"Culebron" at Lake Nonthue

 

Lago Nonthue (Lake Nonthue. By by Marina A. Zoccatelli Bosch
From [5]. © by Municipalidad de San Martín de los Andes.

Culebrón may look like this.
From [4]. © by Rastko Stanojevic

Lake Nonthue, is a tiny body of water located right by the Argentine-Chilean border. Surrounded by high forested mountains, it drains into the South Pacific Ocean. It is formed when Lake Lacar narrows at its western tip (40°09’ S, 71°37’ W). (More on Lake Lacar Here, it has several cryptids too.)

Here at a place named Katru-Katru, many years ago a young Mapuche shepherd saw something terrible sitting right beside a cave:

a black man, like a scorched tree trunk, with his head upright and his hair neatly combed. […] it was only human from the waist up; the other half was the thick and long body of a great serpent coiled up under it.[1]

This “snake-man” reminds us of the Mapuche “Cherruv” or “Cherrufe”, which had many different representations and for some tribes it was “a sphinx that blends the head of a man to the body of a 'Culebrón'".[2] Or, according to Guevara a hydra-like being: “a seven headed monster, a dragon that spews fire […] and lives close to volcanoes”.[3]

More on Culebrón, Here or see this post on the monsters drawn on Desceliers 1546 map.

For some hard science facts on fossil remains of giant Patagonian snakes, see our post Here.

Bibliography.

[1] Koessler-Ilg, B., (2000). Op. Cit. pp. 29 to 32.
[2] Latcham, R., (1924). Op. Cit. pp. 572.
[3] Guevara, T., (1925). Op. Cit. Chap. I.
[4] Rastko Stanojevic. Online Here
[5] Marina A. Zoccatelli Bosch. © 2006 by Municipalidad de San Martín de los Andes. Online Here.

Lago Nonthue by Marina A Zoccatelli Bosch © 2006



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters