Tolten River creature

 

During the last week of January 2003, there were some strange sightings along the Toltén River in Chile. Today we will post about them, and also make Toltén our "Lake (actually River) of the Week".

The river

Toltén is a river, 230 km (143 mi.) long that flows into the Pacific Ocean in a east-west direction, cutting across Chile in the province of Cautín, IX^th Region, Araucania.

At one time it marked the border between the Mapuche (north) and Huilliche (south) people of Precolumbian Chile.

Its sources are at the western tip of Lake Villarica, at 230 m (754 ft.) above sea level.

The sightings

A family that was having a picnic by the side of the river in the Municipality (i.e. County or “comuna”) of Toltén, which is the last stretch of the river before it flows into the sea when:

from the waters a huge serpent emerged –apparently an anaconda- that stared at them from head to toes with the eyes of a murderer and a long fang[1]

This happened on January 26, and as told by one of the family members, Seferino Curihuanca (or Curihuinca), they were at “Toltén Chico” (according to [1]) or by the cemetery of “Toltén Viejo” (according to [2]), (39°11'S, 73°12'W), when they saw:

small waves in the river […] which was not normal and, surprising us, a serpent-like head popped out about forty centimeters [16 in.] out of the water […] it was about three meters long [9.8 ft.] and extremely thick like thirty centimeters diameter [1 ft.] [1]

They threw stones at it and forced it to get out of the river but lost its tracks on the shore after it slithered into the bushes.[1]

Seferino says that he had heard rumors that somebody living in the town of Villarrica (upstream along the Toltén) illegally introduced two anacondas from abroad and both of them escaped. Of course the owner did not tell the police to avoid being fined for his actions.

Mrs. Yolanda Curihuinca (same surname as Seferino, perhaps his wife?) later phoned the Police and described the creature as: “A monster with a big head, whose eyes were prominent, its skin was dark brown and measured 6 meters [19.6 ft.].” [3]

Notice that in Yolanda's version, the snake is twice as long as in Seferino's version.

After the incident, the local police and firemen looked for the snake but did not find any traces of it. The police also admitted that they had heard about the rumor regarding escaped anacondas, but nobody has formally informed them of any incidents.[1]

Though they searched the area, they did not use boats so it was not a very thorough search [2] yet the police said that the whole incident “was a collective psicosis […] more ficticious than real [2].

More sightings

After the Curihuinca sighting, fifteen other witnesses came forward saying that they had seen it too: [2]

• At Frutillar, 2 km from Toltén they saw a giant creature on the river shore that later hid among the rushes close to the cemetery of Toltén Viejo
• At Tenencia, a neighbor told the Police about a snake and that several anglers who were fishing on the river bank ran away because they were afraid it would catch them

During the months of February and March 2003, more "snakes" were seen in the area, but further south, (132 km - 82mi.) from Toltén, on an independent river basin, at Lake Ranco.

Sources.

[1] La Cuarta. Santiago. Chile. 28.01.2003. Anaconda de tres metros dejó helada a familia que paseaba en el río Toltén.
[2] Escobar, P. Diario Austral. Valdivia. Chile. 15.06.2004. El día que Toltén enloqueció
[3] Hallazgos de la criptozoologia

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Lake Vichuquen - lake of the week

 

 

Lake Vichuquen, Chile. From [2]

Lako Vichuquen is a shallow body of water (35 m deep - 115 ft.) , with a surface area of 40 km² (15.6 sq.mi.) and barely 18 m (60 ft.) above sea level.

Its water is slightly salty and tepid, it is surrounded by pine forests.

The lake's name is a combination of the Mapuche words vilu = snake and lafquen = lake. It is the lake of the snake. Apparently the name is due to the lake's long and winding shape.

It measures about 8 km long (5 mi.) and not more than 2 km wide (1.2 mi.), it is located beyond Patagonia's northern tip, in Chile (34°50' S, 72°05' W).

It flows into the Pacific Ocean through a 6 km (3.8 mi.) long river by the town and port of Llico.

In this lake, according to Plath there is an enormous monster whose body is white and transparent, that appears on full mooon nights.[1]

Bibliography

[1] Plath, Orestes, (1973). Geografía del mito y la leyenda chilenos. Ed. Nascimiento.
[2] CuricoChile.com

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity
 
Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©
 

Creatures at Deseado River

 

Not a lake, a river, but the idea is that we want to highlight this Patagonian water course today

During the Plesiosaur episode in 1922, Clemente Onelli, who was organizing the expedition to hunt it, mentioned other previous sightings of mysterious Patagonian creatures.

He told of one that had happened in 1901, when Mr. Ludovic von Plaaten Hallermund, a Dane expert working for the Argentine Border Commission reported that a mule had fallen down a cliff by the Deseado River. When on the following day his men climbed down to salvage the cargo, they found the animal on the edge of the water, half eaten and in its vicinity, strange tracks “like those of a puma, yet not those of a puma”.[1]

The first sightings, dog faced men and crocodiles.

Cynocephalic (dog-headed) giants were sighted in Patagonia in 1592 by John Davis (a member of Cavendish’s expedition) who fought at Puerto Deseado with “a great multitude of Salvages [sic] […] leaping and running like brute beasts, having vizards on their faces like dogs faces, or else their faces are dogs faces indeed”.[3]

A few years later, it was at the mouth of this river that the expedition of Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten (1615) encountered “three or four sea monsters with ash colored hair, with large muzzles like those of crocodiles”.[2]

The river.

The Deseado River is 615 km (382 mi.) long and flows from the Andean foothills into the Atlantic at Puerto Deseado. Nowadays its flow is intermittent and it disappears in places under the arid steppe terrain to reappear downstream fed by temporary springs. However during the Ice Ages it drained a large basin covering what are now the Buenos Aires, Ghio, Salitroso and Pueyrredón lakes.

Bibliography

[1] Hesketh, P. Op. Cit. pp. 335-338
[2] Murray, C., Vainstub, D., Manders, M. and Bastida, R., (2008). Tras la Estela del Hoorn – Arqueología de un naufragio holandés en la Patagonia. Buenos Aires: Vázquez Mazzini. pp. 59.
[3] Davys, J., (1970). The voyages and works of John Davis, the navigator. New York: B. Franklin. pp. 121.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Lake Maihue - Lake of the Week

 

It is located in Chile, (40°17’ S, 72° 01’ W) and has a surface area of 46km² (17.7 sq. mi.), nestled in the western Andean slopes this lake is home to dwarves and strange lake animals.

Dwarves
At Rupumeica, right by the lake, the local Mapuche people tell of small beings which were once abundant; the “dwarves […] used to cross the roads, now there are none of those. They were surely exterminated!”[1]

Noisy, they used to frighten the sheep; these dwarfs were “small but thick […] we saw that man, a man with a blanket, small and wide […] there was an old poplar where the dwarves appeared”.[1]

Lake Animals

The lake also had some strange aquatic beasts that belonged to the “owner of the waters”; a mythical spirit that acted as a custodian of nature. In this case it was abuelito (grandfather) “wentellao” or “huenteao".

This spirit used to “give his animals to”, the “ancient” Indians. These were “lake animals” which the natives captured in the water with special lassos woven from rushes. Though abundant in the past, they eventually disappeared and the ancients “could not [lasso them] any more”, perhaps they had become extinct.[1]

This lasso method is similar to the one we mentioned at Maquehua, close to Temuco, Chile, where the locals lassoed water bulls.

A Beautiful photograph of Lake Maihue.


Bibliography.

[1] Guerra, M., et al., [Comp.], (1999). Las Ñañas. Santiago: LOM Ed. pp. 36 and 53.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity
 
Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©
 

Lake Ranco - Lake of the Week

 

Lake Ranco. Lake of the Week

This Chilean lake (40°11’ S, 72°22’ W) is set very low (65 m – 213 ft. above sea level) and has a surface area of 442 km² (171 sq. mi.).

Lake Ranco. From [4].

It is notorious for Culebrón and Cuero sightings.

For instance, at Caman inlet, at a deep pool, a fisherman caught a “very strange fish that had a crest like that of a cock with a mane down half its back” frightened, he threw it back into the lake, and this place is known as the “Culebrón Pool”.[2]

In March 2003, people living in different towns around the lake reported to the police that there was a “strange creature moving along the river, hiding in the rushes and scaring the animals that came to the shore to drink water”. They described it as a “giant snake about eight meters long [26 ft.], […] an aquatic monster”.[1] Evidently a Culebrón.

Regarding the Cuero, a compilation of contemporary Mapuche women anecdotes mentions Lake Ranco’s Cuero as follows: “cat-like nails all around it. In the past, more were seen, in the inlets […] of all colors, and also of all sizes, and there are big Cueros too and these Cueros in the water are super strong”.[3]

Bibliography.

[1] Picasso, F. and Núñez O., L., (2004). Gigantescos Ofidios Sudamericanos.
[2] Lago Ranco Misterios, relatos, mitos y leyendas. (2007). El Pozo del Culebrón.16.05.2007.
[3] Guerra, M., et al. [Comp.], (1999). Op.Cit. pp. 49.
[4] I M Photopress Discover Chile’s Seven Lakes Destination 12.10.2009

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity
 
Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©
 

Lake Lolog - Lake of the Week

 

This week we will take a peek at Lake Lolog (40°01’ S, 71° 26’ W). Its name in Mapuche language means "place with holes" (the word lolog derives from lolo = hole). However, I can't imagine what kind of holes the name refers to.

It is, like most of Argentina's Patagonian lakes, located on the eastern side of the Andes and surrounded by forests. It flows east through the Quilquihue River into the Chimehuin River which in turn drains into the Atlantic via the Limay and Negro rivers.

It has a surface area of 35 km² (13.5 sq.mi.), and its western section is within the Lanin National Park.

Lake Lolog. Photograph by Ciro Calderón Moncayo, From [1]

See its location in this map (it is the lake at the top of the map).

Lolog's lake creatures

In 1960 a local named Sabino Cárdenas reported that “animals appear” in the lake, looking like “a cow [that surfaces]” however, if pursued “it sinks into the lake”.[2] This same creature is described as a "gigantic cow that is sometimes seen swimming in [the lake]".[3]

The "Cuero" lives here too and Folklorist Bertha Kossler-Ilg wrote that it “drags children to the bottom”.[4]

In 1984, Aldo Peletier saw a dark shape in the lake; he believed it to be 8 meters (26 ft.) long (we were unable to find additional sources on this sighting, it may be apocryphal).

Cows are not unknown in the area and even nowadays ox drawn carts can still be seen in some parts of the National Park. Could some ox dragging logs in the days before the Park was created have been mistaken for some kind of wild cow? The photograph below shows how logs were floated in the lake and dragged out of it using ox.

Lake Lolog, Lema family logs. Old photograph. From [5]

Bibliography.

[1] Lake Lolog. El mirador de Cicalmo.
[2] Fernández, C., (1995). Op. Cit. pp. 44.
[3] Rojas, R., (1925). Literatura Argentina: Ensayo filosófico sobre la evolución de la cultura en el plata.. Librería la facultad. pp. 94.
[4] Koessler-Ilg, B., (2000). Op. Cit. pp. 27.
[5] Lucaria. rfAR09, Marcando nothofagus


Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

Lake Quillen - Lake of the Week and its "cuero uñudo"

 

Lake Quillen (39º25'S, 71º19'W) is located at 975 m (3,200 ft.) above sea level deep inside the Andes in the province of Neuquén, Argentina.

It is, like al Patagonian lakes, cold and oligotrophic (very transparent and low in nutrients and cloprophyll), so the chances that it can be home to some carnivorous animal are small. See my post on the Sustainability issue.

Lake Quillen, with Lanin volcano behind. From [1].

With a surface area of 24 km² (9,2 sq.mi.) it is quite small; it is also relatively shallow with a maximum depth of 155 m (508 ft.). It is on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Continental water divide, and it drains towards the east through the Quillen River into the Aluminé River, a tributary of the Limay - Rio Negro basin.

Quillen, which in the language of the Mapuche natives (Mapudungun) means strawberry, is protected by the Lanín National Park.

Gregorio Alvarez wrote about a "cuero uñudo or "hide with claws" seen at the River, at Quila Chanquil (Mapudungun for "where three rivers meet") by a local named Eusebio Cisternas.

Cisternas also saw the creature by the Quillen River, shortly after it leaves Lake Quillen. It was slightly smaller than the hide of a yearling calf and was holding on to a tree trunk by the river.

This clawed creature, a kind of manta ray with claws along its body, is described in detail in our post on "cuero".

It drags itself out of the water and lies flat on the ground, when someone walks over it, it quickly wraps around its victim and captures it with its claws. Tightly rolled up, it rolls back into the river or lake where it eats its prey safely inside its lair.

The following map shows the area where the cuero was seen. The upper red dot shows Quila Chanquil, and the lower one, Lake and River Quillen.
To the south of the map, by San Martín de los Andes is Lake Lacar, home to a "lake bull" and above it Lake Huechulafquen, home to another lake creature, Huechulito.

Map of Central Neuquen - Cuero uñudo area. Adapted from [4].
Copyright © 2009 by Austin Whittall

Bibliography.

[1] Image from: www.argentinaviajera.com
[2] Sistema Nacional de Información Hídrica / Información General. Lago Quillen
[3] Alvarez, Gregorio, (1981). El tronco de oro: folklore del Neuquén. Neuquén: Ed. Siringa Libros. pp. 116+
[4] Map original source: Instituto Geográfico Nacional


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Lake Viedma - lake of the week

 

Calimayo is a word of Quechua origin meaning “river creature” (“cali”, man and “mayuj”, river), Calimayos are mentioned in native myths as lake creatures from Bolivia and northern Argentina to Patagonia.

They are supernatural horses, lake horses. I have mentioned them (and posted an image) in a previous post on Lake Caviahue.

In Southern Santa Cruz province, Argentina is Lake Viedma (49°41’ S, 72°00’ W). It is a large -1.088 km² (420 sq.mi)- body of water, slightly smaller than Lake Argentino into which it flows, and from there into the Atlantic via Santa Cruz River.

It is located next to the Southern Ice Field and Viedma Glacier flows into the lake.

It was by the tip of this lake according to an article of Buenos Aires daily La Razón (1957) that a geographer named Perry Cook had a strange experience:

I heard a long and vigorous galloping close by. They were hoofs that strode on the fine sand of the water’s edge […] I looked out and had the strange impression that it was a black horse of enormous height, it tallness was abnormal […] he sharply twisted his way and ran into the waters, disappearing in the darkness.[2]

Lake Viedma. From [1].

In the photograph above, Mount FitzRoy (3,405 m - 11,164 ft.) can be seen in the background on the western tip of the lake. At the foot of this imposing mountain is the small village of El Chaltén, "Trekking capital of Argentina".
The photograph was taken from the southern side of the lake, in the steppe. In the foreground are some buildings of a Patagonian "estancia" (ranch).

Bibliography.

[1] El Guanaco Volador. 2005 Alla por el Viedma Patagonia. 25.09.08.
[2] Nuñez, O., L., (2006). Extrañas Marcas en el Cuerpo de una Mujer. Online. Citing: La Razón, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 17.05.1957.

Further reading:

More photographs of Lake Viedma. Views of the Viedma Glacier.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Lake Lacar - Lake of the Week

 

By Lake Lacar, (40°10’ S, 71°25’ W, 50 km² [19 sq. mi.]), at Quila Quina just 16 km [10 mi] from the city of San Martín de los Andes, Mrs. Teodora del Carmen, saw in 1952 a strange amphibious animal on the beach by her home:

a bull with golden horns appears at night. He goes out and runs in the water. A loud noise can be heard when he is frolicking. He roars and makes a lot of noise […] my husband saw it. He said it was a black animal. It does not have hoofs like cows; it has its feet like those of a goose. It does not leave marks on the beach because it does not leave the water.[1]

At this same place, Mrs. Yolanda Curruhuinca, wife of the Mapuche Tribal leader Abel Curruhuinca, swore that she saw a “fish with the head of a bull with golden horns”; once she witnessed a clash between “a little water bull fighting a land bull”.[2]

Which indicates that these water creatures are not related to bovines, they are some other kind of being.

A “Cuerito” or tiny Cuero is also found in this lake, it is the size of a sheep skin, and, it “Attacks” people.[2]

Lake Lacar. Looking west from the eastern tip of the lake by San Martín de los Andes.
From: [3]

The lake, which is on the eastern side of the Andes mountain range (and should be east of the Continental water dived and thus drain into the Atlantic Ocean), flows west into the Pacific Ocean through Chile. The glaciers that carved the lake, flowed east and piled up their terminal morraines at the eastern tip of the lake thus blocking the lakes drainage towards the Atlantic.

At the western tip, the lake narrows and it continues later as Lake Nonthue, home to other lake creatures (more Here).

See the map of the area and both lakes, Here.

Bibliography.

[1] Fernandez, C., (1995). Op. Cit. pp. 74.
[2] Totha, J., (2007). El paraíso queda en Quila Quina. La Nación. B. Aires, Argentina. 18.03.2007.
[3] Photograph from Interlands, Wholesale Tour operator.






Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Patagonian Lakes and Rivers with monsters

 

Map with some Northern Patagonia Lakes. Copyright © 2008 by Austin Whittall

Map with some Southern Patagonia Lakes. Copyright © 2009 by Austin Whittall

In this post I will try to give you some bearings regarding the location of some Patagonian lakes and rivers that are home to strange aquatic creatures.

The list below shows only some of these lakes and rivers, as more appear, I will extend the list.

Some of them have appeared as our "Lake of the week" if so, they are linked to their respective posts. Other lakes have already been posted and their "creatures" described, in those cases there is a link to the post.

Patagonian lakes and rivers with "lake monsters"
Lake Vichuquen - (34°50' S, 72°05' W)
Lake Caviahue - (37°52' S, 71°02' W)
Lake Quillen - (39º25'S, 71º19'W)
Bio Bio River at Santa Bárbara (37°39' S, 72°01' W). Creature
Toltén River - (39°11' S, 73°12' W). Creature
Lake Villarrica - (39°15' S, 72°06' W). Creature
Aluminé River at Pilo Lil - (39°35' S, 70°57' W)
Polcahue - (39° 04' S, 71° 07' W). Culebrón
Aucapan [Huaca Mamul] - (39°38’ S, 71°17' W). Creature
Lake Huechulafquen - (39°46' S, 71°23' W). More on Huechulito
Lake Paimun - (39°43' S, 71°35 W)
Lake Lolog - (40°01' S, 71° 26' W)
Lake Lacar - (40°10' S, 71°25' W)
Lake Nonthue - (40°09' S, 71°37' W). Creature Here.
Lake Maihue - (40°16'S, 72°13' W)
Lake Ranco - (40°11' S, 72°22' W)
Lake Carrilaufquen - (41°08'S, 69°27'W). Cuero
Lake Nahuel Huapi - (40°58' S, 71°20' W). Several posts on Nahuelito
Lake Llanquihue - (41°09' S, 72°47' W)
Lake Todos Los Santos - (41°06'S, 72°13' W). Lake creatures
Reloncavi Fjord area - (41°41' S, 72°26' W). Water cryptids
Lake Vidal Gormaz - (41°29' S, 71°56' W). Creature Here
Lake de Las Rocas - (42°02' S, 71°05' W). Creature Here
Lake Tagua-Tagua - (41°41' S, 72°07' W). Creature Here
Chiloé Island – various locations (42°34' S, 73°57'W)
Lake Plesiosaurio - (42°09' S, 71°24' W)
Lake Futalaufquen (42°50' S, 71°38'W)
Lake Esquel - (42°53' S, 71°04' W). Creature Here
Lake Rosario - (43°16' S, 71°20' W)
Lake Vintter / Palena (ex-General Paz) - (43°56' S, 71°31' W). Creature Here
Lake La Plata - (44°52' S, 71°48' W)
Senguer River (45°49' S, 69°40' W)
Lake Colhue Huapi - (45°30' S, 68°50' W). Creature Here
Lake el Toro - (45°31' S, 71°51' W). Creature Here
Lake Foitzick - (45°38' S, 72°05' W). Creature Here
Lake Blanco - (45°53' S, 71°13' W)
Lake Buenos Aires / General Carrera - (46°28' S, 71°34' W). Creature Here
Tamango or Chacabuco River - (47°04' S, 72°10' W)
Deseado River - (47°53' S, 65°56'W to 46°31' S, 70° 51' W)
Lake Pueyrredón / Cochrane - (47°18' S, 71°55' W)
Lake Cisnes - (48°25' S, 72°39' W). Creature Here
Lake Tar - (49°15' S; 72°00' W). Creature Here
Lake Viedma - (49°41' S, 72°00' W)
Lake Argentino - (49°58' S, 71°58' W). Creature Here
Santa Cruz River - (49°58' S). Creature Here
Strait of Magellan (Sea) - (53°7' S, 70°40' W). Creature Here
Lake Fagnano - (54°34' S, 68°00' W) (not shown in map is on Tierra del Fuego Island). Creature Here

Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Lake Rosario - Lake of the week

 

Lake Rosario, also known as the Laguna del Toro Negro (Lake of the black bull) it is just south of the Argentine town of Esquel in the province of Chubut (43°16’ S, 71°20’ W).

Set on the edge of the steppe its shores are surrounded by ñire forests and with the mighty Andes are its backstage. See it in the lower central part of the map above.

It is quite shallow (55 m – 187 ft.) and small (14.5 km² – 5.6 sq. mi.); it flows into the Pacific Ocean through Chile through the Futaleufú river.

Map of Esquel area. See Footnote[*].

The local natives tell an ancient tale about a fierce black bull that lived by the lake that killed the son of an Indian chief who had tried to hunt it. The grieving chief in turn killed the bull, which, even dead, can often be heard howling and “seen swimming in the lake”.[1]

The lake is also said to have a Cuero (see our post on Cuero)and a mermaid “sirena” - (see our post on Mermaids).

Bibliography.

[1] Fernández, C., (1995). Cuentan Los Mapuches. B. Aires: Ediciones Nuevo Siglo. pp. 70.

For a lovely photograph of Lake Rosario, go Here.

[*]Footnote.
Map adapted from: Nuevo Atlas de la Argentina © Cases i Associats S.A. 1995. Published by Clarin. Edición especial para la Secretaría de Turismo de la Nación 1996. ISBN 987 9153 00 6.

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Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Lake Caviahue – lake of the week

 

Small “Dark people similar to African blacks”[1] have been mentioned mentioned in northwestern Neuquén, at Lake Caviahue (37°52’ S, 71°02’ W), this week's Lake of the week.

This small horse-shoe shaped lake, with a surface area of only 10 km² (4 sq. mi.) is set at the foot of 2.900 m (9,500 ft.) high Copahue volcano. It was a sacred place for the Mapuche natives.

Here, according to Argentine folklorist Gregorio Alvarez, a native named Tranavil once saw “black men bathing; they came out to the sandy shore and lay there for a while to rest”.[2]

These “Negros del Agua” (water blacks) are described as being slightly smaller than men; their aquatic nature is confirmed by their webbed hands and feet. They are evil, and swim in groups looking for canoes to overturn and drown their occupants.

We have mentioned in a previous post that the Patagonians feared “dark” man-like creatures. However those were “wild men”, man-sized beings. These, at Caviahue, are smaller dwarfish creatures.

Other strange creatures live in the lake:

animals that should not have been there, like threatening bulls and horses […] and a female entity associated to these waters named “la sirena” [the mermaid] who is mentioned many times in the stories of the elderly locals.[2]

As you can see,even though it is a very tiny lake, it has the full repertoire of Patagonian monsters from bulls and calimayos to dwarves and mermaids.

Below a stamp that I designed for our lake of the week.

Stamp with "Calimayo" image at Lake Caviahue. Copyright © 2009 by Austin Whittall

Caviahue is also well known for its ski resort and is only 17 km (11 mi.) from Copahue’s thermal spas.

Click on the following links for official tourist info: on Caviahue and both Copahue and Caviahue.

Bibliography.

[1] Fernández, C. and López, H. El valle secreto de los Mapuches. Año Cero 126. 07.11.2000. Ed. America Iberica. 11-2000. Online.
[2] Alvarez, G., (1968). El Tronco de Oro. Neuquen: Pehuén. pp. 116 -7.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Lake La Plata – lake of the week

 

Lake La Plata is located well inside the Argentine Andean forests (44°52’ S, 71°48’ W) and has a surface area of 76 km² (29.3 sq. mi.). It drains into Lake Fontana, and frome there, through the Senguer River towards the Atlantic. See map below (the lake is in the center of the map).

Map of Lake La Plata area. See Footnote[*].

Here, local people “saw animals coming out of the lake” but when they tried to approach them, “they rushed and back into the lake again”. At night they heard “horses neighing, bulls bellowing and all kinds of animals bleating in the lake”. They were frightened because these “lake animals want[ed] to take” their cattle into the lake. It seems that they were carnivores.[1]

This “kidnapping” or “cattle rustling” behavior by the “lake monsters” is a common feature found in many other Patagonian lakes: we have seen it happen at Lago del Toro (Bull Lake).

Bibliography.

[1] Vidal de Battini, B. E., (1980). Cuentos y leyendas populares de la Argentina. B. Aires: Ediciones Culturales Argentinas v.7. pp. 307.

[*]Footnote.
Map adapted from: Nuevo Atlas de la Argentina © Cases i Associats S.A. 1995. Published by Clarin. Edición especial para la Secretaría de Turismo de la Nación 1996. ISBN 987 9153 00 6.

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Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Lake Llanquihue - lake of the week

 

Lake Llanquihue.

Our lake of the week. Every week I will post about a different Patagonian lake.

This lake is located at the foot of Osorno Volcano (41°09’ S, 72°47’ W), is Chile’s second largest lake with a surface area of 860 km2 [332 sq. mi.]. It is 70 m [229 ft.] above sea level and is 350 m [1,147 ft.] deep, so the lake's bottom is well below sea level.

Its Monster

We have only found one reference published in 1999 regarding “a strange aquatic monster” which was seen by Puerto Varas and Ensenada; it had “a long neck, similar to an anaconda, with the back of a pachyderm and nine meters long”. This being has a “plesiosaur” appearance.[1]

See it on our MAP

Bibliography.

[1] Badal, G. and Coloane, F., (2005). Chile: país oceánico. Santiago: Ocho Libros Edit. pp. 44. Citing: Ampuero R., (1999). ¿Un monstruo en elLago Llanquihue? Diario Austral. Temuco, Chile. 10.01.1999.


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters