Tuesday, April 12, 2011

DESTINATION TRUTH: Sandstorm Spirits - Cerro Azul Monster

SyFy - Original Air Date: 3/29/11

Josh & Crew goe to Namibia to investigate a ghost town buried in the sand.  With them is old teammate Jael (now from Fact or Faked).  After the usual eating of strange food, talking to locals, and clowning around (Ryder loses a race with an ostrich), the group goes by dune buggy to Kolmenskop, the abandoned town.  They poke around in the sand-covered buildings and hear the (usual) strange sounds.  Ryder has mysterious trouble breathing, Rex swears he sees a figure in a room where there's no one (and immediately gets a bloody nose), and Jael hears breathing in her ear in an empty room.  They actually capture what sounds like the whisper Jael heard, but no other solid evidence.  Josh concludes that the long-gone residents are still seen, heard, and felt - though there's more investigation to do.  (I wish they had out-looking personal cams, as well as ones focusing on the team's faces.)

Next, they go to Panama to research a photo of a supposed mystery beast, the Cerro Azul Monster, photographed by some boys. The creature is hairless and looks something like a land seal.  So, off to the country of the canal to look for it!  They talk to a local professor, who says something unknown could lurk in the jungles, and get sent to possible habitat by witnesses.  They head into a national park, talk to more natives, and almost lose a team member and camera in a raging river.  Avoiding pit vipers and cave scorpions, they poke around in water-filled caves, get scared by fish, and capture a sloth on a perimeter camera.  Back home, they show the original picture to a zoologist, who says the "creature" is, in fact, a sloth with no hair -- possibly because of disease or mutation.  In such a wild land, it's no wonder ordinary creatures can become "monsters."

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