Peruíbe, UFO Town
The account
On São Paulo's southern coast, between the sea and the Jureia rainforest, lights and craft supposedly appear so often that the town now offers UFO tours.
What investigators found
The records are accounts, photos and videos without independent confirmation, and most of the lights have conventional explanations.
The story
Peruíbe, on the southern coast of São Paulo, presents itself as one of the capitals of Brazilian ufology. The town sits next to the Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station, an area of protected forest with little artificial light, and it has collected reports from residents and tourists who say they have seen lights and objects over the sea and the mountains. There was even an investigation of an alleged landing, shown on television.
The reputation became an attraction: there are night sky-watching tours and events on the subject. Skeptical researchers note that no case has produced physical evidence and that photos and videos tend to show distant lights that are hard to identify. Satellites, airplanes heading to Santos and São Paulo, balloons and reflections explain many of the sightings. The mystery of Peruíbe is, above all, a cultural phenomenon.