The Cote UFO Photo: The Clearest UFO Image Ever Captured?

0:00While our government's official position is not to speculate on this subject, we can choose to let our minds explore other possibilities. The use of our Nigerians, for it we consider that astroscientists agree on one point. If the possibility of life elsewhere is not only quite probable, some feel that is there without a doubt. It also supports them that these objects are real space vehicles, extraterrestrial workers, and not an illusion of the mind. Welcome to Summer in the Skies, I am your host Ryan Sprague, and today we are joined by

1:07Phil Makers, Adam Pillan, and Megan Wumer, the creators of the new documentary, The Co-Tay Photo. The Co-Tay Photo is a documentary that investigates one of the most compelling and enduring UFO photographs ever taken. A mysterious disc-shaped object captured overlay Co-Tay in Costa Rica during an official government aerial mapping mission in 1971. Through the people connected to the photograph, it's remarkable history and decades of analysis. The film explores why this single image has remained so difficult to explain. And that perhaps the most important thing is rather than claiming to solve the mystery. The Co-Tay Photo asks a bigger question. What happens when a piece of evidence survives scrutiny and we're still left without an answer? Now, Suzanne Landers and I both had the opportunity to advance screen this documentary and we were

2:08both completely blown away. So it was an absolute honor and pleasure to talk to Adam and to Megan all about their film. We really get in the weeds with this one and it was a lot of fun. So you're going to learn all about the Co-Tay Photo, the thoughts and theories on what it could be, how they were able to find the actual photographer who took the photo and the rich history that this individual has with the UFO topic. We also get to learn more about how they analyze the photo and why we know for a fact that it is an actual solid object in this photo. It's amazing. It's one of the clearest UFO photos ever taken and we get to learn so, so much about it in the new documentary and in this interview. So I cannot wait for you guys to watch the documentary and to listen to this interview. There are links in the show notes or in the video description to go to the documentary,

3:12to order it, to watch it and a link to the official Co-Tay Photo website as well where you can learn so much more about the filmmakers and the film itself. But before we get to that interview, I want to take just a few moments to ask you guys to please rate and review somewhere in the skies on Apple podcasts and on Spotify. Every single one of your ratings and reviews helps us get boosted up in the algorithms and possibly get featured and to find new, curious minds to listen to the show. You can also like and subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube that goes a very long way. Comment under the video that boosts us up in the algorithm as well. It all helps. Anything you can do to help spread the word about someone in the skies is greatly appreciated. If you'd like to further support us, we have many options. We have Patreon, Apple Premium. We also have YouTube channel membership. We get a bunch of bonus episodes, early access to the podcast and many other rewards by

4:15joining any of those links are in the show notes and video description as well. But let's get to this awesome interview and I cannot wait for you guys to see the Co-Tay Photo. Welcome to somewhere in the skies and a huge welcome to our two guests today. We have Adam and Megan from the Co-Tay Photo documentary, a new documentary coming to you guys in gosh, just a few days as we're recording this. And we're joined today also by our wonderful co-host Suzanne. We're going to be talking all about the new documentary. What could be the clearest UFO photo in history? We're going to be showing it to you guys tonight. We're going to see it all over the documentary. And yeah, we're just going to kind of dissect what the Co-Tay Photo is. Why it's so important and why these two lovely people decided to make this documentary

5:16about it. So Megan, Adam, welcome to somewhere in the skies. Thank you. Thank you for having us. It's a pleasure to be on. Absolutely. And it was a pleasure to watch the documentary. Now, you guys were kind enough to give Suzanne and I advanced screeners to watch. So we have a lot of questions and a lot of them are answered in the film too. So we won't give away too much tonight. But let's start kind of from the very beginning. Now for those who may not know what the Co-Tay Photo is, obvious first question, whoever wants to take that, what exactly is the Co-Tay Photo? Do you want to start or do you want me to go? You can start. All right. I'll start us off. Cool. In 1971 in Costa Rica, Sergio Llewiza, a cartographer, was flying in a Arrow Commander airplane and they were on a mapping expedition for the Costa Rican government. And during that mapping expedition, they caught this object on a high resolution piece of

6:22film. The film was taken by a specialized cartographic camera designed to make maps. And there's this stunning 3D object that appears on it that resembles what a lot of people call flying saucers. It's a remarkable image. It's the test of time. It's been in the hands of the Costa Rican government. It has a very distinct chain of custody. And it is often regarded as one of the clearest images of a UFO ever taken. Absolutely. I mean, when I have those skeptic friends, obviously, things are changing in the UFO world. It's more widely accepted now. But if they ever ask me, give me the smoking gun evidence. Give me the photo, the video, the dead alien. I don't have that.

7:23But I do have the Cote photo to show them. And I will tell you, this is the one I turn people to all the time. And I want to get your guys thoughts on that a little bit later. Like what you consider good evidence is the Cote photo, the only one. But before we get there, that's kind of the background of the photo itself. But how did you guys get involved? Like what was your interest in the UFO topic? How did the Cote photo end up in your guys' lap? And what made you decide to want to do a documentary about it? I was visiting my friend, Kelly. She's in the documentary in Costa Rica. And she was just telling me about this UFO photo that was taken right by where she lived. And it was so interesting. And Adam is my husband. And he's always been really, really enthusiastic about UFOs and UAPs. So I told him this would be a cool project to do, to make a documentary.

8:23We've both worked in production for about 20 years. Adam is a commercial editor by trade. But he's been wanting to do his own things too. And then everything just kind of fell in line. So it was very fortuitous. That's pretty cool. It's all in the timing. Right. What a time to make me feel a documentary. My God, it's like this. She's and I have been studying these phenomena at this topic for our lives, if not more. Exactly. Yeah. And now is the time where we're like, finally, people are listening to us. You know, we're no longer the tinfoil hat or screaming from the roots. Why do we are a little bit? Maybe a little bit. We're still here. You got to keep that tinfoil hat back in the closet somewhere. You never know. Truth is stranger than fiction. You might hold it in a second. Hold it in a second. Right. Yeah. Now, I'm going to let's use Antico Burn a minute. But I do want to touch on kind of whose eyes we see the documentary through.

9:26Now obviously, you guys are the producers, the directors. Like this is your vision. But for us, watching this documentary, we're seeing it through the eyes of a gentleman named Esteban. Which is really cool that you found kind of a local researcher to be our window into Costa Rica into this world. So what, how did that all happen? How'd you meet Esteban and like, what is his connection? Well, after, after Megan came home from that trip and we decided to, you know, take a shot at it, we started reaching out to people and sending out a couple of emails to see what kind of feedback we could get. And we ended up getting in contact with Michael Strickland. Michael Strickland is also in the documentary. He's a drum scan technician and an amazing photographer in his own right. And you know, we just kind of found him on the internet and we said, Hey, are you the guy that took, did the scan of the Cote photo? And he said, Yes, I am.

10:28And through Michael, he's like, you really should talk to Esteban. So he asked about an email for us and then he responded and we made a call to him and he answered the phone like he was expecting that call all along. And so Esteban has been a great partner in all of this. He's a lawyer by day and a UFO researcher by night. And he found the photo, he was shown the photo from his uncle at an early age, just a picture of the negative. So after his uncle had passed away, his aunt decided that Esteban should be the person to get his, his tranche of UFO researcher material. And so he was going through it, expecting to see the photo that he saw when he was a kid and ended up coming across an actual contact copy of the negative, which is pretty, pretty

11:33rare. So he got a hold of this photo and it really kicked off his own journey into the subject, right? He was fascinated by it and was like amazed and really kind of used that to like kind of inform some of his research and he really went deep on the topic. But like I said, he's a lawyer by day. So he's a very analytical mind and he's a consummate professional and he's very smart. But he's also very open to different ideas and different possibilities. So he was an amazing tour guide. If you will, he really did open the window for us and let us see all the things that this photo had to offer. Right. Which will definitely get into you because I mean, it's not just the photo, the story that unravels in your documentary is so much more, so much more powerful as well.

12:38And Suzanne, we got a lawyer by day UFO researcher by night. Does that sound familiar? I'm very familiar to me. Yeah. And also is a former attorney and UFO researcher by night. So I think she had a close connection to Esteban as well. I do. I do. It's awesome. Yeah. Quite easily. For sure. But yes, Suzanne, I'll let you take it from here. Yeah. And Esteban is fascinating and of himself, but I am taken with Sergio. Oh, I would love. Now Sergio is the cartographer who was just in the plane doing his thing in 1970. 71. And, but a very young man at 29 years old. And he has had other experiences as well. But I would love for you to tell our listeners sort of this, how this happened from Sergio's perspective. Yeah. He was on the plane when he took it.

13:40He was responsible for making these maps. He is such an amazing person. And he's got such a beautiful, kind, welcoming, loving soul. And Megan, when we first started this project, started texting back and forth with him. And neither we don't speak Spanish and Sergio doesn't speak English, but through the power of modern technology, they were able to communicate through translations apps. And they became the best of friends. They really got to know each other really well. And he really welcomed us in as part of the Cote family, if you will. Yeah. He is. And Sergio, so in our documentary, and we kind of go about once an experienceder, always an experienceder, when people start to see phenomena, they tend to keep seeing it for unknown reasons or maybe they just kind of open up to it.

14:41And so Sergio has seen phenomena on his entire life ever since he was a young boy and his parents have also seen it too. So it's very open in his family. And then he's still a couple times a week if you're on his WhatsApp or some of his, some of the other groups he's involved in, he takes pictures all the time of little things he sees, like the Tic Tac ones and other things out in the sky. Yeah, they really took Tic Tac Sergio and they present themselves to him quite often. When he was on the plane, he didn't see them, but as she mentioned, he's been a lifelong experienceder. So from I think five years old, he went out and saw someone with his parents and his brothers. And I think they've been a major part of his life ever since. And he grew up with his jungle, the rural jungle. So it's not like he was growing up in New York City where he had aircraft flying over constantly.

15:43I mean, it was really rare to see a lot of UFO and also anything out in the jungle's a Costa Rica in the 50s. Right, right. I think even in the film he mentions, like the only aircraft he'd ever seen was like a medical helicopter or something like that. Yeah. And you know, this idea of like phenomena following a lineage or whatnot is fascinating. You know, Suzanne and I have both had UFO sightings and counters in our lives. And it does kind of open something up, you know. And it's so interesting with Sergio. Like we think of like the Cote photo being the pivotal experience of his life. Yet this has been going on since he was a kid. Like that was kind of like the halfway point was the Cote in the irony that no one actually saw that craft, you know. I do want to ask about that in a little bit too. But to go back to the, I guess the photo itself, something that really stood out to Suzanne

16:46and I was this idea of the frames that they would take, you know, when they would do the cartography and map these things. And brain 300 is kind of the buzzword here. Yeah. Anyone not 301. Exactly. So that happens to be this one frame where this object was seen, not the one before or after, as Suzanne said. Now I'd love to get an idea of like how much time in your research is between each of these frames where they would take the photograph. And to you guys, what does that kind of mean? Or like I guess the speed of what this object could have been or do you have any thoughts or theories on that? Let's break that down a little bit, the frame, I guess. Yeah. I mean, it opens up a world of possibilities. And that's one of the most intriguing things about it is that it is only on this one frame. It is a very specialized camera.

17:49It is mounted to the bottom of a plane. So they flying on a flight line and about approximately every 13 seconds, the camera, once they kind of set it up and find their navigation. It flies along in every 13 seconds. It takes a picture from underneath to mount the different landscapes. So the idea that it's only on one frame gives us, you know, I believe that it had some movement to it or there's so many possibilities that it could be that it's really fast or it could be that it's popping in and out of dimensions or it came out of the water for just a split second or it's bending space time around it so that you can only see it from a certain angle. So there is a world of possibilities for why it's only on that particular frame, but it's

18:50on that frame. And so it's quite remarkable that it was able to capture that image in the first place. And so, you know, then the rest is up for debate, to be honest with you. Like, we encourage people to analyze it and think about it and come up with their own ideas because there's so many options there. And, you know, we don't know what it really means because we can only make guesses. We can only have assumptions. And I think that's part of the intrigue of this photo is that it opens a book, but it doesn't close it, you know, and really gives you the chance to kind of let your imagination run with it and see where you go with it. Absolutely. You know, the kind of tricksterish nature of these phenomena, it makes sense to me that

19:52it'd be like, I'm going to just show up at frame 300. You know, like, I'm going to let them have any preconceived notion of what happened before after that. Yeah. But, you know, that's sense, by the way, of whether you think it was coming out of or returning to the water. My first impression was, that's what was happening, based on nothing, of course. My radar, I wondered if Sergio had any opinion about that. Sergio didn't really say that specifically, but we have been told by other locals in Costa Rica that there is a ship that lives in Lago Gode and kind of comes in and out. So obviously unverified, I would love to get them to sign a release and be in an actual movie, having somehow arranged that. But that is, and I think too, that's kind of what people are now talking about is the underwater phenomenon with the phenomena.

20:55Right. Yeah. And Lake Cote, Lago de Cote, is this sort of mystical place, right? It's long been regarded by the local tribes as a place where the gods live. So there's this kind of oral tradition in Costa Rica that shows reverence to the lake as a special place. It's a crater lake. It's not crazy, but it goes to about like 59, 60 feet in the middle there. And so, you know, is there something in there? I don't know, but it's an amazing place to be. And when you're at the lake, we went to the lake to film in the early morning and we got there at like 4 a.m. and we kind of saw the sunrise. And you know, by the end of it, like we were just having like this overwhelming emotional sensation of really being in a special place. So it really gives off this energy that truly is something remarkable.

22:01Yeah. Beautiful. And that too, because here in Santa Fe, it's a little bit of the same. Yeah. It's the same vibe. Well, I'm curious. Yes, Sue. Do you have any thoughts on what the size of this thing was? I know that there are aerodynamics involved and that makes it hard. But any thoughts on size? Well, the film negative is 23 by 23 centimeters. It's huge. So it's essentially nine inches by nine inches, which is much bigger than, you know, a standard 35 millimeter film or even IMAX. When you go to these big IMAX theaters, you're looking at a film negative that's like two and a half-ish inches. And it's the tiniest spec on the negative. So but the scale of the photo is one in 20,000. And so if you do the math on that, the disc itself is 0.42 centimeters, which if you do

23:03the math tells us that at ground level, that's 84 meters in diameter, which is quite large. Almost 30 meters feet, something like that. Wow. So that's really big. But there's no way to tell really how high it was in the sky, right? It's under, it's under the plane, which was flying at 10,000 feet. So we know that. But, you know, there's no real way to tell exactly how high it was in the sky. So that can, it can vary in size drastically. But if it were at ground level, that's, that's 84 meters, which is a very big ship. Yeah. So yeah, that's what we do know about it. And the rest is kind of, the rest is kind of guesswork. We've seen, you know, since we've made this documentary, a lot of people are like, reach it out and saying like, oh, hey, I've done this research and I've done this research.

24:05And they're analyzing shadows and angles. And there's a lot of. I think I watched that video after I watched your documentary. There is a good video analysis where the, the glint on the object is analyzed sort of in a 3D study using basically Google maps and the Google maps. The fact that this got captured and that no one saw it in real time is a fascinating thing. It makes me want to help somebody go through like the Google map data, throw some AI in there and let's see what we're capturing. You know, every day's real life, the disclosure foundation is about to do with the NASA archives. Let's see what we have. I suspect we have things much like this. Yeah, we can use any AI in the film. It's all very analog and very real. But I did just out of curiosity put the high resolution scan into an AI generator and

25:06I didn't ask the AI to do anything. I just put the image in and hit render and it took the disk and it spun it around and it turned it right into a UFO and had it fly right off. So like AI knows what's up. Yeah, the good and the bad for sure. Yeah, and you know, even in your film, you know, you have the analyst who did the highest resolution possible. And I love how in depth he gets with like, you know, here's where the sun was coming in from the land and it meets up with where it reflects off of the metal of the object. So this is an authentic object. It isn't like an artifact of the camera or the film. And I love how in depth that got in a truly does show like this was there. This went over the water presumably towards the land or the opposite into the water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a real thing. It is an object. It's a real thing exactly.

26:06And Jack Wellay came to that conclusion with Richard Haynes as well. Oh, yeah. I tried to vet it. And the conclusion was it was anomalous. It was a physical object and the glant was real. That's right. Yeah. Can you guys talk a little about that, you know, in terms of Haynes and Valet and kind of what role they played in the film? Yeah, they were some of the original researchers of the photo. So it first came to prominence because of a group, the Vilechez brothers, which were pioneers in uophology in Costa Rica, managed to get a copy of the photo. Nobody really knows how interesting. And how do we think that happened exactly? You know, your guess is as good as mine. I have a better guess about how Esteban got it, but how the Vilechez brothers, maybe they just asked for it. You know, they're a very old culture and you know, like it's, you know, they're very forthcoming. So if they went to the National Geographic Institute of Costa Rica and asked for it,

27:11it's very possible that they just, you know, gave them a copy of the photo. But from there, they got it to J.L. and Heineck and who is an amazing research, who's historically one of the best researchers of the topic. And later Richard Haynes and Jacques Vallet did an in-depth analysis on it. And they actually did two reports on it. And you know, they don't claim it to be, you know, extraterrestrial, but they do claim that it's an actual physical 3D object, a craft that's captured on this photo. And, you know, they did, you know, these guys are highly intelligent, they're so smart. The most brilliant minds arguably of, you know, the last five decades. But Dr. Vallet is still alive, too, he's in his 90s and we saw him from afar at contact in the desert and it's just amazing to be in his presence. And then Michael Strickland, too, the analyst, who drumscanter photo, he is an artist, but

28:15he also has this engineering mind, which is such a unique combination that you can really, you know, do the math and go through the processes and say, why something is real? Yeah, he in his earlier life, he wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. So he was really, he was kind of going down that path anyway, but he fell in love with music and art and he's this amazing photographer. And so he ended up getting a drum scanner, which is a Heidelberg Tango drum scanner, which is the highest, best technology to replicate analog to digital. So he became sort of an expert on that because he wanted to make high res archival copies of his own eight by 10 photographs that he was taking using old world photographic techniques. And so this guy's like super smart. Like he is really, really intelligent and one of the nicest people.

29:17And like we've had such a great experience with everybody involved. That's awesome. Hey, we need more people like that looking at this UFO stuff for sure. That's awesome. Susanna, let you take it from here. Well, do you think that Lake Cote might be a bit of a hot spot? You know, I'm absolutely convinced that some areas are. I think I'm in a hot spot. I think Ryan has been in a hot spot before. When I, with all the things that have gone on with Sergio and Esteban and then all of this as well. And it cultures openness on the topic. It just makes me wonder. Are they a hot spot? What are your thoughts? Yeah, this isn't the only UFO photo taken in Costa Rica. You know, people have been seeing them there for years. It's. It's such a beautifully diverse place. And ecologically, it's one of the most diverse places on the planet. Right.

30:18I think it's really like it's surrounded by water and volcanoes, the minerals and the volcanoes and that. It's such a place of beautiful, natural beauty that like. Yeah, I imagine that if you were coming from the far reaches of the universe, you're going to look for a place that has like this. That is truly the most diverse place on the planet, you know, a pound for pound. And so I do think that's a hot spot. We're in Michigan and I do believe that Michigan's a hot spot as well, which is always kind of. Made me feel a close connection to the topic. I was at move on a move on conference just recently. And there was this amazing presentation about multiple sightings over the course of a day. And that was seen all over the state from the west side to the east side. And was actually caught on radar data.

31:20So I do think there are places in the world where. You know, some of these phenomenon happen more readily and and you know, Latin America all over Latin America. There's a lot of tradition with with the phenomenon. You know, they got some of the greatest pyramids in the world. You know, we got to go to Chichen Itza and a family vacation once and you stand there and you're in just in all of these places. And Costa Rica also doesn't have a military. So there is no, you know, body trying to keep. There's no clamp. Yeah. Yeah. No, they never did they ever take a public position. The the Costa Rican government on this photo or what it might well, they they certified a copy of the photo. They're saying it's an authentic image. Like she said, there's no military there. So, you know, there isn't the same kind of. Classify it for national security reasons that, you know, we have here in the United States.

32:25And it's become really kind of a source of national pride for Costa Ricans. Like it's it's part of the lore there. Like everybody knows about it. Everybody has a story about it. Everybody kind of remembers, you know, like, oh, my uncle showed me that or, you know, my dad was talking about that or my mom had this experience. There's so many people there that are really kind of in tune with it and also in tune with the natural environment that they live in. And nowadays too, I think they're just very laid back about it. Like, oh, yeah, like obviously. It happens. Yeah. Yeah. I look much as South America is isn't it? Yeah. Much better perspective and dance around it. Does anybody is anybody else shocked that the Americans didn't show up and. Shoot it down. That's like we shoot first ask questions. Oh, man, I will say this though.

33:28At um, Michigan is a hot spot. I was speaking at an event in how in Lake Michigan, actually. And we went out for a sky watch and we. Low and behold saw like four orbs of them. They weren't satellites. They weren't drones. They were right over the lake. Again, the whole water thing. Um, so for sure. And then obviously you guys are known for the whole swamp gas. Explanation from Mr. Mr. Heineck. So you got that to you. So yeah, I think all three of us in these wrecked angles. You see here on screen have been in hot spots for sure. Uh, in making this film, uh, I've been talking to a lot of, you know, friends and. You know, people I come across and, and my world and my friend Rob told me about his own experience at Houghton Lake. And then he showed me the most amazing photo and video of. Uh, object that both him and his daughter saw there.

34:32Um, so you know, we're, as we kind of develop our next couple of documentaries. That's, that's one of the things we might take a look at is sort of the, uh, USO aspects. And, and we had another friend who took some amazing photos over Lake Superior of. UFOs and formations. So, um, we're really, there's the potential for us to make an amazing Michigan documentary. And so, um, that's one of the things we're kind of exploring. That was great. You got the Detroit Lions and you got the UFOs. It's the stranger things that happen. The Lions started winning. That's more so true. So true. So true. Yeah, we'll probably get full disclosure before the Lions win a super. Oh, man. Yeah, you're breaking my dad's heart. It was a huge lion span, but Susanne, go ahead. Oh, well, I'm just again fascinated with Sergio. He has such a good feel to him.

35:33Yeah. And I know that he's had all these other experiences. Did the fact that he has had so many experiences affect how you interacted with him in this project? So we went Sergio lead the conversation. We didn't really know what he, we came in with no script. Um, we, you know, we knew about the photo. And I had been talking him online, but we also just came in and wanted to see where he brought the story. Um, and just kind of let him go. And I mean, he, he says it's himself. It's time for him to start telling his stories. And he has just led the most incredible life. He's, you know, so accomplished, so smart, so wonderful. His family is wonderful. And as, as Devon says, every talk with Sergio is a lesson. Every, you know, he, he just let him go. I love that. Yeah. And we really, um, we really got to spend some time with him.

36:34And he has the most, like she said, he has the most amazing stories. But it wasn't just always when the cameras were rolling either. Like, you know, like we got done interviewing and then he insisted that we stay around and have some coffee and break bread with them. And, uh, again, we don't speak Spanish. So we had, we had a crew there with us and they would help translate. And we had just this most amazing conversation. And at the end of it, I was like, I wish we could have caught that on camera as well. But he is just so kind and loving and like when you, when you meet him in person, you just like, they're, he, he, you really feel like he's telling you his truth. And he's being completely honest with you. So whether you choose to believe him or not, he's really genuine and forthcoming in his own experiences. And you don't have to believe him, but he's telling you anyway because he thinks that, uh, this phenomenon should be shared with the world and it shouldn't be, um, you know, just something classified for a select few people in a government.

37:37He really wanted to, to share some of the lessons he learned. And those aren't just UFO lessons. They're life lessons. Well, that really comes through in your film that he has such an open heart about this, which I do think has some relationship to who sees what? You have to, I think, be in a right kind of a heart place in order for this to even happen. So he sure does feel like he's in the right place. He seems very kind and open. And I remember the first time I met him, he was saying how you can only wear one pair of shoes at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time. So just, you know, don't be greedy and just live a very peaceful, humble life. You know, humble like, like, you know, that's being satisfied within your own self. You can feel that just a beautiful life. And you only get frame 300.

38:41Don't be greedy. Not 301. What if the world is far stranger than we've been led to believe? This September 12th, step into the virtual world of Enomicon 2026. The premiere online conference exploring UFOs, the paranormal, consciousness, cryptosuology, folklore, and all things anomalous. Hosted by me, Ryan Sprague of Somewhere in the Sky's, and our leading researcher, Suzanne Lankers. And featuring legendary paranormal broadcaster, Jim Harald. Enomicon 2026 brings together researchers, journalists, filmmakers, authors, experiencers, and investigators from all around the world. And best thing about Enomicon, there's no travel, no hotels, no expensive tickets whatsoever. It is 100% free to watch.

39:41Join us for fascinating ideas, original presentations, anomalous themed music videos, and a global community exploring the unknown together. Watch Enomicon 2026, this September 12th on the Summer in the Sky's YouTube channel. And to learn all about our speakers and their presentations, be sure to visit enomicon.com. Links are in the video description or the podcast show notes. We hope to see you there September 12th. And remember, the anomalous is waiting for you at Enomicon 2026. Hello, this is Ryan Sprague, the host of Summer in the Sky's. If you're enjoying our podcast, our live streams, and our videos, and you'd like to support the show, there are several ways to help while unlocking exclusive perks. Join our Patreon community for early access to episodes, priority guest questions, exclusive articles, bonus content, and access to a growing community of fellow UFO enthusiasts.

40:46You can also subscribe to Summer in the Sky's Premium on Apple podcasts for ad-free listening, early access, and exclusive premium content. If you're watching on YouTube, consider becoming a channel member to unlock bonus content, members only post badges, and so much more. No matter how you choose to support Summer in the Sky's, your contribution directly helps fund our research, our production, travel, interviews, and the continued growth of our community. We hope you have everything we do here. So, to learn more, check the links in the show notes or the video description. And real talk here, guys. Thank you for listening and supporting us for almost 10 years. And thank you for supporting independent content. And I hope you'll continue to join me somewhere in the Sky's. So, yes, Suzanne and I, that's why we love the topic of UFOs because it does teach you more about the world. But I think ultimately more than anything, it teaches you more about yourself.

41:49For us, this topic, while it might be theoretically about aliens or something else out there, it always kind of mirrors back to us. And that's clearly how this topic has affected Sergio and kind of the knowledge he would impart. I didn't have this question written down Suzanne, but if you don't mind me, asking, we actually, we didn't write down here about the other experiences you have in the film as well. I think they really brought a lot more humanity to all of this too. Could you maybe tell us a little about the other experiences that you feature in the film? Yeah, so Emmy, Emmy is an Italian and her husband, David is also Italian. They met in Costa Rica. But she kind of recounts, David doesn't do interviews, so she kind of relayed his experience to us. But he had his own abduction in 1971 where he was, he believes he was taking a Costa Rica.

42:55So on a later trip there, he, you know, was like, I've seen this road, I've seen this cow, I've been to this lake and like a lot of the things kind of clicked. And all this was part of my abduction in 1971. And him and Emmy, his wife, ended up opening a restaurant in Nuevo, Aranal, which is, you know, the stone's throw away from like Cote. And it's an alien themed restaurant. And it's some of the best Italian food you'll ever have. And they really kind of open this restaurant to dedicate it to his cosmic brothers. And so yeah, they have amazing stories. And she tells us a story about people coming in there and sharing vibrations with David. And she thinks that they're not in this world. And it's such an amazing story. And Kelly, our friend that originally told us about this photo is, is just this very kind of eccentric person.

44:03She describes herself as the storm, you know. Like the calm is where nothing happens. The storm is where she lives. She was like my spirit. And this documentary I swear. But yeah, she had her own experience of seeing a desk. And that's kind of, she relayed that to Megan. And that's really kind of what brought us into it. It wasn't just the photo. It was the experiences that have seen things around the lake. And really, we find that to be the more fascinating part of all this is those stories. Because, you know, the photo has been here for a long time. And people have researched it. And, you know, greater minds than us have researched it. And so we really, you know, took care to listen to other people's stories about it. And listen to their own experiences. And truly remarkable. Yeah. It's very special. She's very intuitive. She's very, so, you know, and as Estebanis, Sergio, say, there are no coincidences in life.

45:10So I don't, you know, I don't know why she brought that photo into her attention. Or what, you know, maybe mystical things are behind it. But she's definitely a channel for for something. For something. It does seem, you know, kind of synchronistic. A lot of the ways that you, this story unraveled. Like, you can take the photo kind of as a prime example. Like, you look at just the craft. And you're like, okay, really interesting. But then you zoom back and then you see the land. And you're like, holy crap, that thing's huge. And then you keep zooming back. And, you know, I mean that more, I guess, existentially or what not. And you get the fuller picture of Cotelec. And then, you know, what this could be in the history of activity around the area. And then all the different experiences. I love the more you zoom back, the clearer a picture you get of all the pain. Not just the photo. And you guys do such a good job with that.

46:10So yeah, yeah. A lot of synchronicity seems to have fell in line for this. Yeah. This to happen, I feel. Yeah. So many. And in a way, I kind of believe that. I don't know if we chose it or it chose us. It feels more like it chose us. And it really, you know, when Megan went down there and saw the photo for the first time and came back. And she's like, let's do this. And then we called Michael. And he's like, it's me. And then he got us in touch with us to bomb. That is in touch with Sergio and Leslie came because he's long time friends with Leslie came. That's right. I'm a special seller. And all the things just started kicking into place. And, you know, even like Michael Strickland lives in a town called the Liberal Kansas. Liberal Kansas is five hours from anything. It is absolutely in the middle of the Kansas. And there is not much around it. But there they they have this little, you know, space for Wizard of Oz.

47:16The Dorothy, they claim Dorothy from Wizard of Oz as being from Liberal Kansas. Now that's a fictional story. But they really kind of they kind of claim it and say it's the birthplace of. Dorothy and then they have this crazy air museum that has all these planes in it. And, you know, stuck in the back of the. Of this giant warehouse with all these planes, you know, we're talking a town of a couple thousand people. But this this airhanger is just amazing. And then at the back of it, there's an arrow commander plane, which is. Which is the plane that Sergio flew in. So it's like, yeah, that's crazy. And, you know, so we ended up shooting in that museum, but we did it in like 15, 20 minutes on our way to the airport. We stopped in or like, can we shoot here? We know this and then we were like, you have an arrow commander and he's like, yeah, in the back. And so yeah, it's it's been well, you know, it's funny.

48:17It's sorry to cut you off there. I felt a deep connection when that's to bond was in New York meeting with Leslie Cain. Because I knew the exact subway platform that he was on because I took that thing to work every day for almost 12 years. And I was like, oh my god, like I've stood literally where Estabot is standing right now. I was like looking at the map and everything. So like, yeah, it's just those little tiny intricacies that really resonate. So yeah, that was my personal connection. Yeah, yeah, you think that would be that's the thing I took away from your film. Wow, I've been on that subway platform crazy. No, I love it. But yeah, it's it's connected to a lot of different people and a lot of different ways. And it seems to it has this energy about it that kind of pulls you out. Absolutely. I'm more weird connection to this. Yes. So here's Santa Fe. I have some lovely neighbors next door. We're just the best friends.

49:18And when I saw liberal Kansas come up in the documentary, my heart stopped. And I took a quick screenshot picture of it and sent it to my neighbors. And I said, they are from liberal Kansas. And I said, you know this imager. He says neighbor. Oh, yeah, no, it's tiny, tiny, tiny. What are the odds? What are the odds? I'm not going to mess up his name. But I think it's Glenn Martin from Lockheed Martin had a special interest in liberal Kansas. So like there's this they did a lot of early flights there and hence the aeronautical, the, the plane museum. And so you know, it's like this small little town even has connections to Lockheed Martin, which is so crazy. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Which leads to Area 51, which is great. And when you fly in there, they're, you know, it's one room. It's the smallest airport I've ever been.

50:19It's the same in Santa Fe. Now we do have a new trailer that set up this one kind of hole out of in the back of the luggage through. I guess technically we're now two rooms. So it's like Rodswell too. Yeah, like Roswell very much. When we were shooting at the air museum, I was like, all right, we got to get back to, you know, the airport because we're going to miss our flight. We don't want to miss our flight. And then we got there and there's like fine people. We need about 30 minutes in Santa Fe to get on your flight. Yeah, you just kind of walk up to the plane and you know, it's kind of cool. That that reminds me. Here's an impromptu question for you guys. Are there any other like crazy weird stories during filming this like, did you run into any UFO people or any other UFO things happen? Like, yeah, I always love this behind the scenes sort of. For me, absolutely. Yeah. And like besides all these synchronicities that happen, you know, one of the things that we don't show and the film we're really talk about is this crazy picture that we pulled it, you know,

51:30we're pulled over to the side of the road and Esteban took a picture of a volcano. And then, you know, it doesn't show anything, but when you, it's a live photo and when you, you know, click on the photo and you watch it, you see a little. Yeah. And then like, so I brought it in to my editing software and I slowed it down and I'm like, maybe that's something coming out of the volcano. We don't like it to be, but like all these little things started happening and, yeah, so we. I, you know, I don't like to think I'm an experiencer in the way that Sergio's an experiencer, but I've seen things in the sky that I can't explain. And some of those things became more frequent for me as this stuff was going on, you know, and I have a little cabin in the woods in Northern Michigan. And a very dark part of the sky and I've seen a couple weird things happen up there that I just couldn't explain during the night.

52:31You know, maybe they were giving me a little, a little taste. Yep, you're getting your initiation, man, it's happening. Welcome, welcome to the club for sure. Yeah, I think she's that. Go ahead. Hey, Brian, could you pull the photo back up of the. Yeah, so for me, because I have a question about it and you may not have any information on this, but I am riveted by the little circle at the top. Yeah, yeah. What do we think this is? Again, that's one of those things that is up for debate, really, but, you know, I, when you look at the photo, it isn't, or the ship is in exactly flat and it's kind of like that, which we've seen in other examples of craft, like the one that was not the tick-tax one. Kim, Kimble, the gimbal video, the gimbal video looks like a disc, but it looks like it's cantered to the side.

53:36And so yeah, we don't, it doesn't appear to really be at the very center of the disc. And, you know, like when we first started, we're asked ourselves, is this like a port hole? Is this something that people that somebody from the inside view something from? Is it a shadow from something even higher above it? You know, that there's, I wish I had a better answer for what it is, but, you know, like when, when Esteban scanned it, one of his intentions was to kind of take a better look at what that was. And his uncle thought there might have been somebody even inside of that. So they wanted, you know, when his uncle was doing his research, he, you know, before he had drum scan technology, he was, used a microscope and then a camera to really kind of get a better photo of the inside. And I think that's one of the things that he was most intrigued about is like, what is this dark spot there?

54:40But yeah, there's, there's a world of possibilities. But to me, you know, I work in advertising on my day job is making car commercials. And so I look at a lot of sheet metal and cars on film. And for me, it looks like a way that light is wrapping around a piece of sheet metal. I don't know if it's metal or some kind of composite or, you know, obviously we can't do. A material analysis of what the craft is, but it has a very metallic looking composite to me. So, yeah, I wish I had a better answer for what exactly that is, but I'm not entirely sure. And, you know, Bob Lazar recently kind of talked about the sport model. And I think that's kind of a great question. You know, so like this, you know, in my mind, close, it closely resembles to, to this kind of desk. And so I'm wondering if there's like maybe a port hole up there that they use for navigation or if it's a window to look out or even if it's just another shadow from something above it.

56:00It's it's somewhere between ground level and 10,000 feet in the air. Well, hey, I mean, like you said, you know cars. There's some features on cars where I'm like, why the hell did they put that there? Like what purpose does that serve? So who knows me, but you make a good point to like the whole Bob is our thing. He his whole thing, whether you believe him or not, we know he's a very controversial character in the UFO lore, but he always said that the craft he saw would turn belly up and like go forward. And I think you did mention that earlier as well. Like is this a possibility that like these craft can like rotate on their side. And then that port hole is now in the back projecting it forward. Who knows who knows or even pulling it? I'm sure. Yep, that's the beauty of this. We can theorize all we want. We don't know the flight dynamics of these. And I think that's why they're so interesting because you know, it's like, you know, we we've seen military planes and we've seen a lot of different things.

57:08And these things seem to defy the physics of those. So you know, it's and and really it is one photo. So like it doesn't give you all the answers. And but that's part of the intrigue about it. That's why it's so interesting is because it's it's as a nigh. It's wrapped in mystery. I think that's part of what this whole phenomenon is about perhaps teaching humans to sit quietly and comfortably in the enigma. Even when we don't like that, we don't we don't do well in limbo of sorts. We can create answers. We declare path. We look to make concrete sense of things. This topic does not offer that often. Nope. Keeps us on our toes every day. It's frustrating as that is. It's exciting to living in the mystery. You know, this definitely is one of the clearest UFO photos ever, if not the most clear. But I got to ask you guys like in your research, are there any other like famous UFO photos or videos or anything else you think kind of maybe even hold a flame to this or

58:22or stack up with this or yeah, yeah, anything you can think of. I mean, I've seen so many really compelling photographs over the course of this. There was one. I'm drawn a blanket. The Calvine photo was the other one that was really kind of like, you know, and. Coat, though, what separates sets it apart is that it's an official government photo with an unbroken chain of command. So that's kind of what makes it a little more. I don't want to say often, dig from the Calvine photo, which I think is real and. And also amazing. So definitely go research the Calvine photo. But yeah, and this is one of the if not the only one looking down on the craft, right? Like it's it's a completely different perspective. And I think part of the. Looking at things from different perspectives and looking at it from different angles will give you inform you different things. So yeah, looking at it on the top that's driving me insane.

59:37That's such a good point, though, that you guys bring up of the fact that this is an official, you know, government survey mapping photo. Now I do live in Scotland. I have been. To what we presume was the exact location of the Calvine photo where it was taken. We were able to use, you know, the. RAF press officer came with me and another documentary filmmaker to triangulate this area. And we do believe we found the exact place where it was taken. However, the big thing there is we don't know who the photographers are. We think we have a first name that's as far as we've gotten so far. But I, you know, I'm working with a documentary filmmaker to still try to I go to pitluckery all the time and go to the restaurant. So I'm like, hey, who does someone has to know took this.

1:00:37Someone help a brother out. Come on. Which was one of the amazing things about this project is there are very first kind of email and out to Michael like just suck us right in. And you know, and. But yeah, we were able to find Sergio and get firsthand accounts about his experience, which was I didn't see it there, but also I've had all these lifelong experiences. Let me tell you about that. Yeah. And then it all unravels. I love that. Yeah, chain of custody is so important, especially with photos and videos nowadays to which is kind of where I want to fast forward with you guys as we kind of begin to wrap things up here. Today's UFO world is unrecognizable from again, what's Susan and I have experienced for decades at this point. I didn't dare talk about this topic with family or friends because I was made fun of constantly. But now we live in a world where they're now coming to me and being like, what's going on with like these congressional hearings and, you know, all that sort of stuff. So what do you guys think?

1:01:47Did you have any preconceived notions of this topic before making the documentary? I know you had an interest in it. But what do you make of where we're at today with congressional UFO hearings? All these UFO file releases that this current administration in the US is doing. Like, what do you think about modern uFology in 2026? And where does your documentary kind of what role does it play in that? You know, it's been an interesting curve. When we started this, the government had hasn't released those tranches of UFO photos or reports that they have since released. So, like, as we're making this, I was like, ah, well, we're going to get disclosure and they're going to show something that's better than this and nobody's going to care. Well, we'll have missed the boat on it. But then they make these dumps and they're full of like black bars and, you know, like, they're not giving you the good stuff.

1:02:47They're, Megan uses the term trickle truth, you know, so they like give you just a little bit to satisfy something, but then they're not giving you the real deal. Yeah. And, but this one, it's been on the surface the whole time. So, even in starting this, like, the topic has gained momentum and more people have been brought into the fold and more people are paying attention now. And, you know, Leslie came who we were fortunate enough to interview. She wrote this amazing article with Helen Cooper and Ralph Lumenthal in 2017 for the New York Times. And that was a very kind of pivotal moment in UFO research because it showed that the US government does in fact fund research into the topic. And that kind of gave birth to, you know, Louis Alizandro and David Grosh and some of these other whistleblowers that, you know, really put, put their reputations and lives on the line by coming forward and talking about it.

1:03:58You know, we're artists from Detroit. So, you know, like, nobody's like, oh, Adams talking about UFOs. He's crazy. They always thought I was crazy. So, so far for the course. But like, you know, at a high level, people are paying attention now. And that's just, that's amazing. And it's been, it's come such a far way since that article. And even in the last couple of years, you know, with the, you know, what five, five dumps by the government now of different things. And one of the, one of the videos there that intrigues me a lot is the one over Lake Huron because like, right. Oh, it's, it's in our own backyard. And you go and you're like, what is that? And is it at the moon? Is it this? Is it, you know, so there's a lot of intrigue around it and a lot of questions and a lot of possibilities. So, you know, the more we get from different sources, the more informed people are and the better, you know, they can make their own decisions.

1:05:05You know, we're not trying to force anybody to believe anything or even believe us, you know, we really set out to just kind of point a camera and let people tell us their stories. You know, we did try to, we didn't really set out with an agenda to, you know, prove or disprove anything. We just wanted to make an interesting film and do it the best that we could. And that's what we did. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, Suzanne and I, we've covered everyone of those tranches and the releases. And, you know, we were left wanting. We were left with so many more questions than answers. This is supposed to be about transparency. And it seems like anything but in some ways. But, you know, the files are really cool. The NASA stuff is cool. But I will be honest personally, the videos and photos have really let us down. And I think that's where a documentary like yours comes in to kind of save the day and be like, hey, you want something clear?

1:06:11Like you want something with an actual history backstory government photos that were taken. Like, here you go. Like, so yeah, I think this is the perfect time for something like what you guys did to combat a lot of the more ambiguous sort of stuff that has been released. So yeah, yeah, that's that's all I have to say about that about fanboying boy and out about the code Dave photo. But Susette, do you have any other questions before we could be obvious last year? Yeah. Yeah, one more question. I would love for you to tell our listeners sort of what your big takeaway is from this event and your documentary. I think that the big takeaway is that as broad and expansive as this topic is that you really have the answers inside of you. It's really if you look internally and find peace and joy and happiness and love in your own space and your own skin with your own family.

1:07:21I think that's the real takeaway is that as big as this topic is what it really comes down to. And Sergio says this in the film is raise your family in peace. How fortunate we would all be. And so I think that's the big takeaway is that like it's within you. You know, you have the answers. You have the ability to love. You have the ability to share and be part of something bigger than yourself by looking within. So yeah, it's really it's really a story about connecting with yourself and connecting with your family and your friends and community and finding peace in life. And I know that's you know, different than some of the other documentaries that are like the government's out to get you. Don't trust them fear fear fear.

1:08:23Yeah, you know, so tired of the fear narrative. Yeah, here are documentaries refreshing. Yeah, very, very refreshing. Well, it's so well done. And I think our listeners are going to absolutely love watching your documentary. Thank you. Absolutely. Last question for you guys. Tell us a little bit more about the creative team. If you don't mind behind the dock, I know a lot of people were involved with making this thing. I always love to shout them out. You know, it takes a village to truly make something like this for sure. And of course, other last question to prompt question. Where and when can we find the Kote photo documentary? Well, Megan was really the driving force behind all of this. She really brought it together. You have to really give a lot of love to Pablo Pablo Corales, who helped us produce it. He's a Costa Rican filmmaker. And he was really instrumental in making a lot of these connections.

1:09:23Roberto Mario, our cinematographer, are one of our cinematographers. He was the main cinematographer. Really took the story and put all his heart and energy into making this beautiful Luis Garo was our AC. He was with us on the first trip. And you know, we're like, hey guys, we're going to get in this car and we're going to drive around. And we're going to be spending all night shooting and he's like, let's go. Ben Keeler is a producer. And on the film, but he also did the mix in the audio with us. And he was very instrumental in helping bring this thing to life. Darren Clark was our local DP who really took charge of doing a lot of the B-roll inserts. And he really helped us with production support. You know, he was a source where we got our cameras and some of our gear from. And you know, he was always there to bounce ideas off of Hudson.

1:10:28Hudson edit, a company that I used to work for was that I still do with from time to time was really helping and supportive on the post production under the process. Katie Barco, a friend of ours really kind of stepped in to help with editing and and give us kind of a second set of eyes on it. And yeah, Sammy, Sammy, she really helped us get together our our our socials. And Michael, Michael, yeah, there's so Michael already helped us really and Lori, there was so many people that really, really took ownership of this and really shared in the experience. And we can't thank them enough because they we couldn't have done it without them. And we had a lot of friends and family that supported us just in conversations about it, you know, and really kind of like helped guide us through this.

1:11:37And so we really couldn't have done it alone. And as far as where you can see it, it'll be on Apple TV, it'll be on the co-tafoto.com where you can rent or buy it. And then it'll eventually make its way into some other streamers and then it'll hopefully make its way around the world. And it'll get a lot of attention. So we did our best to make sure that it was made widely available for anybody who wanted to see it. The high resolution scan available on our website for free. So if you don't Esteban really wanted the high resolution scan, free to download because that these materials should be available for everyone across the world. Yeah, without that. So yeah, we encourage you to, you know, even if you don't watch the movie, go download the download the scan and do your own analysis. Oh, that can.

1:12:37You can just put it in a frame and put it in. It'll be back on this wall very soon. Trust me. Is there an official release date yet guys or is that still up here? September 4th, two days. Yeah, oh my gosh. Awesome. And then it'll splinter its way out into the world. Yeah, we're very excited to it's been an overwhelming positive response, which we're so grateful for. People have really kind of embraced it. And I think there's a lot of people who are very excited that something like this was made. So, you know, thank you for sharing your platform with us and helping us get the word out about it. We really appreciate that. And yeah, we would love it if people went and watched it and studied the photo and shared their own ideas about what it could be. Absolutely. Approved for help.

1:13:37Yeah, like, well, however you want to dissect it and, you know, there will always be room for doubt. And there will always be room for skepticism. And, but there's also a lot of room for truth and honesty. And there's a lot of room for many different people in this conversation. I love that. Yeah, we'll get the conversation going in the comments below guys on YouTube on Spotify. You let us know what you think of the Cote photo. Let these guys know to go to the website. We will have links to where you can get the film and the website below and in the show notes video description. So, be on the lookout for the Cote photo. It will have dropped by the time this air. So, you have no excuses. Go. Download. Read. Buy. Do it. It is worth every second. And guys, we got to thank you. It was a true honor and pleasure. And thank you for your contribution to a field that desperately needs the respect that you have given it in this documentary.

1:14:41So, thank you for joining us on somewhere in the skies. Oh, thank you. Thank you. And thank you for all the kind words and that. Yeah, we really appreciate it. Thank you.