The journalist that covered the Plesiosaur expedition in 1922, sent by the Buenos Aires magazine Caras y Caretas interviewed a Mr. Goicochea who had lived in Minas (central Neuquén province) about other sightings. Below is what he reported in issue 1229 (April 1922).
The Plesiosaur in Lake Huechulafquen
The text in English is the following:
Mr. Goicochea said "I remember, when I was the Secretary of the Court in the Department of Minas, hearing many times, [from] respectable neighbors something similar to that... and they were not young fellows... I will cite their names: Mr. Cecilio Gerio, merchand in Junín de los Andes, Mr. Mendaña, old rancher of those regions, one of the first settlers in the Cordillera... Another: "Fair" Bagual, which is his nickame, but is really named Rodriguez... Well, this Rodriguez was a soldier in the expedition to the desert. He deserted and then obtained his retirement and now owns a small ranch over there... All of them have said many times that in the lake Huachi-Lauquén [sic] at sunset, an animal often appewars on the surface of the water, with more or less the same features of the one they say they have seen in Esguel [sic]. Very long neck, head of a lizard, the body that must be enormous, because when it submerges, it produces like a boiling in the water
Huachi-Lauquen is Lake Huechulafquen, and Esguel, is a small lake close to the town of Esquel in Chubut.
You can read the original Spanish text here
Huechulafquen is a large lake, 30 km (19 mi.) long and up to 5 km (3.1 mi.) wide, it covers an area of 78 km2 (30 sq. mi.), and is very deep.
In the 1960s, Gregorio Alvarez casually mentions among several other strange mythical animals which he calls zoomorphs, a “cow at Lake Huechulafquen.”Unfortunately, he did not describe the beast, so its appearance is a mystery.
In March 2009, a tourist named Jorge Salcedo, while on an excursion in a catamaran, photographed what looks like a set of three waves that look more like the wake of some boat than the back of an animal swimming just below the surface. The media quickly reported it as a lake creature and named it “Huechulito.”
In 2023, a tourist filmed some strange waves in the calm lake (Source). Below is a still from the video (video online).
A plausible explanation could involve otters or even gas bubbles surfacing in the lake because there is plenty of geothermal activity and hot water springs in the area as it is located beside the Lanin volcano.
Lanín is a stratovolcano, that is 3,747 m (12,293 ft.) high, it has a conical shape and its summit is covered by glaciers. It last erupted around 1,500 years ago.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
No comments:
Post a Comment