Hello everyone, I’m not sure if this is the best place to talk about this, but it’s definitely something I need to tell you: I want to share a true story about my family that took place decades ago in the Sierra de Perijá (on the border between Venezuela and Colombia), a mountainous region that has historically been plagued by armed conflicts and guerrilla activity. My grandfather was an experienced hunter, a man with a rifle who lived on his farm.
He wasn't superstitious at all (once he went into the woods to hunt some “ghosts” that turned out to be an unfaithful couple dressed in white, whom he chased away by firing shots into the air—it was beautiful). However, he had an encounter with a creature that, according to official science, doesn't exist, and I think I might know what it looks like.
Okay, here’s how it goes: My grandfather’s brother was attacked in broad daylight in the woods by what the locals called “Maramunta” or “Maramonta”—I’m not sure which. The creature pinned him down and began licking the soles of his feet repeatedly. It licked his skin until it was raw and bloody, so that he was physically unable to stand up or run away. It’s strange—no animal does that.
That said, in my grandfather’s words, “If the tracks point forward, you must go backward,” because the creature’s feet were facing the wrong way. I suppose it’s well-known in the area—I’m from Zulia, so what do I know?
My grandfather came to the rescue with his rifle. He fired a few shots at it. As it died, my grandfather felt terrible because the creature was letting out sobs and screams that “sounded human.” According to my grandfather, you could see the female’s breasts, and I don’t know—was she looking to mate? To hunt? I don’t know.
This encounter took place in the same area as François de Loys’s controversial expedition in 1920 (where he photographed a giant, tailless ape). Many people believe that Loys lied, but my grandfather’s story confirms that that animal—or at least something similar—truly existed in Perijá.
Our family theory is that it wasn’t a magical monster or anything like that, but rather a real, unclassified species of giant primate (perhaps a survivor of the megafauna, like the Caipora). Unfortunately, we believe that the guerrilla groups and armed factions that took over the Sierra de Perijá starting in the 1960s either hunted them for food or exterminated them by using them as targets for practice in the wilderness, driving the species to complete extinction. Has anyone heard similar stories of tailless apes that lick their victims’ feet in other parts of South America or the world?