I have written a book on this intriguing subject which has just been published. In this blog I will post excerpts and other interesting texts on this fascinating subject.
The ultimate guide to Patagonia's cryptids, mythical beasts and legendary creatures.
From lake monsters to giants, from dwarves to surviving prehistoric beasts: a Patagonian bestiary.
If you find any useful information, or just like my blog, a link back would be great!
Austin Whittall
AW
Vicente López, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Patagonia has always bewitched me with its incredible beauty, its vast solitude and its mysteries. This blog reflects my love for this, the most beautiful place in the whole world.
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La Patagonia me ha hechizado desde siempre con su increíble belleza, su vasta soledad y sus misterios. Este blog refleja mi amor por el lugar más hermoso de todo el mundo.
The native people on Chiloe Island, the Huilliches, on the Pacific coast of Chile, in its Patagonian region, believed in a strange legendary ghost ship called "Caleuche".
The name, according to one source, derives from the Huilliche words caletún, which means "change appearance" and che, "people". Meaning that the mystery ship is a shapeshifter. It was a ship that haunted the shores, a coastal Flying Dutchman of Patagonia.
Phantom Ship
I hadn't mentioned it in my books because it is a ship, not an animal or monster. It is an enchanted watercraft. But it was recorded by different ethnologists over a century ago. Let's see what they have to say about it.
"Caleuche is a submersible ship that sails in the seas of Chiloe. It is manned by witches, and on dark nights it has been seen afloat, brightly lit up. The Caleuche has a feature, when the circumstances demand, it can become a trunk, a rock or any other object, and its sailors become sea lions or aquatic birds. It is an infernal pirate that brings terror to the homes of the islanders, who know that if they have the bad luck of becoming its prey, even for one instant, they will lose their minds, and with their face turned around, towards their bakcs for the rest of their lives... It is also called the Ship of the Arts.. when a boat disappears mysteriously it is taken as a fact that it was boarded by the Caleuche's crew and its passengers held captive on board the fearsome pirate ship."
F. Cavada, in 1914 wrote about it (Chiloé y los Chilotes). He also said it was submersible; "a mythical submarine ship, that sails both seas and rivers... It is the same story of the phantom vessel, so popular in the Cape of Good Hope, and in other people of the Baltic and Mediterranean seas and the Antilles. Better said, such a vessel is a popular myth in almost all times and countries.
The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman myth is about a ship that is doomed to sail the seas forever. It is the outcome of a pact with the devil, signed by the ship's Dutch captain, to navigate safely and avoid the terrible storms on the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope). It is also seen at night, a phantom vessel. The ship can never dock at any port, and must sail the seas forever.
Alejandro Cañas desiribed it in 1911 (Vol XI de los Trabajos del Cuarto Congreso Científico o Pan Americano celebrado en Santiago de Chile del 25 de Diciembre de 1908 al 5 de Enero de 1909, Estudios de la Lengua Veliche, p. 256). He called it the Ship of Art, manned by witches and wizards, and "that many have said they have seen it and navigate at night, lit up, and with red sails."
The origin of the myth
Death and pestilence at sea was not uncommon in the 1500s and 1600s. Scurvy, tropical diseases, even the plague were rife at that time. The myth probably originated when sailors or people living on the shore sighted a derelict vessel, with its crew dead, pushed by the winds... a phantom ship, with a ghostly crew.
The Caleuche could have arisen after the native Mapuche, Chono, and Huilliche people along the Patagonian coast saw the first Spanish vessels in the mid 1500s. Then came the Dutch: Simon de Cordes (1599), Olivier van Noort (1600), Joris van Spilbergen (1614), Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten (1615), Jacques l'Hermite (1625), Hendrik Brouwer (1643). And also English mariners like Sir Francis Drake (1578), Thomas Cavendish (1587), Richard Hawkins (1593), just to name a few.
The sight of European galleons must have impressed the natives, ships that came from nowhere and vanished into the deep ocean.
Alternatively, the myth could have originated when the Amerindians saw the first Polynesian outriggers reach the coast of Southern Chile, large catamaran canoes with sails and odd-looking crews. Then, much later, the European vessels would have contributed to the ancient myth.
In 2011 I posted about A "UFO" spotted by Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1580 in the Strait of Magellan. I discarded the sighting as an Unidentified Flying Object (now called UAP, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), and suggested a lunar eclipse, or even the moon obscured by volcanic ashes. Today I will look into other UAPs reported by FitzRoy during his voyages along Chile's Patagonian coast (1829-1835), and provide some additional information to his comments.
"Extraordinary meteoric appearances have occasionally been noticed about Chilóe, and the islands southward of it. In describing the Carelmapu earthquake, of 1633, Ag&uuuml;eros says that torrents of rain followed; and that on a high hill near the town was seen a globe of fire, which rose for a short interval, and then fell into the sea: the waters of which were in consequence much disturbed. A violent tempest ensued, with hail larger than musket-balls.
Another remarkable earthquake happened thereabouts on the 23d—24th of December, 1737: and on the 30th, in the early part of the evening, a great exhalation or cloud of fire was seen passing, from north to south, over all the archipelago. It fell on the Huayteca islands, covered them with ashes, and burned up the vegetation to such a degree that it was only in 1750, that the islands began again to look green.—Agüeros, pp. 102, 104, 105."
I found the source mentioned by FitzRoy (Online), Descripción Historial de la Provincia y Archipielago de Chiloe, en el Reino de Chile, y Obispado de la Concepción (1791) by Pedro González de Agüeros. He wrote the followign about the 1633 earthquake and the "lights" that followed it:
"In the year 1633, on May 14, at dawn, they heard in the town of Carelmapu a vehement and terrifying noise that resounded throughout all the houses and fortress; but with such astonishment on the part of the people that they were forced to leave without delay, and with all haste from their beds, because it seemed to them that the houses were falling upon them, as in fact they soon saw them on the ground. They ran astonished to the Church, but they found it already ruined, without finding anything but piles of planks and timbers. The stones from the beach were out of their center, and piled up next to the ruins of the Town, and two boats, which were anchored in that Port, were also broken into pieces.
A heavy downpour followed this, and those people, having nowhere to take shelter or defend themselves from it, did nothing but cry out to God for mercy. Afterwards, somewhat calmed, and eagerly desiring to see and worship the Image of the Most Holy Mary, which that Church had as its patron saint, and the entire town as its Patroness since the first settlers brought it there from Osorno, they cleared a path, removing wood, and clearing away all other obstacles until they managed to reach the site of the main chapel, and there they found the Divine Lady between some sticks, with the Child Jesus in her arms, but without any injury.
They all attributed this wonder to the infinite power of our God and Lord, who arranged for that Divine Image to remain intact for the consolation of so many in affliction, and because they also found another image of Christ crucified that they venerated in that Church. They continued cleaning that sacred place; but they were astonished when they found the bones of the deceased, and a corpse that was not yet completely corrupted. They reflected on this, and realized that the cause was that the violence of the earthquake, since it had not been able to break the wooden posts that held the Church up, because they went into the ground about a yard and a half, tore them out entirely, and as if they were levers, they raised the tombs, removing the bodies. After these fatal events had passed, they wanted to find out where, or how this failure had come about; but while they were examining all the places in the town in case they could find any other effects to determine the cause, they were overcome by something even worse, because they saw on a hill or high mountain near the town, a globe of fire that seemed to threaten the final disaster. It rose and then fell into the sea, immediately disturbing its waters. Then came a furious storm, accompanied by astonishing darkness, and breaking the sky with hail, they found stones thicker than musket balls. Finally, those people were already believing that the last hour of their lives had arrived for them, and therefore, crying out incessantly to God, they hoped for moments to pass into eternity."
This globe of fire is surely an Earthquake Light.
Agüeros adds another similar incident that took place after the 1737 earthquake: "the year 1737, on the 23rd and 24th of December, and also that on the 30th they saw in the middle of the afternoon a great exhalation or cloud of fire, which coming from the North, passed through the entire Archipelago, filling all its inhabitants with terror; and having come to fall on the Islands of Cuaitecas, and on that coast, they noticed later that it had set fire to those mountains there (1).
(1) This is also evident from the Note found on the Map that the Count of Super-Unda sent to the King in the year 1752, when he was Viceroy of Peru, where he says: the Islands of the Archipelago that are washed with red, are those that in the year 1737 were burned with fire rained down from Heaven, which terrified the entire Province, which Islands remain covered in ashes; and in the year 1750 it was recognized that some were beginning to reproduce some grass."
"The town of Valdivia was devastated the previous year by a formidable earthquake, with three shocks (December 24, 1737), so close together that their interruptions were almost imperceptible, and lasting nearly fifteen minutes, with such violent undulations that people could not stand firm, and the ground opened up in many places..."
Could it have been a meteor strike, one that exploded as it entered the atmosphere and left no crater? Probably, but since the Osorno volcano south of Valdivia erupted at the time of the earthquake (Source) it was likely that the ashes were volcanic, and blanketed the islands further south. This quake-eruption, was similar to the one of 1960 (Valdivia earthquake, Puyehue eruption).
A final aerial phenomena associated to an earthquake was reported by Joaquín de Echeverría and José Antonio Rodríguez, in Santiago, Chile, in November 1822. (Source). This quake was also centered in Valdivia and had a magnitude of 8.5.
"On Tuesday the 19th at 10:50 a.m., stronger concussions of short duration were sometimes repeated. The next day, the 20th at 3:08 a.m., there was a tremor without any noticeable noise, but little commotion. At 3:42 a.m., a meteor traveled in the same direction as the earthquake, that is, northeast to southwest, in the form of a large fiery trail, which produced a brightness equal to that of an already clear twilight for four seconds. Several other minor meteors reportedly appeared toward the mountain range. At 5:24 a.m., another tremor of little commotion, but preceded by considerable noise. These have happened very often."
Earthquake Lights
There is a paper explaining how these lights form Robert Thériault; France St‐Laurent; Friedemann T. Freund; John S. Derr, (2014). Prevalence of Earthquake Lights Associated with Rift Environments. Seismological Research Letters (2014) 85 (1): 159–178. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220130059).
One explanation was that rocks containing quartz, when placed under stress generate electric potential, another suggeste that the stress caused by tectonic plates colliding distorted Earth's magnetic field, and these electromagnetic incidents produced light. But the 2014 paper are caused by stress releasing electric charges held by certain types of rocks.
Rocks like basalts and gabbros which may have defects in their crystaline structure, when they are subjected to high pressures, they release electrons. Some basaltic rocks in the form of dykes (solidified lava that reaches deep into the crust, conduct these charges, funneling them towards the atmosphere where they discharge in the air and form a colorful plasma. Apparently these events are rare, occurring in roughly 1 out of every 200 earthquakes. The lights can appear before, during, and after a quake, and up to 100 miles from the epicenter of the quake (160 km).
Below is a video of a January 2025 earthquake in Taiwan, with earthquake lights.
Earthquake Lights, Taiwan, Jan. 2025.
Strange lights are reported often in Patagonia (see this one, from 2021, with a photograph and this one from 2020), the area is subjected to considerable tectonic stress which could explain these lights.
Continuing with the mysterious Patagonian sea creatures, I will go back to the Patagonian "sea cow" because today I read an interesting post by Alejandra Leighton Naranjo, Anthropologist of the Unidad de Salud Colectiva of Chiloé [1]
She posted the story told to her by an old inhabitant of Mechuque Island, Arsenio Huichaquelen which mentions a "sea cow" and which I quote in full below: (Source: [1]):
The Camahueto and the Sea Cow
[You can read my post on Camahueto, to brush up on this Patagonian unicorn, a bull-like creature with one horn jutting out of its head]
About 60 years ago, Mr. Ramiro Oyarzo, a diving suit diver came across the Camahueto and the Sea Cow while he was diving in the channel between the [Islands of] Cheniao y Aulín. [1]
The channel mentioned by Arsenio is located at approximately 42°15'S and 73°13'W. Aulín Island is part of th Butachauques Islands and Cheniao is part of the Mechuque Islands. Both of these islands are part of the Ancud Gulf, and located between Chiloé Island and the mainland, in Chile. I marked the spot with a red circle in the map above.
Now back to our story:
He barely saved himself because the animals chased him in the deep sea. At that place there is an enclosure where, deep down, the animals lived. Don Ramiro said that that explained why that part of the channel was so bad for sailing.
(The Sea Cow is like a cow, but with fins [1]
The story has both creatures (cow and camahueto) behave like the regular "land" bovines. With an enclosure an all. It also gives them supernatural powers to disturb the waters and imperil navigation.
But lets just imagine that these details are just embellishments that were added to make the story better, and hide the essence of it: the diver came across some weird sea creatures and his mind classed them as sea cow and camahueto.
We can guess that they were not sea wolves or sea lions / seals because the diver would have recognized them. They were surely something else. Maybe a "Southern sea cow" or manatee, or perhaps a walrus? We will never know for sure.
It is interesting to point out that in the same area (see map above), there is another strange being:
The ‘Water Trauco’
Do not mistake it for the minute Trauco, a landlubber evil and perverse dwarf.
This is anothre variety, a sea-run trauco, one that lives in the ocean, quite different to the dwarf.
It lives at Mount Quicaví on the east coast of Chiloé, and is describe as a dangerous male goat. With a long beard and legs similar to those of a guanaco. Its body is covered with fish-like scales and bushy hair. [2] Perhaps some other variety of sea cow.
Bibliography
[1] Relatos de Don Arsenio. Salud Colectiva Chiloé. 01.05.10.
[2] Barrio, J. El Diccionario de Mitos y Leyendas. On line.
The Sea Horse is a cryptid mentioned at Chiloé Island. It is, according to Latcham [1] a creature that neighed strongly, foamed at its mouth and being very large, could fit up to twelve native wizards on its back.
Chilean explorer, Guillermo Cox wrote that one of his guides, Pedro Oyarsún had once seen a dead “sea horse” on the beach, “its mouth hurt by the bit, black and white [skin] and very short legs like those of a sea wolf”.[2]
In Latcham’s opinion, this creature was the native’s distorted view of a sea elephant (Macrorhinus leoninus) which was once abundant in Chile but had been hunted to extinction. The largest member of the seal family, its long snout—40 cm (16 in.) in length— could have seemed like a horn; its imposing size, up to 5 m (16.4 ft.) long and 4,000 kg (8,800 lb.) and aggressive behavior in males also resemble the fierceness and enormity of the sea horses.
Chilean hippopotamus. From [3]
The quote shown above, reads:
The sea horse is the same as the river horse or hippopotamus, which is found in the African rivers; it is different however in that it has a mane on its nape.[3]
He goes on to add that: "I did not have the chance to see the sea horse. Following the description of some who saw it under water, I thought that it was not different to the African hippopotamus. Later, others who have seen it out of the sea, have told me that it has roughly the height of a ordinary horse, which it colosely resembles in its head, tail and back.[3]"
And it is the second time that I find a reference about the strange Patagonian hippopotamus.
Sources.
[1] Latcham, R., (1924). Op. Cit. pp. 611+ [2] Cox, G. Op. Cit. pp 70. [3] José Toribio Medina. (1878) Colección de historiadores de Chile y documentos relativos a la historia nacional. Imprenta del Ferrocarril. Vol. 11. pp. 295. and 302
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia
Chilean historian Diego de Rosales wrote in 1674 that in the sea by Chiloé Island the natives had seen fish that were:
as large as whales with two heads and one with the body of a small whale with a horrible head notably out of proportion with its body, armed with two long and sturdy horns; that on its back it had a wide eye. It was an enormous and stupendous beast.[1]
A similar myth circulated among the Selk’nam at Tierra del Fuego which told of a fat yet agile man named Shai who “transformed into a fish without scales, thick, with two horns on its head”.[2]
"Horned" sea creatures. From: [3]
A horned aquatic beast is something unheard of by science, excluding the one horned narwahl that lives in the Arctic waters; there is no other animal with this feature (the see einhorn or sea unicorn shwon above is a mythical creature).
Perhaps it was some large huemul deer swimming in the sea, or the “water Trauco”. The “two heads” part seems to be made up or, perhaps refers to some unknown animal.
The water “Trauco”
The dwarfish Trauco mentioned in our post Here is not always depicted as a midget troll, it has some local variations. For instance on Mount Quicaví on the eastern coast of Chiloé Island it is described as a dangerous goat with a long beard that has guanaco-like legs; its body is covered with scales and tufts of bristly hair.[4]
At other places within Chiloé it is a sea creature “with the legs of a guanaco, fish tail, the [spiky] bristles of a sea urchin and two pointed horns”.[5]
Walrus?
This is a very strange sea creature, a horned fish-goat hybrid. But what if the descriptions are wrong and the two horns are not horns but fangs, that is tusks?
Perhaps it is a Southern Hemisphere walrus? However walruses do not live outside of the arctic sea and the north Atlantic and Pacific Oceans close to the polar region. This southern walrus may be an unknown and possibly extinct animal.
Chiloé map. Quicaví is shown with an arrow.
Bibliography.
[1] de Rosales, D. Op.Cit. v. 1 pp. 308-309. [2] Canclini, A., (2007). Leyendas de Tierra del Fuego. Mitos de los onas y yaganes, aborígenes fueguinos. B. Aires: Zaguier & Urruty. pp. 92. [3] Online, Here. [4] Barrio, J. El Diccionario de Mitos y Leyendas. Online. [5] Housse, E., (1939). Une épopée indienne: les Araucans du Chili; histoire... Paris: Lib. Plon. pp. 150.
Calchona is part of the Mapuche folklore.
She is a creature that looks like a large black sheep, or a woolly black dog, that roams around at night.[1]
The name Calchona derives from Mapuche language (Mapudungun) word “kalch”, which means pubic hair, and refers quite graphically to the creature's long, curly fleece.[2]
Harmless, she, for it is female, a witch, is said to be the outcome of magic spells gone awry.
The popular tale is the following: she, the witch used some creams which she applied on her skin to mutate into a black sheep. She would then go out -no one knows why- every night. Her suspicious husband, spying on her, for he believed she might be a witch, saw her transform into a sheep. So he threw away her magic ointments. When she returned she could not undo the spell and was forced to remain a sheep forever. She roams the night and bleats asking for food.[3]
Read more here (in Spanish) from page 7 onwards:
Machucho
The Mapuche at Chiloé also mention the “Machucho”, a nocturnal goat-like being that bleats like a goat and has a similar body build; like Calchona, it is a creature of the night and considered piguchén or degenerate.[4]
Both creatures, Calchona and Machucho are sheep/goat-like and resemble another similar creature, Huallipen (see our post on it Here).
Nahuelito is not alone (posted Here); it is merely the most famous of the Patagonian lake monsters. There are many other lakes and streams boasting their own creatures, as well as more native legends about strange aquatic beings.
Mapuche myths describe several “small-sized” water beings; we have already mentioned the Camahueto "unicorn" and "Trehuaco" but there are many others. Today we will write about the"Cuchivilu" of Chiloé Island.
Its name comes from the Mapuche words “cuchi”, pig and “vilu”, snake; it is a strong and unwieldy pig-like creature. It is considered a degenerate being (“piguchén”) that lives in caves by bogs and lakes.
It snorts like a pig and the upper part of its bulky body is pig-like while its rear resembles a snake. It drags itself along the sea shore destroying the fishermen’s traps and eating the fish that they hold.[1]
Bibliography.
[1] Cavada, F., (1914). Chiloé y los Chilotes. Santiago: Impr. Universitaria. Chap. v.
[2] Ashton, J., (1890). Curious Creatures in Zoology. London: J. C. Nimmo.
Fiura lives on Chiloé Island. She is a very ugly woman, who is said to be the wife of Trauco.
She is a forest creature just like her husband. And also, like him, a sexual predator.[1]
She assaults men after "taking their breath" (an enchantment she performs to seduce them), to do so she gets close to them and breathes on them, absorbing their breath to take control of her victims.
She has dirty long hair and dresses in a gray gown.
Fiura Troll at Chiloé Island stamp. Correos de Chile.
She is the daughter of "Condená", another mythical being, and she takes after her because Condená, which means "the condemned one", is also an ugly old hag. Depraved and lascivous, she too, like her daughter, sexually attacks lonely men.[1]
Chilean folklorist Vicuña Cifuentes compiled a slightly different version in which Trauco (the male) is also known as Fiura, and his wife is known not as Fiura but as Trauca (where, in Spanish, the final "a" indicates femenine gender).
She is also known as Huella and adds "Vir qui thraucam somniat cum viro coibit" hinting at her perverse nature.
Bibliography.
[1] Cárdenas Alvarez, R. (1998). El libro de la mitología. Punta Arenas: Atelí.
[2] Vicuña Cifuentes, (1915). Mitos y Supersticiones Recogidos de la Tradición Oral Chilena. Santiago: Imprenta Universitaria.pp. 87
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