The Mysteries of Honduras

by Pablo Villarubia Mausó

Recovering from the consequences of a violent hurricane, Honduras is a land full of mysteries in its virgin rainforests. Tropical Bigfoot-like creatures, mystery beasts like the "arrancalenguas" (tongue-ripper), haunted houses and the remains of ancient civilizations combine with the exoticism of its still to be explored landscapes.

We had left behind Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital as we headed along the road to the city of La Ceiba, on the country's Atlantic coast. Thousands of African palm trees flanked the road, and in the distance we could make out the majestic mountain vistas of the Pico Bonito National Park. The sun shone intensely and mercilessly. There was no indication that within less than a month one of the greatest natural disasters of all time would bear down upon that Central American republic: Hurricane Mitch, whose devastating fury would leave a trail of death in its path and losses in the millions of dollars. It is to be hoped that Honduras and its people may prevail over the global weather systems' lack of humor. Their territory, which is beyond the path of most traditional tourist destinations, holds some of the most disconcerting cryptozoological, parapsychological and archaeological enigmas of the continent. Luckily, its exuberant vegetation has already begun its recovery from "Mitch"'s lethal impact, and the population is rebuilding the country with renewed energy and optimism.

"My grandfather told me that he ran into the Sisimite around 1912, up there on Pico Bonito. It walked like a man, had a very hairy body and was very tall," said Don Manuel Mejía, an octogenarian living in the village of La Unión, scant kilometers from La Ceiba. His shaky hand pointed toward the mountains robed in their thick foliage. But what was the Sisimite, really?

Much like its colder relatives, such as the Tibetan Yeti or the Sasquatch of the U.S and Canadian Pacific coast, the Sisimite is another such creature which can appear out of nowhere and vanish in the same way. According to Jesús Agular Paz, one of Honduras' most renowned folklorists, the Sisimite or Itacayo wanders the high mountain ranges and lives in dank caverns, feeding on wild fruit in the same way as its Mexican cousin, "El Peludo" (the Hairy One) and Argentina's "Ucumari".

"These monsters would kidnap women and take them to their lairs. It is said that man-apes were born of these matings," added the old man. The story of a woman who managed to escape from one such Sisimite abode is still discussed among the mountain villagers: the creature pursued her, carrying with it the three offspring they had had together and showing them to the mother, who had fled to the other side of a river, in hopes of attracting her to her children. Its efforts were in vain, and the troglodyte mortally threw the inhuman infants into the water. Other Sisimites have appeared in the Camasca Caverns (within the Intibuca region). Italian friar Frederico Lunardi, one of the most influential scholars of Honduran culture, associated the creatures with the Mayan god Chaac, "he who holds up the heavens, the god of water". According to Lunardi, within the caves there was a wall depicting "a hand with all its fingers" and a number of scratches allegedly made by the Sisimites, who would go there at midnight to scratch the walls with their claws.

At La Unión I met with Julieta Turcia, a peasant woman who confirmed the existence of such a creature, but which had not been seen for many years. "They're big and hairy. I managed to see a couple of them when I was a girl, up there in the hills. Their feet are on backward."

This curious feature is echoed in the descriptions of other creatures I heard about in the Brazilian Amazon, such as the "curupira", who is a smaller but equally brutish rainforest dweller. Along with my travelling companion of almost two weeks, explorer Joaquín Muñoz, knowledgeable about the Honduran wilderness, we climbed up the slopes of the Pico Bonito foothills. Accompanying us was young mountaineer Rossel Pavón Cruz. Prior to setting out on our hike, armed only with our canteens, we met José Saba Martínez, age 70, at the Santa Rita hacienda. " I one heard it said that there were giants in these mountains, but that they all disappeared. The ones that still exist are the "pact-makers", in other words, those who made a pact with the Devil and live up there," explained the farmer as he swatted mosquitoes off his back. José Martínez was a child when he encountered another class of beings, the Sipes, while hunting wild boar with his relatives. "I moved here when I was 13 years old. I'm from Olancho, the largest and least-known province in the country, where the jungle takes over everything. I saw the Sipes in the San Francisco de la Paz mountains. They're small--about the size of a cipote (child). Some of them have beards down their knees and their women have really long hair. They root around in the freshly burned corn fields to eat the ashes, but they also eat fruit and animals." The farmer tone was so matter-of-fact that one would believe that these creatures formed part of the peasants' and the hunters' daily routine. His descriptions of the Sipes continued: "They don't speak to anyone. They're black, really black, like coal, and they walk around naked. When I saw them on the cornfield they were in a group, so I ran away, since it was said that whoever looks at them is beaten to death. I heard about cases involving people who died that way at the hands of the Sipes. These little men are short but tough. If you go hunting with dogs, they'll kill them all, yes they will."

Other tales involving Sipes indicated that the dwarves possess "feet pointing backward," much like the Sisimites. In their book Por Cuentas Aquí en Nacaome (Tegucigalpa, 1996), folklorists Karen Ramos and Melissa Valenzuela claim that the Sipes break into houses to eat the ashes in the ovens. One of their informants reported that a man once captured a Sipe and locked it in a barrel. He poured holy water over it at night and the poor creature turned up dead the following day.

Another of Olancho's improbable creatures is the Comelenguas (Tongue-Eater). "They killed it over there some 60 years ago. It was bigger than a dog, but had wings and was able to fly. It would only eat the cattle's tongues. A sorcerer killed it using a weapon firing "treated shots". In those days, the ranch owners were paying 4000 pesos to whoever could kill the beast, since it was leaving a trail of ruin among the beef cattle," he farmer explained. I had already gathered similar accounts in the state of Goias, Brazil some 40 years ago and which certain ufologists interpreted as mutilations caused by the Chupacabras. At La Unión, Manuel Mejía also made mention of the Comelenguas which was active in the bleak plateaus of Pico Bonito. "It's an animal that pulls out, cuts and eats the tongues of cows. It looks like a large dog, but is bell-shaped (?) and has a long tail," explained the old man.

The Museum of the Fantastic

The coastal town of Trujillo is located some 150 kilometers of La Ceiba, toward the east. Bloody battles were fought there between Spanish soldiers and English pirates; its cemetery holds the remains of many foreign invaders. The most visited one of these, in spite of its neglect among the overgrown vegetation and the cracked tombstones, is that of U.S. freebooter William Walker, whose dream

of conquering Central America with a handful of mercenaries came to an end in Trujillo. There are two versions concerning his death: one, that he died before a firing squad in 1860; the other, that he was hanged by the British who occupied the area at the time. Professor Justino Galán, the "official chronicler" of this community of 6000 souls, lives in the area. The septuagenarian's home, on a Caribbean hillside, is somewhat unique, since it is a tin-walled museum concealing veritable archaeological and historical treasures: working gramophones, Spanish arquebuses and thousands of pieces of prehispanic pottery and stonework are chaotically spread throughout the location. Hundreds of bits of ceramic, which are in fact the legs of jars with small faces, appear to mushroom out of the museum floor. Others portray caciques, shamans, gods or demigods with their respective nahuales or "power animals" behind them--animals into which a sorcerer could allegedly transform.

"These are the menhir-idols which I found throughout the entire region, in the mountains. Some of them represent facial features, others spirals and sculpted geometric figures," said Professor Galán as he leaned against one of the rocks, the tallest of which stands 1.20 meters. As in the case of Javier Cabrera Darquea (the owner of a museum of fantastic figures in Icá, Perú), Justino Galán began recovering materials from the ranches and hillsides which would have certainly been ransacked and destroyed.

One of the few mentions made of the Stone Idols of Trujillo appears in the 17th-century chronicles of López de Salcedo and later cited by Italian friar Federico Lunardi in his most rare Honduras maya--etnología y arqueología de Honduras (Tegucigalpa, 1948). The chronicler indicated that the Trujillo area contained "three main idols who were worshipped in temples...they were shaped like women and were made of a green, marble-like stone in which they placed all their devotion and entrusted their affairs and cultivations. The idol burned by Hernando de Saavedra was the closest one and the native priest who took them there did not do so during the day, since it had apparently been said that the idol would slay all those who looked upon it..."

A Haunted House

Many of the pieces originate in the Cuyamel region, taken from its enigmatic and dangerous tunnel system. "These passages reach Betulia, some 15 to 20 kilometers distant," Justino discloses. Other pieces come from the other end, from Punta Betulia, some 20 kilometers west of Trujillo. "There one can still find large stone sculptures on the beach, which are unknown to archaeologists and which I haven't been able to photograph."

The following day, and at my insistence, we headed for Punta Betulia. Driving on the dirt and sand road, Justino talked about my old friend the Sisimite in those lands and other parts of Central America. "Around 1946, a chain gang cutting wood in the mountainous area of Capiro caught two Sisimites, male and female. They were hiding in cave and were about four feet tall. What was strange is that their legs were backward and their hair was very long. They only had four fingers and very short hands. The legs were long and had a hair reaching down to their knees. Some employees of the banana company, Standard, took them to Trujillo. I never got to see them, but they were there for some 10 to 12 days. The workers told me that the gringos wanted to take them to La Ceiba and then to the United States. They would feed them meat, bananas and other things they wouldn't eat, and they died."

"Did you ever see a Sisimite?" I inquired.

"No, but there are still some of these animals in the Trujillo mountains, because their screams can be heard. Since I've slept in these woods I've heard them. We have virgin rainforests here between Calentura and Capiro, and its possible that some of these creatures may still exist."

Further along, on the road to Santa Fé, a town inhabited by the descendants of African slaves, Rufino pointed out some mountains.

" Over there, in San Antonio, about half an hour from here, there is a house that belonged to the Gleenes, a very wealthy family. They died a long time ago--they were the U.S consuls in Trujillo and today, the mansion, which was one of their summer retreats, is deserted. Not only that, its also haunted: One can hear strange, intense noises, such as the clanging of chains, the kicking of a mule or a horse, and always at night. A brother-in-law of mine worked there for three days and was chased away by the haunting."

Valuable archaeological remains were found in the mansion's vicinity, some of them made of stone, such as one with a strange head which can be found in Justino's museum and which resembles "The Martian God" of the Tassili Mountains in Algeria.

The Sacrificial Altar

Upon reaching Santa Fe -- known as Puntiaco to the vanished natives who once peopled the area-- we met Hilario Ramírez Calderón, age 43, who confirmed the story of the Sisimite's capture. His version differed somewhat from that of Professor Galán, perhaps because his recall was faulty or he had heard it from third parties. "They caught them with a net. They would only eat river shrimp. I think a ship belonging to Standard Fruit took them to the U.S...these Sisimites were taller than a person," he told us.

A few kilometers more, bordering the beach on the road until we reached the fishing village of Guadalupe. These people of slave-descent, who rarely mix with others, are practically isolated and living like their ancestors, who were brought from Jamaica by English pirates. They speak a language of their own, a mixture of English, French and African dialects. Their dwellings are huts made of straw and they celebrate, far from prying eyes, rituals similar to voodoo and Santería.

One of the fishermen, who was also a boatman, showed us some of the axe blades in his possession. "This is only a sample of what existed in the Guadalupe, Betulia and Santo Antonio area--the nucleus of a great civilization," Rufino noted.

We bargained with the boatman to be taken to Punto Betulia along with some fishermen. The seven or eight fishermen arranged their nets and some tied t-shirts around their heads as protection against the merciless sun. We then set off in silence.

After half an hour, bordering paradisiacal, totally unspoiled beaches, the sailors left us in front of two houses and went their way. As the boat went off, we walked on the burning sand, blistering our feet, since we carried our boots on our backs to keep them dry. We were welcomed at the ruined house by the wife of one of Rufino's friends: surrounded by children with bellies inflated like balloons, chickens, mangy dogs and some small pigs, the woman told us how the abandoned homestead, just fifty meters away, was "spooked". "Strange sounds can be heard there," she explained. "People walking, chains being dragged, screams...for a long time we haven't heard anything." said the woman.

Justino Galván confirmed this fact, since he had spent many nights sleeping on that beach and had also heard the "ghosts". Walking toward the house, we found one of the sculptures--that of a metate (a kind of mortar) shaped like a boat, mesuring 1.70 meters in length and according to Galván, weighing over 10,000 pounds. Behind it, there was a masonry chapel with a curious detail: between the bricks could be seen encrusted pieces of native ceramics. Further ahead we found a sort of elongated altar, and at one of its ends, the impressive sculpted head of a skeleton. "The Americans took the other statues in oxen-drawn carts and from there onto their ships. There were many tiger-heads (jaguars). Perhaps this had once been a sacrificial center presided by the Jaguar God," he commented.

Honduras--A Land of Giants

Perhaps one of the most valuable treasures within Rufino Galván's motley museum in Trujillo are the alleged "giant bones" found in La Unión, Olancho, and donated by the Puerto Menoca family. One engineer took a rib to New Orleans, where it was confirmed to be of human origin. It had been found in the mountains. "Judging from its size, its owner would have been some ten feet tall," said the museum's curator.

Proof of the existence of giants could perhaps be found in the grindstones discovered in Honduras: some of them are 8 feet tall and have very thick handles. "They must have eaten masica, a kind of corn tortilla mixed with fish and game. They were very healthy people, dressed in animal and jaguar skins. Very long strands of hair have been found in the caves in which they must have lived," adds Galván.

Further information on the presence of giants in Honduras can be found in the works of folklorists Karen and Melissa in another book, Por cuentas aquí en Sabanagrande (Stories told here in Sabanagrande). The elders state that a giant used to roam the area and that it left its mark on a large boulder. The explanation for his "giantism" is worthy of the folktales told in Spain: the giant had been a normal man before achieving his colossal stature, but divine punishment had fallen upon him for having slain his brother and family. For that reason, his soul and wandering body can still be seen, but only during Easter Week. Spanish chroniclers attested to the existence of "giant men" in Mexico and in Perú. One of them, López de Gómara (Historia de las Indias) pointed out in discussing the Honduran natives that "helmets they need not, for their heads are so rough that sword break upon hitting them, and for that reason, blows are not delivered upon them nor do they allow themselves to be struck." The explanation may lie in the thickness of native skulls: Fray Federico Lunardi explains that he had reached the conclusion that the skull of the famous chieftain Lempira, who struggled against the Spaniards, must have been of extraordinary thickness, given the nature of his death.

Lunardi himself found, on the left bank of the Humuya River, while searching for curios in a tomb in 1940, a skull fragment along with "large shanks" (the long bones of the legs) having the extraordinary thickness of 13 millimeters! The remains were sent to Buenos Aires to the renowned Americanist José Imbelloni, an expert in craneology. According to Lunardi, Imbelloni "noted the peculiarity of the situation, but did not feel himself qualified to issue a verdict at the moment. He urged me to conduct further investigations to find out if this case was unique and isolated." But at the same site and at a lesser depth, Lunardi found other skull fragments two years later whose thicknesses varied between 8 and 11 millimeters. The skulls' inner surfaces clearly portrayed the capillaries and blood vessels.

Did a caste of giants or giant/human hybrids once exist in Honduras, having a much greater cranial density? Lunardi mentions the fact that a certain Owens, who conducted archaeological work in Copán, Honduras in 1892, found a well preserved skeleton with a skull described as "very thick". Still another discovery took place in 1994, in the caves of Talgua, 200 kilometers east of Tegucigalpa. These are the "crystal skeletons" allegedly contained within a "ritual chamber" found by four explorers. The skeletons of a number of occupants, completely covered in calcium crystals, were found within and allegedly had "a luminous aspect", dating back to before the Mayan occupation of the area (800 b.c.)