FREQUENT FLYER - MARTIN PLOWMAN

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday February 5, 2011

Interview by Jane Reddy

This author and UFO expert has had many strange encounters. Q You have written a book about UFOs. Where did the research take you?A Sometimes I feel like a paranormal Bear Grylls (except I only have to swallow bullshit stories, not actual camel dung). I've been to a "lost" plateau called Marcahuasi in the Andes, secretive alien-contactee communes in Chile, the International UFO Museum and Research Centre in Roswell, an ancient Aztec temple that serves as a UFO beacon in Mexico and the Nazca Lines in Peru.Q What's your favourite UFO adventure?A I've heard many strange stories. Alien abductees have the most frightening tales to tell - except for a married couple I met in Oaxaca, Mexico, who were convinced their alien abductors helped them conceive their first child.Q Did you notice a concentration of believers in any particular country?A The US will always be the historical heartland of UFO belief - it was here during the Cold War that people first thought to explain strange things in the sky as extraterrestrial craft rather than signs from the gods. But I'd say Mexico is a strong contender nowadays.Q What's one thing you do on every trip?A I usually check out the local library. The word for "municipal library" in Aztec is amoxtlahtolpialoyan. How cool is that? And I always seek out the best source of coffee.Q The best meal you've had abroad?A Freshly made guacamole at 3500 metres in the central highlands of Mexico, closely tied with ika mata in the Cook Islands (fresh tuna marinated in coconut milk, lime juice and chillies). And though it pains me to say since becoming a vegetarian about five years ago, the pampas-fed steak in Buenos Aires is the best.Q Do you have a favourite hotel?A Hotels are fine if you're into furthering global exchanges of wage-slave exploitation. But the best night's sleep I had abroad was on a cargo boat going down the jungle-lined Mamore River in Bolivia. We slept in the open in hammocks strung up above pallets of roofing tiles and Coca-Cola bottles.Q If you were to be abducted by aliens, where would you most like to be let off?A Probably the campus library of Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. That, or the Third Planet from Altair. It's quite difficult to choose, really.Martin Plowman is the author of The UFO Diaries ��� Travels in the Weird World of High Strangeness (Allen & Unwin), $24.99.

© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald

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