Chupacabra book
In August 2014, I trekked around Puerto Rico (on what was the ninth occasion) with a crew from Galafilm Productions to investigate the latest spate of Chupacabra encounters. It turned out not to be my only exposure to the chupacabra phenomenon in that month. Not long after I got back from the island, the blood-sucker and I crossed paths yet again. In a way, at least. And, also again, it was all thanks to the world of television. The researcher who called me said they were planning to make a series - for one of the "big channels" is how it was described to me - that would focus on a search for ancient treasures, hidden cities, lost lands, and priceless, missing artifacts. It was, then, to be a kind of real-life Indiana Jones-type series. So, what did that have to do with my work in the field of the chupacabra? Well, it went like this...

The company had somehow got its hands on a photograph of what appeared to be a crashed, old aircraft in the wilds of Puerto Rico. The excited researcher said the photograph was accompanied by a story. And what a story it was. No one, apparently, knew precisely where the shell of the aircraft was located on Puerto Rico, only that it was somewhere deep within the El Yunque rain-forest. And, if the lost plane could be found, it would blow the whole chupacabra mystery wide open. I asked: how, exactly, might it do that? The researcher at the other end of the line said they had a story, from a respected and trustworthy source on Puerto Rico, to the effect that at the time of the alleged crash, the crew of the aircraft was in the process of secretly transporting no less than five living, and extremely dangerous, chupacabras to a military base in the United States. Something, however, went wrong; terribly wrong.

plane crash photo
Not long after taking to the late-night skies from the old Roosevelt Roads base, ground-personnel received frantic communications from the crew, to the effect that one of the creatures had broken out of its cage and was rampaging wildly in the body of the plane - which had been specially converted to allow for the cages to be placed on-board. The next thing that was heard was terrible screaming in the cockpit, then nothing but silence and the sudden vanishing of the aircraft from the military's radar-screens. Despite an intense search, the aircraft was never found - which I found to be rather baffling. On an island the size of Puerto Rico, an aircraft crashes and the finest technology of Uncle Sam can't find it?


Then, the researcher got to the point. Their contact had told them that as strong and as ruthless as chupacabras are said to be, it was unlikely that even they could have survived a tumultuous aircraft crash in the wilds of Puerto Rico. If the priceless treasure - the skeletal remains of the monsters that just might still be strewn around the body of the aircraft - could be found, the mystery of the chupacabra would be revealed and the existence of the creature would be proved. Yes, the stakes really were that high. I was then asked: would you be interested in trekking through El Yunque, trying to find the plane? Well, sure I would. It was then, however, that things began to unravel.

For the rest of the story go here.