COUNTRY FILE · CENTRAL AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
Cryptids of Nicaragua
What cryptids are in Nicaragua? The best-known are Chupacabra, La Llorona, El Cadejo and Sisimite.
Nicaragua has 4 cryptids on file so far. Explore each one below, and check back as new reports come in.
Cryptids reported in Nicaragua
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.
FOLKLORE HOMINID · Pre-colonialSisimite
Mountain forests of Honduras, Belize and the Yucatán
Central America’s hairy wild man of the mountain caves, said to walk on backward feet, fear water and dogs, and carry off people who stray into the forest.
FOLKLORESightings timeline
- 1891Recorded in early folklore studies El Cadejo
An 1891 volume of the Journal of American Folklore discussed Nicaraguan superstitions, an early scholarly record of the beliefs that include the cadejo.
Latest from Nicaragua
No recent cryptid headlines from Nicaragua. 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.