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By Ed Silverman
Let’s visit the tiny town of Bugarach! Why is it such a special place? Because leading up to December 21, 2012, this tiny town of about 73 inhabitants will wash the floors in their one largest structure which houses the post office, general store, gas station, restaurant, hotel, and city hall - and they will try to accommodate about 100,000 tourists / “pilgrims”! Are you kidding? Why there?
Bugarach is nestled in the foothills, somewhat southeast of Toulouse, France. And just south of this pitifully tiny, desolate town is a 1,234 meter-high “mystic mountain.” (Even its altitude is mystic, listed at 1-2-3-4 meters.) Its so-called “mystic” reputation has been earned because of its strange rock-formations, and also because “spirits” have been observed here - sometimes strange lights, sometimes weird grumbling sounds, and yes, sometimes spaceships! All of this has led UFO followers to believe that - just maybe - the spirits who live in the mountain are the ones who originally populated our earth, or at the least, are the ones who gave the ancient Mayans their calendar.
So, if you’ve read this far already, you may - or may not - want to continue with “tongue-in-cheek,” but if nothing else, this makes good dinner conversation!
You may have heard the myth that the Mayan calendar will end on December 21, 2012, and that will signal the end of our Earth! If that truly is the case, then none of us will die of old age. But, not wanting to take any chances on their future, the crowds have already begun to converge here try to avoid Armageddon by “hitching a ride” with the spirits to return with them to their native galaxy.
Not wanting to fight that stampede of 100,000 “nuts” traveling to Bugarach in December, our Santa Paula resident, Ed Silverman, with his partner of 19 years, Nel van Oosten, decided to “check it out” this past April. They made Bugarach one of their destinations on their way from the Netherlands to the Catalunya region of Spain. The results of this slight detour on their trip revealed the following facts to them:
1) The south-central part of France is just as beautiful as any part of the French countryside.
2) The logistics of accommodating 100,000 RVers for any length of time in that desolate area will be nearly impossible - like a hippy convention without enough food or toilets. It will be much easier to vacation in Quartzsite, Arizona.
3) Yes. It’s a weird-looking mountain.
4) Now, there is one more place where these two globetrotters can say, “Been dere, done dat!”
[More info can be seen online at: http://phenomenonsofhistory.com/site/?p=17746]
