COUNTRY FILE · CENTRAL AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
Cryptids of Costa Rica
What cryptids are in Costa Rica? The best-known are Chupacabra, La Llorona and El Cadejo.
Costa Rica has 3 cryptids on file so far. Explore each one below, and check back as new reports come in.
Cryptids reported in Costa Rica
OTHER · 1995
Chupacabra
Canóvanas, Puerto Rico
The “goat-sucker” of 1990s Puerto Rico: a spiny, bloodsucking beast blamed for livestock deaths that spread across Latin America and Texas.
WIDELY REPORTED
SPECTRAL · 16th century
La Llorona
Canals of Xochimilco, Mexico City
A weeping ghost in white who wanders rivers and canals at night crying for the children she lost – Mexico’s most famous and most widely told legend.
FOLKLORE
DOGMAN & CANINE · Pre-colonial roots; recorded 19th century
El Cadejo
Night roads of Guatemala and El Salvador
A spectral dog with burning eyes that follows night travelers in Central America – the white one protects them, the black one leads them to ruin.
FOLKLORELatest from Costa Rica
No recent cryptid headlines from Costa Rica. See all the latest cryptid news.
Videos
▶ VIDEO
El Chupacabras, a Modern Mystery
Monstrum | PBS StoriedFolklorist Emily Zarka traces both the Puerto Rican and the Texas chupacabra and the real explanations behind them.
ARCHIVE.ORG3:04
La Llorona
Pikes Peak Library DistrictA short 2010 storytelling segment from a Colorado public library’s community TV channel – a good example of how the legend is told in the US Southwest.
▶ VIDEO
The Legend of La Llorona
Monstrum | PBS StoriedFolklorist Emily Zarka explains the legend’s Nahua and colonial roots and its many regional versions.
▶ VIDEO
El cadejo (2006)
Audiovisuales UCAA short Salvadoran film from the Universidad Centroamericana retelling the legend.