This Andean mountain city and commune in the Maule Region of Chile has a population of 40,000, with most people living in rural areas. It is a place of spectacular beauty, with rocky wildlife preserves, waterfalls and lagoons. But it isn’t just the natural attractions that lead most people here, but rather the supernatural strangeness – San Clemente is considered the unofficial UFO capital of the world.

Reports of unidentified craft in the sky, unearthly lights and unsettling encounters started to emerge in newspapers around 1995 – but it wasn’t just your usual UFO sightings. In San Clemente there’s shining spheres that disappear into the woodland and into bodies of water. Since then, hundreds more inexplicable cases have come from the area, at an estimated average of one report per week. It was happening so often that in 2008 the government set up a ‘UFO trail’ that maps out where the main hotspots are. This trail is 19 miles (30 km) long and takes you through the Andean mountains and forest ranges, including Colbún Lake, which is believed to attract so many UFOs because of its high mineral quality.

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