives. From the scientific, the historical or the anthropological, to the paranormal. From the legend, the lights may be a reflection of the gold that is said to have been buried in that mountain by the Muisca indigenous people. In fact, that explains why the guaquería has proliferated on the site for many years. It is also stated that the origin of the game of yew or turmequé, shaped like a flying saucer, is a way of paying tribute to the Sun or the lights that went from one side of the Juaica mountain to the Majui hill.
However, there is another version, also in the legend category. It is said that the female mohán lived on that mountain. The male was on the Majui hill, in the municipality of Cota. When mohanes met for love, rains and storms appeared in Tabio. Truth or fiction, the only thing clear is that in the municipality of Tabio, 45 minutes from Bogotá, there is a natural attraction that many do not know. A majestic mountain where myths and mysteries combine to captivate the minds of sceptics and the enthusiasm of preservatives of nature.