Lago Palena. courtesy of Reserva Nacional Lago Palena [1]
Lake Vintter, which used to be known as Lake General Paz is shared by Argentina and Chile (where it is known as Palena).
It is located at the foot of the Andes [43°56' S, 71°31' W] and has a surface area of 135 km2 (52 sq. mi.) it drains westwards into the Pacific Ocean through the Corcovado and Carrenleufu rivers.
During the 1922 "Plesiosaur expedition", Clemente Onelli, who organized the expedition said that there had been a sighting there involving a local inhabitant, but no details were given beyond the year (1900) of the event.[2]
A few years earlier (1898), professor Illing had visited the region searching lucklessly for the mylodon.
More Recently, in 2005, at this very site, a Corporal of the Argentine Border Patrol Force (Gendarmería Nacional) named Rufino Gómez who was based close to the lake, said that he had “seen a strange animal bellowing in the lake”.[3]
The newspaper team sent to cover this incident was taken aback when they heard not once but twice in a row “loud roars” that Gómez identified as belonging to the same animal that he had heard. The sound came from the opposite side of the lake which has an average width of 6 km (3.8 mi.).
The news team also found tracks on the shore, “50 cm [20 in.] in circumference” - roughly 15 cm diameter (6 in.)- and conjectured that the creature “weighed several tons”, based on what evidence, no one knows.[3]
Bibliography.
[1] Photograph from Reserva Nacional Lago Palena blogspot.
[2] Publicación electrónica Secretaría de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Año 4: N° 1. Online.
[3] Katz, R. (2005). Misterioso monstruo en el lago Vintter. Parte 2°. Agencia Nova. 29.05.2005.
Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©
Patagonian Monsters
