Author Denver Michaels

From the earliest days of European exploration in South America, reports of strange, dinosaur-like creatures have emerged. One of the most intriguing reports of dinosaurs in South America comes from Bolivia. The following account was published in the  Scientific American  in 1883. The article is titled, “A Bolivian Saurian,” and some think it lends credence to the idea of living dinosaurs . The Brazilian Minister at La Paz, Bolivia, has remitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rio photographs of drawings of an extraordinary saurian killed on the Beni after receiving thirty-six balls. By order of the President of Bolivia the dried body, which had been preserved in Asuncion, was sent to La Paz. It is twelve meters long from snout to point of the tail, which latter is flattened. Besides the anterior head, it has, four meters behind, two small but completely formed heads rising from the back. All three have much resemblance to the head of a dog. The legs are short, and...

The Minhocao is a giant, burrowing creature whose name means “giant earthworm” in Portuguese. Tales of the Minhocao were widely reported during the 1800s, and native legends go back for centuries. However, by the 20 th century, the creature seemed to have become inactive or gone extinct. The Minhocao is black in color. Size varies, but some reports say the creature can reach a whopping length of 150 feet and a width of up to 15 feet. It is covered with an armor-like hide, and has horns on its head. The creature is known for its destructive burrowing. When it burrows, trees are uprooted; river channels are created; large trenches are cut into the landscape; roads are collapsed and destroyed; homes are often damaged as well. The Minhocao even causes tremors with its underground movements! In 1847, the American Journal of Science ran an article titled "On the Minhocao of the Goyanes." I have reprinted the piece in its entirety below: "Luiz Antonio da Silva e Souza, whose...

In my book Water Monsters South of the Border , I devoted a chapter to "water tigers," strange, aggressive large feline-like creatures that hide in the waters of South America and ambush prey—sometimes human prey. The following excerpt discusses the Maipolina, a water tiger in French Guiana: French Guiana, located on the northern end of the South American continent, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Suriname, and Brazil, is home to a creature known as the Maipolina. The animal is said to haunt the Maroni River, where it patiently waits underwater for its prey. The Maipolina, also known as Popoké and the “water mother,” reaches a size of nearly ten feet , has walrus-like tusks, droopy ears, powerful claws, and a white stripe running along its back. The fierce creature lives in caves in the riverbank, and attacks humans and canoes when the opportunity presents itself. 3 In one of the most often cited reports, the Maipolina was blamed for the grisly death of a child. This occurred ...

While trekking through the Amazonian rainforest Theodore Roosevelt learned of a supposed man-eating catfish lurking in the rivers. In his book Through the Brazilian Wilderness , Roosevelt wrote that several Amerindians in his party had caught a catfish over three and a half feet long. When they cleaned the fish, its stomach contents contained a monkey. Roosevelt and the other Americans in the group were shocked that something as large as a monkey could fall prey to a fish. The locals told him that fish much bigger dwell in the lower Madeira; these fish occasionally snatched unsuspecting humans. The following passage can be found in his book: " We Americans were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual di...

A reader contacted me several years ago. He had just finished my book  Water Monsters South of the Border .   The book inspired him to share a story with me about "El Mohan"—a creature of Columbian folklore.  His story reminded me a lot of those great campfire tales and ghost stories so often recounted among friends. I thought I would share it with you, but first, here is a little background on El Mohan: Although his description does vary from place to place, he is usually a huge creature, covered in hair with long, claw-like nails. He sometimes has red eyes and gold teeth and is fond of mischief. Fisherman say el mohán  capsizes boats and steals bait and hooks. Washerwomen claim he bewitches girls with music and tricks. He is also said to guard ancient treasures in his underground palace and his appearance heralds the arrival of floods, earthquakes and plagues. Click Here for full article from Columbia.co This is the El Mohan story sent by the reader:...

The historian Garcilaso de la Vega (1539–1616) was the son of an Inca princess and a conquistador. He quoted the following story about ancient giants in his work  Royal Commentaries of the Incas : Before leaving this region, we should mention a very remarkable story which the natives have received as a tradition handed down by their ancestors for many centuries. It refers to some giants who they say arrived in their country from over the sea and landed at the point now called Santa Elena, a name given to it because it was first seen by Spaniards on this saint's day. As Pedro de Cieza de León is the Spanish historian who speaks of these giants at greatest length, having received his version in the very province which the giants visited, it seemed best I should follow his account word for word, for although Padre J. Acosta and the accountant general Agustín de Zárate say the same, their version is very brief. Pedro de Cieza's fuller account in his Ch. Iii is as follows: “As th...

Lake Tota is the largest lake in Columbia with a surface area of 21 square miles. It reaches a maximum depth of over 200 feet. There have long been rumors of a monster in the lake, which I wrote about in my book Water Monsters South of the Border. The following is an excerpt from the book: The Monster in Muisca Mythology The first known reference to a monster in Lake Tota came from the Spanish conquistador and intrepid explorer Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (1509–1579). Quesada had become well acquainted with the beliefs of the indigenous people of the area who spoke of a black monster, said to be a demon, which haunted the waters of Lake Tota. The frightful beast had rendered the waters of the lake impassible. According to local beliefs, Lake Tota was entirely unnavigable. The black monster, or demon, in Lake Tota is a prominent figure in Muisca mythology. In the native tongue, the monster is called “Muyso Akyqake.” 3  The creature was believed to play a rol...

There is a manmade lake in Argentina's Salta Province that has a history of sightings of a lake monster dubbed Cabralito. Interestingly, Salta Province is renowned for strange phenomena and even paranormal activity . The following is an excerpt from my book Water Monsters South of the Border: Unique video footage of a strange creature was captured on Christmas Day, 2011 in Argentina’s Salta Province. The video was obtained by a fisherman in a manmade lake called Cabra Corral while he was filming lake scenery. When local news media outlets learned of the video, they quickly dubbed to animal “Cabralito,” a reference to the lake and also to the “Patagonian Plesiosaur,” also known as Nahuelito, a reference to Nahuel Huapi, the lake where it resides. Sebastian Papetti is the fisherman who obtained the video. He claimed that something strange in the water caught his eye as he was filming. What caught his attention was a creature—a creature that had a large wake following it, and was rept...