Homes on stilts – known as palofitos
On March 3, we posted Part 1 of the Caleuche story – the ghost ship that allegedly sails the waters around Chiloe, an island off the coast of Chile. So let’s pick up with the abduction phenomenon associated with the crew of the ghost ship.
One morning in 1935, when Juan Antonio Fernandez was 16, he left his home at dawn to go fishing. He recalls that he arrived at a small hill that overlooked the beach and heard a strange noise, like motors. Two days later, his family found him wandering aimlessly on the beach.
“I had a terrible scar on my chest, shaped like a gigantic hand with long, narrow fingers,” Fernandez said. “It didn’t hurt and the strange part was that it looked as if it were old.”
Author Cardenas Tabies spoke with Fernandez’s family, who said he was never quite the same after his disappearance. He was difficult, assaulted people without provocation and spoke and worked only when he was in the mood. Cardenas coaxed Fernandez into showing him his scar. “I have never seen anything like it,” Cardenas said. “The hand covered almost his entire chest, like a scar from a severe burn. When I questioned him about it, he said that if he revealed the secret he would die.”
Armando Pacheco, a journalist and writer in Valparaiso on the Chilean mainland, theorizes that the legend of the Caleuche is so deeply ingrained that the islanders are predisposed to sightings. He contends that the Caleuche is an archetype of the collective mind of the islanders, “given reality through their intense and prolonged belief in it.”
The belief in the ghost ship is so deep that the islanders take special care with aquatic birds and animals for fear that one of them might be a brujo – a sorcerer – from the ghost ship in an altered form. “The legend,” wrote Tabies in Aboard the Caleuche, “states that if any harm comes to a crew member while he is transformed, the guilty party will be killed or abducted and condemned to sail the seas forever as a galley slave.”
One night in march 1976, a farmer in Chauques heard a cry that awakened him, a “kind of bleating,” that seemed to be coming from under his house. He got his dogs and woke up the mai and they went down to investigate. “It was a wolf, trapped between some mudwall panels.” The farmer quickly unfastened three of the panels and the wolf scampered out into the darkness and toward the sea. “I have never before seen a wolf in these parts. I have no doubt the animal was a mariner from the Caleuche.”
We visited the National Museum in Ancud, which at that time was a rather humble building that housed a small, straw-woven sailing vessel, representing the Caleuche. It rested in the center of a table of the main room. Surrounding it were an assortment of straw creatures – wood nymphs, sea monsters, trolls, mermaids and brujos, all symbolizing the island’s mythological inhabitants. Uribe Velazque, who at that time was the museum’s director, said the ghost ship exists only in the fertile imaginations of the islanders, as part of their rich folkloric tradition.
In an article, she wrote: “What would Chiloe be without her Caleuche, her trolls and mermaids and sorcerers?” she asked. “I can’t imagine a night of the full moon without the sudden appearance of the illuminated ghost ship. I cannot conceive of a summer twilight when the profound silence is not broken by the Caleuche’s enchanted music.”
Tabies, though, firmly believes the Caleuche exists. He cites the words of Tim Dinsdale’s from Loch Ness Monster: “There are two types of mysteries: those which are accounts of experiences which have occurred and cannot be explained, and those born of the history of a people.” The Caleuche, says Tabies, is a mystery of both kinds.
We have more to tell about the Caleuche and the brujos on Chiloe, including a peculiar personal experience. But we’ll save that for a third and final segment.
Lakeviewer – thanks for the link. Will check them out!
Hi. I always appreciate your stories. In my new blog, https://lakeviewer-wheniwasyourage.blogspot.com/
I have so many encounters that seem like synchronicity took place. Yet, they all happened just as I describe.
Looking back, it is amazing!
I love these stories and have found myself researching more and more about the all things South America. I wonder if I should start learning some languages in anticipation of future trips.
Any recommendation as to what would be broadly accepted across the continent?
I loved the second installment of the story of The Caleuche. I wonder if this is not only the collective consciousness of residents of Chiloe, but of all sea going cultures. There is the Flying Dutchman and whatever legend got Hollywood to come up with Pirates of the Caribbean.
When I was traversing the Chilean InterCoastal Wasterway I kept wondering if a ghost ship would appear. I didn't believe it would, but in the back of my mind I wondered.
Ray
oh, will do, rob! he'll be here saturday – will let you know!
Gypsy, ask your son-in-law about Ciudad Perdido, the Lost City in the mountains off the Caribbean coast of Colombia, near Santa Marta. We used to lead adventure tours there back in the '80s. Wondering how things are there now. – Rob
great questions – i was so entranced with the story i failed to ask anything and then came back to do just that and see the answers already here! neat! my son-in-law whose family is still in colombia will be over the weekend so i can't wait to ask him a million questions – i've tried before to get him to jot down some of his family's and country's history for me but time seems to get away too soon whenever he's here – anyway – great post, macgregors!!! great!
Good find, d!
It appears to mean "shapeshifter".
Caleuche:"Meaning of the name: it comes from the Mapudungun word kalewtun or caleutun, which means to transform or change state, and the word che, which means people or person."
found here:https://www.icarito.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,38035857__389647104__1,00.html
Good question. Don't know the meaning of the name, or how it originated. Caleuche is pronounced:
Kaw-lay,oo,chay
Oddly enough there is a song, Caleuche, about the ghost ship by a group called Six Magics.
You can find the lyrics here (and get your ringtone as well!)lol
https://www.lyricsdownload.com/six-magics-caleuche-the-flying-dutchman-lyrics.html
Thoroughly fascinating! I've copied down Dinsdale's quote on mysteries and will begin to apply to all the various anomalies/esotericas/mysteries I read about and encounter. Some regions are known more for their mysteries and legends than for anything else.
BTW, how is Caleuche pronounced? (kaw-lew-chay?) What does it mean?
wv: boardso
and george and steven are just phone calls away, you know – i'm thinking 3-D even!
oh, man!!!!! another fabulously riveting segment!!! love love all the layers to the stories and experiences – but, to tease us by leaving the personal encounters for another day, oh, dear!!!!
😉
wv=ticrad=which when i saw it, said "tirade" to me….hmmmmm…..
Great posts – bring on part 3!
Mike.