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| Courtesy of Erin Ryder |
Since I was a kid, I've read everything I could about mystery issues. It is clear that when you grow up, your mind becomes much more scientific, and many of the riddles that you were passionate about as a young man fade out in time. However, the search for intelligent life on other planets and the existence of possible prehistoric or unknown creatures for science, continue to stimulate my adult curiosity, as much or more than when I was a child.
Erin Ryder is an
adventurer, journalist and TV producer, who goes in search of the mystery, and
of these UFOs (human or extraterrestrial) that so many people claim to have
seen over our skies. And it does this objectively, without letting the desires hide the reality. In Destination Truth (Syfy), Ryder, along with his partner
Josh Gates, travels the world to find cryptozoological animals, mainly, and in
Chasing UFOs (National Geographic), she accompanies the skeptic Ben McGee and
the believer James Fox in a series of adventures in which they go after the
track of possible alien contacts. With Myth Explorer (Universal) enters a lost
and unknown island of the Indian Ocean that does not appear on official maps.
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| Courtesy of Erin Ryder |
I met Ryder thanks to Destination Truth and Chasing UFOs,
and, honestly, when I proposed to her the interview, it was like taking a
lottery ticket. You play, but with little chance of being rewarded. When I
received her answer, I could hardly believe it. Just to say that Ryder has been
charming and I will not tire of thanking her for her attention and for the
precious time she has dedicated to me.
If you want to know better, you can visit her website www.erinryder.com Let's go with the interview!
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| Courtesy of Erin Ryder |
- In Indonesia, looking fort he orang pendek, both Josh gates and i felt there is something to this mystery. There is some bipedal
ape here we have yet to discover. - Erin Ryder
Hi Ryder, first of all, i want to thank you for collaborating so kindly with “El viajero del misterio”. It´s a pleasure to have you here.
Hi Ryder, first of all, i want to thank you for collaborating so kindly with “El viajero del misterio”. It´s a pleasure to have you here.
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Taking a look at your web page, you can´t still
stay at home for long. You have visited many countries in the world… Which is
the one that has impressed you the most?
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I have been blessed with a job that takes me all
around the world. I find it very difficult to choose one place over another but
i was blown away by antarctica. Perhaps it was because i never thought i would
ever visit. Perhaps it was how it felt like visiting another planet. It was one
of the most beautiful and awe inspiring places i have even been and it brings
me much joy to think about our times investigating there.
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What is the most dangerous thing you have done
during a holiday? And working?
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Since danger surrounds the work i do i try and
avoid it at all costs while i am on holidays but that doesnt always work out.
In a lot of countries we rent motorbikes but the traffic, in places like Mexico City, Vietnam, and Thailand, is so dangerous that its rare not to be injured on
one. I love riding horses but you never know how well trained the horses are in
some countries so that is always more risky than it sounds. I love sky diving
so ive done that in a few places.
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At work i have scaled glaciers, jumped out of
helicopters into shark infested waters, broken my elbow on a motorbike in front
of a thai monistary, fallen off the Great Wall of China…just too name a few.
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Tasting local cuisine is another incentive in a
trip… I´ve seen you in a picture, ¡¡eating a Scorpion!! The question is
inevitable… Could you swallow it? This must taste demons!! Any other weird
foods you´ve tried out there?
The scorpion in China was massive and felt like it
fought its way down but yes i did stomach the creature. I have eaten all sort
of strange insects and parts of animals i couldnt not identify but balut, hakarl,
and durian are my least favorite. Look them up! Not sure how people call those
delicacies.
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A quick test to get to know you better:
Your favorite place to rest: : home
with my mom cowboy, where i rarely am
City you like the most: Hanoi,
Vietnam
Most breathtaking landscape: The Remarkables, New Zealand
A place you would never return: the
jungles of Senegal
A country you would like to visit: Egypt
Your next trip: i have been to Peru but i have yet to explore
Machu Picchu so that is on my list
Your favorite hotel: Banyan
Tree, Thailand
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You started in the world of televisión talking
about sporting issues. Nowadays, you are devoted to mystery topics. If you were
proposed to do a tv travel program, would you? What other inquisitiveness dou
you have?
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I have been working with a few companies to try
and find the right platform to come back as a tv host. We have pitched quite a
few that have not taken off yet but we are working on it. Stay tuned.
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I am also working as a producer on a new docu
series about womens professional football (soccer) that i am very excited
about.
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What´s the most scary place you´ve ever been?
Aokigahara in Japan aka sea of trees but i know it as
the Suicide Woods. One of the most terrifying places to be at night
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In your tv shows, you are looking for the mystery…
Where have you felt you were closer to finding answers? Where were yo closer to
solving the enigma?
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Indonesia, looking fort he orang pendek. Both Josh gates and i felt there is something to this mystery. There is some bipedal
ape here we have yet to discover. But in a lot of haunted places like the Suicide
Woods or Humberstone Chile you can feel something more there. Some places just
have a negative feeling to them.
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What is the mystery that haunts you the most?
I had some very strange experiences in the Phillipines
while searching for the aswang, a shapeshifting monster. The villagers were
convinces that it had latched on to me because white dogs were following me and
were even at our plane when i was leaving. I had some terrible nightmares from
that palce.
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And the one you´would like to never solve?
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I love bigfoot. I think that mystery is as old
as time. Almost every country has their version of the bipedal ape like
humanoid and i would hate for it to go away.
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I am passionate about the Roswell incident. In Socorro
(New México) and in Kecksburg (Pennsylvania), it is said, also crashed alien
spaceships. Dou you know of any other incident, perhaps not so well known, but
with clear signs of being produced?
- Rendlesham
forest, Aurora, Texas, and Falcon Lake, Canada
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I had the opportunity to travel the northwestern
coast of the United States (Washington, Oregón and northern California coast),
i realized, that there, many people believe in Bigfoot. Dou you think he can exist, too? In what area of the
planet dou you think a creature like this (Sasquatch, Yeti, Almas, Kunk, Yowie…)
can live? What crytozoological animal, in your opinion, is more likely to
exist?
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Bigfoot in the USA is hard for me to grapple
with. To have one you have to have had a population. We have so few areas that
could hide one or more creatures like that so i find it harder to believe. But
somewhere more remote like northern China where the yeren is said to live has
been restricted and left univestigated for so long its possible. Also, i go
back to my feelings on the orang pendek. I think that may be the one closest to
being solved. It is a much smaller being than a bigfoot or yeren but there is
much proof and that location where it is said to reside has hidden many animals
that we do know to exist.
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I think the treasure of the lost mine of
Dutchman interests you specially. Recently, in a program in which you
collaborated, Breaking Mysterious (Cazadores
de misterios, in Spain), i knew the story of the spaniards who hid that
treasure in Arizona, Peralta family, in the nineteenth century. Dou you think
this treasure is really buried in a mine in the Supertition Mountains? That someday, someone will bring it to
light?
I loved this story because its such an interesting
mystery. They have found many hidden gold staches in those areas so its not
unheard of but deathbed confessions are tough to verify and unless the govt
works with searches we may never know.
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And finally (although i´d be happy to ask you
more questions), one mystery related to Spain (i don´t know if you´ve ever
been here before) … The Cantabric Coast is one of the places in the world where
more giant squids there are (there is a museum in Asturias about them). Years
ago, the kraken was just a myth. Dou you think that under the oceans or in
great lakes, there may be living prehistoric animals to discover?
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I did a lot of research on the kraken for a History
Channel series and i was very interested in the findings of Mark Mcmenamin, a
paleontologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. I doubt lakes have
much more to reveal to us due to the there inability to support and hide larger
creatues. But is so little we know about the oceans, especially the deeper blue
holes and trenches that i believe we have plenty more mysteries to come out of
there, not likely mermaids, but giant squid? Why not?
Thank you very much again, Ryder. It´s been a pleasure
“talking” to you. Good luck with your projects and come back anytime to El viajero del misterio.
