← Spooked
Spooked
"The Long Road Home" from Otherworld
00:49:43
During a three-month trip across Mexico, a Scottish student named Simon and his friend were returning from a beach party when they accidentally ran over something with their car. They got out and realized it was some kind of large black creature. But as they walked closer and it began to stand up, they realized this creature was unlike anything they had ever seen before... The night only got stranger as they got back in the car and tried to drive back to the hotel along the long dirt road that was supposed to be a shortcut.
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Transcript18 lines
- [00:02]
Simon
If you've been having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere.
- [00:07]
Jack Wagner
Else, now is a great time to reconsider.
- [00:11]
Narrator
In the Pacific Northwest, it's never too cold for an iced coffee in the morning. Grab yourself a medium caramel, French vanilla or classic iced coffee for just $2.29. Beverage may cause craving for McMuffin or hash browns. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.
- [00:38]
Jack Wagner
Ooh, sploogsters this week I am excited to bring you an episode from our friends at the show Otherworld. Otherworld features real people who've experienced something paranormal, something supernatural, or just something unexplained. The Washington Post called Otherworld the Paranormal this American Life because host Jack Wagner goes to great lengths to investigate the strange and the uncanny, and it's something he stumbled into by chance after realizing how many people in his life had experienced something that they couldn't explain and never told anyone about. Jack picked out this episode specifically for spooked listeners.
- [01:24]
Simon
Otherworld.
- [01:37]
Host
Welcome to Other World. I'm your host Jack Wagner. I'm particularly excited for this episode. Since starting the podcast, I've been waiting for a story to come in from Mexico or Latin America in general. Mexico specifically has such a rich and intense connection to the supernatural, with many specific legends that have been passed down through generations, and as a nation, there seems to just generally be a stronger belief in a spirit world or outside forces that intertwine with the physical. For that reason and the fact that we make this show just two hours from the Mexican border, I've been eager to do some episodes that take place in Mexico, and I figured we would have gotten more submissions now than we have. However, we finally got a really exciting one about something very strange happening to a person in Mexico. But the person this happened to is not from Mexico. They are in fact from Scotland, of all places, and this happened to them while they were visiting Mexico and the United States for the very first time after finishing a job at a summer camp. I did not expect our first Mexican Otherworld episode to be coming from a Scottish camp counselor, but then again, I think that kind of unusual perspective is what makes for some of the best episodes of the show. This story ended up being one of my personal favorites. It's somehow completely terrifying, but also a little funny and heartwarming at the same time. I also just really liked speaking to this person about their experience and hearing the story. This is episode 90. The title is the Long Road Home and you're listening to Otherworld.
- [03:28]
Simon
Hello, is this Bobby? Yes, it is. At its core, the science you can't argue with.
- [03:33]
Host
I'm sorry about all of a sudden.
- [03:35]
Narrator
Up in the sky.
- [03:36]
Simon
It's almost frustrating that it's happening. I'm gonna die. Limbs were just like, wrong.
- [03:42]
Narrator
Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them a.
- [04:07]
Simon
Hello, my name is Simon. I'm 23 years old. I live in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm currently a bartender and I'm going to be going into studying my masters at the University of Glasgow. Growing up in Scotland is great because, well, I mean, like, we have like, everyone has like their nearest castle. It's quite funny in terms of ghosts and things. They're more of like an annoyance than a. They're like, oh my. Like, this place is haunted. Like, we're good. It's just like another thing. But it's like, no, Scotland's lovely. Especially I live well. I grew up between Glasgow, in between, like the Highlands. So I was able to get a mix of both the city life and the country life, which was great because Scotland is beautiful when it comes in terms of nature and then also just in terms of cities as well. So I, for the past couple years worked as a camp counselor in Maryland. And it was like my first time in America. And I was stationed, I guess, in a camp in Maryland. And I was like, I've never heard of this estate. It's gonna be interesting. And then it turns out I had like Baltimore and Hairspray, all that sort of stuff. But so it's a camphor boys. And you either got really, really polite ones or like, this is like my fourth home, which was what a kid said to me. So like, you've got that kind of really nice or really spoiled child. And then like, they would ask me things like, do you have technology in Scotland? Like, do you live in a. Like a cabin? I'd be like, yes, this is my phone. And they'd be like, you didn't get that to come here? And I was like, no, we have these. I remember a child, and by child I mean a 13 year old, asked me if we had Halloween in Scotland. And I was like, we invented it. I don't know what to tell you, but for the most part, for the most, like, I've some of my best friends live in Maryland. I really loved working at the summer camp and then helping a lot of the international staff kind of get settled and making sure they were comfortable getting paid properly, Social Security numbers. I really am passionate about making sure people are comfortable in their workplaces. But like afterwards we have like, I have got like enough time with my visa where I can travel America for a month. So I done like Texas, Vegas, I done LA as well. And I had deferred my, my masters for like this September, coming for this next year because I wanted to keep traveling and I wasn't ready to get of my life. I just thought I finally got this time where I can just do and go whatever I want and I'm going to take full advantage of that. Like, not, it's like, when am I going to have this chance again and this time again to do this? And I, I, I've just always wanted to see Mexico. I've got a friend who lives there. I was going to, I went to go visit him. That's when I flew to Mexico City. Mexico City was lovely. So I went for Independence Day. And do you know, I'll never, like, I keep saying this to everyone. I recommend like going to Mexico to like, the people in Mexico have, were nothing but like, so kind and so generous and so like, lovely. And I like, I've never been somewhere that feels so, like, kind. Like everyone seemed to be kind of in it together and it just felt very, it felt very, not Scottish, but just very like everyone in this country is kind of banded together a little bit and it just felt quite lovely. And everyone was more than happy to help. But I also realized that I was in a new country by myself that I'd never been to. And I ended up getting a travel buddy, someone I knew kind of not, but not really from the job in D.C. just outside D.C. i'm going to call him Roy. We had the same route, the same route in Mexico. And we were going to travel together because I just thought, I don't want to do this alone, especially in a place I've never been to before. Roy was like a very outgoing person. We don't talk anymore, but we'll get to that. He like always wanted to go to like, find the best club in Mexico City. He wanted to try all the best, like, try the best food. And then I started to realize that he didn't know any Spanish, like past Ola. And I was like, you were. We're going to Mexico for like a few months and you're, you, you didn't learn any Spanish. And he was like, well, no, I just thought they'd speak English. And I was like, okay, right? Because I had learned enough Spanish to get me by. And it only strengthened my time there. But he was a very, he, he Was quite arrogant with hospitality workers, things like that, hotel staff. And I kind of took that on note, but always put it to the back of my head because I just thought, I don't want to be traveling alone. And he came up with the idea after Mexico City to go to Puerto Escondido, which, like, I've never heard of. All I knew that I didn't really know too much about Mexico, like, like in terms of geography or where to go. I just know that I knew that I wanted to go to Oaxaca next, but we decided to do Puerto Escondido for like a few days. So we. It was like a 15 hour bus journey, which I've been traveling for a few months in America at this point. I can, I can handle a 15 hour bus journey, you know, at least it's not a Greyhound. So we had the time of our lives in Mexico City and enjoyed Independence Day. And then we went down to Puerto Escondido and we met up with his friend from back home and I'll call her Nora. I had booked a hostel for the three of us because I knew that we were going to be meeting this girl that I'd not met before. And we get to the hostel and they start freaking out about the rooms and then they cancel our hostel, which was really annoying. They didn't ask me, they just cancelled it. And I was like, oh, you cancelled my reservation too. Great. Roy and Nora then booked us a really, really sketchy hotel as far away from the beach as you could like imagine. And at this point I was like getting kind of sick of them because they were just, they were being very horrible to like that the staff in the hostel get cancelled. And I walked in on them like having sex in our room and I was like, oh, this is, this is like, this is my holiday, this is my thing to travel. And they're kind of ruining it a little bit and. But anyway, Puerto Escondido is an amazing town. It's lovely beaches. I've done a turtle saving sanctuary there. But that's why I wanted to go more than anything. I wanted to. They have these lovely kind of, they, they save these turtle eggs from poachers and things and then we farm them, keep them in safe environments and then release them out into the water and make sure that they get that they're safe, which I just thought was a really lovely thing to do. And it made me feel like I was doing something while I was traveling, like I was helping someone or something. Roy and Nora didn't want to do. This because they were not their thing. It was not their thing. But it was nice to have that time alone with the turtles. Anyway, I get back to this sketchy hotel one night after doing like the turtle saving sanctuary. And they're like, we're going to go to a party and Zipolite beach, like it's just off Zipolite beach, which is a nudist beach. And just. It's like a maybe an hour or so drive away from Puerto Escondido. And I've had a few nights of relaxation. I'm ready to party a little bit. So they're like, okay, we found someone who's got a car and they're going to drive us. And I was like, great. Roy and Nora are like dangerously sociable people in the sense where like if you have a car, you will be driving them after meeting them for like 10 minutes. So do you know, I mean like those kind of people. And I was this poor boy who I had agreed to like drive them. I guess I thought he was. I thought he was kind of cute. So like he wasn't going to be drinking at the party. And I was like, maybe I won't drink either because I don't know, I was just. I had been traveling a while, so I was like, you know, like, he's cute. So there was four of us and we were driving the drive there was like an hour long. We took the main road and then after a while went on to basically a dirt road. Because that's, I guess the road we had to take to get to this kind of beach area. And that road was about 20 minutes, half an hour long to drive on that road. And on that dirt road. I remember driving past like there was like a. You know, when on the side of the road when they have like a. Like a cross. It was a cross. It was very distinct because it was painted white and it had three yellow flowers painted onto it. And then there was like an abandoned moped. So that sort of thing, just I guess, distinct looking trees, all that sort of stuff just. But that they were only distinct looking trees because they were the only trees like in a while, if you know what I mean. So it was. It was nothing really. Just a road of nothing. Like I can't really explain anything. It was just the planes, you know, kind of thing. Like on the way there, I just really wasn't taking note of too much except I guess the cross that I saw and the skirt. So we get to this party and it's again at like an abandoned Building almost. And it's kind of just off from the beach, not too far away. People are closed, though. Even though it's just off. The minute it's beach, I do need to see. But I think that it was heavily tourists who were at this party. It was a kind of weird setup. You would order your drinks and then you would wait, like, upwards of half an hour to get your drink. You would just wait, like, with a ticket. And I was like, this is a bit weird. It was just like. It was like an average club, except that it was outdoors. Really. Everyone was recording it. Like, everyone had their camera phones out, all that sort of stuff. So it was. It was like, very touristy. Like, maybe halfway through the party, I was like, yeah, I'm not feeling this. And I don't. I'm not. I'm not drinking. And neither is this guy. And this guy was like, oh, I was thinking about maybe going back. And I was like, oh, same. And I was like, we could go back and we could go to the hotel or whatever. And he was like, sounds good. So we said to no, Dan, Roy were leaving. What are you doing? And they said that they're gonna stay. And I said, well, good luck getting home. Suppose best of luck they have each other. And there was like. I just felt like I deserved. I deserved to leave them there a little bit.
- [16:59]
Host
I get it.
- [17:00]
Simon
Yeah, we all get it. Yeah. Okay. I just hate coming across this like a dick. But they. They needed. Yeah. So me and this guy, let's. I'll give him a name. Let's call him Peter. We ended up leaving the party and getting in. We got into the car. We'd been driving for about 10 minutes. I was actually really relieved to be leaving these two, to be leaving Roy and Nora behind. Like, I can't even describe how I've never met people that are so, like, irredeemably just not nice. And, like, they just. They were just like, I always look for the nice in people, but there was just nothing. There's just nothing to them. And I was like, right, well, fuck them. I'm going to have a good night with this Peter guy. So I was, like, actually kind of happy. Like, we were just having that weird small talk in the car. And it was like 10. 10 minutes or so into the drive and we're on the dirt road. So there was no. There was no other cars there. It was like pitch dark. There's no street lights or anything. And we hear a thud under the car. And we looked at each other. At first, I Thought, oh, pothole or some just uneven road. And he said it felt like we were driving over something. So we just agreed, okay, we'll get out. Because we, we'd driven for like maybe 10 more seconds and we're like, no, we should get out. So I, I get out of the passenger seat and the car's. Yeah, still facing towards the way we were driving. Because keep in mind, like the only light is coming from the car the way we were driving. And I see kind of like a lump of just some like a lump in the darkness on the road. And I think, oh, like we've hit, we've had like an animal or like this isn't. We've had something. And it started to feel really, really, really bad because I've never, like, that's never happened to me before. Like, how could we be like, we, how could he not have seen that coming? And then he takes out his flash, his phone, flashlight, and all I'm thinking is, what is that? What have we hit? And whatever it is, I really, really hope it's not dead because this has never happened to me before and I've just spent the past couple days saving turtles. Imagine I go and hit something. That's not a fun thought. So I'm walking towards this and there's no light on it yet because the car is facing, it's still facing the way that we were driving. And I just see a kind of lump in the darkness on the road. And I was like, we've had, we've had like a dog or something. And I remember like getting a little teary eyed because it was just like upset, I guess, about the whole thing is like I was having, you know, I was having like a decent night so far and this had happened. And Peter, the guy put his flashlight onto it and I was looking at its spine because that's what was facing us at the point, its back. And I thought we fucked this thing up with our car because its spine looked like it was coming out of its back. And I was thinking I was just this pet of dread in my stomach of we've not only we killed something, but like we've done, we've kind of just messed up its body. The entire body was black. And by what, what I mean by its spine was coming out of his body, of its back is that its back was disjointed looking. Its back had jags coming out of this, like where the spine would be. And I, I thought whatever we've done to this with our car, we've Messed its spine up and it's all messed up inside its body and it's trying to come out. And it was just such a horrible pet of dread in my stomach, of, oh, like, like I've done such a horrible thing. But then I started to realize that that's how its body was. Like, that's that, that's not how it's not been messed up. Its body looks like that it has not hardened spikes, but it's got like jags coming out of its back. Like that's just part of how its body is. And the, the creature, the animal starts to kind of move and I'm thinking, like, I just sigh of relief of thank God, thank God it's alive. Like I didn't really care at this point what it was. I was like, it's alive, that's all that matters. And then when that feeling of relief passed, I started to think, oh, it's like a mutated dog or like a mutated goat, something like that, or even some kind of black fox, I don't know. And then it faced us and its eyes were piercing yellow, like it could light. Like it's, it's almost like if someone had two flashlights inside its skull, their eyes were that yellow. It's fur was so short, but was like pitch black. The, the animal itself was pitch black, almost like as, as dark as the rest of the night. And. But, but my mind is going in slow motion almost at this point because I'm looking at this thing. I mean it's fur is like really, really short and it has yellow eyes and like, like points coming out of its back. So I remember being like, what the fuck is that? Like what is this? I've never seen anything like this before. Peter was just speechless. Couldn't. He just couldn't vocalize anything. I think he was startled more than anything that he had hit something. You know, like, see if you see if you've ever been in like, like an. Almost an accident or whatever, if you're in the car and something that feels life threatening happens, you know how that for those couple seconds you're just kind of in silence. It was almost as if he was in that. But for way too long, like he couldn't. He was in like in total shock that he had hit something. And I was just happy that it was not dead. And we watched as the thing began to kind of move and it started to face us. And I was just thinking this whole time it was a mixture of relief, confusion and still dread in my stomach of now what is going on? Like, I have no idea what I'm looking at. And it begins to rise. It begins to stand up on its hind legs almost as if a goat would. Like when. When a goat kind of kicks up almost like that. But it doesn't go back down, it stays on its hind legs. And it's about. It's like a four foot, ish tall. I would say about four foot. And at this point I had gone over closer and Peter had held back holding the light. And it didn't seem to mind, like up until this point that we had a light on it. I was just like making sure. My number one goal is making sure that whatever this was was okay. And then it just lets out this scream of just. It wasn't a scream, it's more of a shriek. And it was like I was listening to someone find out that their whole family had been killed. It was. I've never heard anything like it before. It was dreadful to listen to. It's just so many feelings of confusion and like, just. I have no idea what's going on. Like this has all happened pretty fast, like within two minutes. And it was like screaming at us. Almost like it was doing this horrible, horrible noise. Like, see when you hear like foxes cry, kind of like that noise of just dread. Like, I don't know, like I've never heard anything like it before. I just remember thinking we should go. Like we should get back into the car because this animal is okay. But I don't want to get involved any further because this is not. I have no idea how to deal with any of this. So we just give each other a look of, let's, let's go. We're good, we're good. It's alive. Let's keep driving. So we get back into the car and Peter is still in just this. I'm. I guess a state of shock. Like he doesn't understand what he just saw and neither do I. But I'm processing it differently than he is. He's just in pure silence and driving. And although I'm not talking to him either, it feels like he doesn't want to talk about it. And it feels like all I wanted to do was discuss what just happened. His eyes were on the road. He wasn't looking at me. He was almost as if like a robot just driving. Like that's all he was tasked to do, to just drive. And he didn't want to even think about what he just saw. My mind is doing cartwheels at this point and trying to Process things. As we're driving away, I can still hear it screaming. And I was just like, I gave him this look of, what the fuck? Like, what the fuck was that? And he, he looks at me and he just looks back at the road. And I remember we seen the abandoned scooter we drove past. And I was like, okay. And then we, we kept driving and then we drove past the crucifix, the, the cross that was on the ground. I say, okay, right, we're getting somewhere familiar here. And I remember like nodding to sleep almost a little bit. And then I woke up again and we drove past the scooter again. And as I immediately thought, okay, everything that just happened was just a dream. We're fine. And then I looked to him. I'm really trying not to sound crazy to this poor boy at this point. He's like, hey, did we get out of the car earlier and see that really weird looking animal with the yellow eyes? And he said, yes. And then I asked him how long I'd been asleep for and he said 20 minutes. I looked around and we were still driving on the dirt road. And I was thinking, it just doesn't make sense that we're still on this road. If we had been driving for that long before we hit the animal. So we had been driving on this road for 50 minutes. It should have only taken us 20 minutes to half an hour. It didn't make sense that we were still here.
- [29:59]
Host
All right, we have to take a break, but we'll be right back with the rest of Simon's story.
- [30:20]
Simon
So I was very, I was confused. And then we drove past the cross and the road and he said like, that's the fifth one of that I've seen. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, we keep driving past these crosses and they all look the same. I said, that doesn't make sense because we've on the way here, we only drove past one cross. And then as I was saying, this doesn't make sense, we drove past the abandoned scooter again. I, I could just feel almost like everything coming out of my throat of just. I just wanted to throw up because I was like, am I in hell? Am I in hell for hitting an animal? And I was like, what is going on? I looked at the time on the, like the radio of the car and it didn't make sense that we were still on this road. Like, I was adding up all these time numbers that he was telling me and I was like, I just said we shouldn't still be on this road, did we take a wrong turn? He said, no, because it's a straight road. Like, you can't go off of this dirt road or else it's just dirt. It's just. It's not a road anymore. So by the end of all, we had been driving for about 2 hours. Ish. On this just dirt road. We had driven past the cross and the scooter. Like, I lost count, but, like, it was like it kept. We kept driving past them, but it wasn't continuous. It would be driving through nothing. And then seeing the cross again, seeing the scooter again. That's when I start to get scared. Like, actually scared for the first time in this whole night of just this feeling of claustrophobia, almost, of being trapped inside, like a loop almost, of we just keep going forward. There's no other way to go. So how do we get out? How do we get out of this loop? That felt like I had at first tried to convince myself that maybe there was more than one cross that we'd driven past. And I didn't see it on the. The drive in. But when I lost count of the amount of times we had driven past the cross and driven past the scooter, that's when I started to realize that something wasn't right. Like, with time and that I was so completely overwhelmed and just. I wanted to throw up. So I asked Peter to stop driving the car, and I had to get out of the car to get fresh air. When I got out of the car, it was, of course, pitch black, except for the light of the car. And in the distance, I saw a car coming towards us, which. Which was great. Like, it was. The feeling was just, someone else is here. We're fine. We're good. And as the car got closer, I started to realize that it was the exact same color and make of car that we were driving. It was like the same white car. And I thought that. My mind didn't really think too much of it at first because I just thought, it's another car. Great. And then the car stopped. And I saw the passengers and the driver door. They both opened, and two silhouettes got out. And the. The guy coming out of the passenger seat walked to the back of the car as if he was looking at something to the back of the car. And the guy who came out the driver's seat was standing still at the car and flashing a light towards where the passenger was. And that's when I realized that something was. Something was messed up. Like something time had messed up. On this road. And I was looking at. I was looking at me and Peter finding the animal as if I was. As if I was watching, like, a movie of his from, like an hour ago or whatever. And my mind just couldn't handle it at this moment. So I just got back into the car and I told Peter, I'm okay, let's just go home. And he's starting the engine up again. And I look out of the window and in the darkness and just the nothingness, the Mexican nothingness of the. What was off of the road. I just see two yellow eyes in the distance looking at us. And Peter drove away. And I was. I just. It and it. I've never had this experience before, but my mind had already decided, we're going to take all of this in, but we're going to think about it later. We're just going to. We're just going to get. We're going to get you home, Simon, first. And then we're going to. We're going to analyze these thoughts. But, yeah, this is my first time deeply analyzing all of this, which is bringing back a lot of memories. And we drove for maybe 20 more minutes, and we passed the cross and we passed the scooter two more times. And then I. It wasn't like, with a. It wasn't climactic or anything. We just got off the road. The dirt road just stopped, and we got back onto the main road. Even though I knew that I was. I was. I was driving past new things. I kept expecting to see the scooter or the cross. I kept on expecting, like, my eyes were not coming off the window. Like, I just kept waiting to see the cross and waiting to see the scooter and waiting to be trapped in that loop again. And I find myself, like, even think now I'm back home sometimes, waiting to see, like, the scooter or, like, the cross, just instinctually, because, I don't know, like, trapped on that road. It just felt like an eternity. It was. It was just. It was so. There's no other word for it than claustrophobic. Even though I'm in an outside space, I just feel so trapped in a loop. And we drove back to Puerto Escondido more or less in silence. We get back to the hotel, and I just shut my bedroom door in his face. And I was like, I. I need to think about everything that happened tonight. Like, this was not. I did not have a good time tonight. And I'm sitting in my room and I'm like, that was us on the road, like, the car and the people. I saw was us looking at the. At the animal. Almost. Almost as if I was someone. When we found the monster or the animal, almost as if someone from a distance had been filming that. And then it was. It was like I was watching a movie in real life of what we had done. But, like, at a distance. And I couldn't wrap my head around it, and I still can't. It just. I just knew that what I was looking at was us. And I was just sitting in this hotel room thinking about all of this. And I just couldn't get back. I just couldn't sleep because I didn't understand. I didn't understand anything that happened. So Roy and Nora get back the next day. And at this point, me and Peter had had breakfast and we just kind of. We were trying to talk about other things, but I think I had made a joke about, like, crosses. Like, I had made a joke about last night, and he didn't find it very funny. So I kind of. We stopped eating breakfast, and I was like, fuck this. And then I started to realize, where is Roy and Nora? Like, why are they not here? And then they got. They would. They got back to the hotel still drunk at, like, 10 in the morning at this point, they immediately could tell that, like, the vibe wasn't there because they were like, oh, my God. Did you and Peter, like, have a good night? I was like, no. No, we didn't. And I just thought, puerto Escondido, you've been great, but I need to keep. I need to. I need to leave these people. So I called my friend Saul and, like, I was meant to do a lot more traveling with Roy, Nora, and he said, you can just stay at my house and we can do day trips and things like that. And that's what I did. And I remember our bus to the next destination came. This was a couple days later. Roy and Nora said to me, all right, this is our bus. And I said, no, guys, this is your bus. They watched as my friend Saul, a very, very fit swimming instructor, drove up in a Jeep, shirtless, and picked me up. And I waved them out the window goodbye. And I never saw them again. And I never will. So I'm living in Playa del Carmen, which is an hour away from Cancun. That's where my friend Saul lives. This whole thing has been playing on my mind, and I don't. I've not had any answers yet. So I just. I just ask him, oh, hey. When I was in Puerto Escondido, I saw this, like, I think it was like a dog, but like, it. It didn't seem like. Like, I'm not too familiar with kind of the wildlife here. And I explained what I saw to Saul and he chuckled because he was like, well, that's. That's a chupacabra. And it's just like this thing that goes about and like drinks cows or goats bloods and all that sort of stuff. When I went to do some research and I looked at pictures, there were similarities to what I saw. It looked a bit alien. They're all like illustrations. They're all like drawn pictures, more or less. It was a lot smaller in the pictures. I thought it was a lot skinnier and more kind of panther. Like, almost like it was on all fours. And it was all. Although it was smaller in the pictures, it seemed like more of a threat, whereas what I saw on that road seemed more like just a creature minding its business. And to me, that horrible, horrible scream. But I interpreted it as just. That's just the noise it makes. Like, I never interpreted it as a threat or anything like that. I just interpreted it as. That's. That's the noise that animal makes. Well, the whole point of me traveling was to find myself cringy. And I remember this whole experience. I was like, you know, I didn't find myself, but I definitely found out who. I found out who I wasn't. And it wasn't someone who was going to let people like Ryan know that, like, keep me from seeing what I want to see and doing what I want to do. I wasn't going to let one weird, weird night kind of keep me from enjoying the rest of my travels. Saul was a swimming instructor in the mornings, so I was sitting on the beach watching him take his swimming class and enjoying a margarita, like some kind of soccer mom, like, and doing some chupacabra research on my phone and looking at it and being like, this is so silly because every time I look at this, every time I research this, I can just hear it screaming in the back of my head. Like, I can hear. I can still hear it scream. And if I keep doing this and if I keep on, like, if I keep on ruining my time away, I'm just gonna keep hearing the scream. So I decided to put the phone down and enjoy my time in Mexico. I think, honestly, being able to reanalyze all of this, I have more questions now than I did before because I've been able to deep dive into it, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think that having something like this happen to me, I'll probably never get an answer for it. But I don't know. I guess that's. I guess that's, that's what makes it more interesting. And that's what's going to keep this probably the weirdest and biggest thing that's ever happened in my life. It's gonna. I'm never gonna not think about it. When I think of core moments of my life, this is definitely up there because it shaped me to be more inquisitive, I guess, and braver when it comes to weird situations and creepy situations. And I'm not so afraid of the dark anymore either.
- [45:45]
Host
Alright, thank you so much to Simon for sharing his story. I know I joked around about the first Mexican story coming from a Scottish person, but I think the most interesting part about this is that Simon is a complete outsider who had absolutely no idea what El Chupacabra is or that it even existed. In fact, when he told this story to me, it kind of seemed like in the aftermath of all this, part of him was thinking that he may have just seen some kind of terrifying animal native to Mexico that he simply hadn't heard of before. Needless to say, there is no animal in Mexico or anywhere that matches that description. Either way, him having not known about this before is so striking to me and adds an entire new layer onto this already incredible story. That, and the time loop him and Peter experienced makes this so bizarre. I really enjoyed speaking to Simon. He seems like a very kind and sweet person. He's also so naturally funny, even when he wasn't trying to be. I also thought it was very telling that he clearly views Roy and Nora as the real villains of this story because they were rude and unkind to people. Even though he encountered this terrifying creature, the creature was still not the real villain to him. And even though it was so terrifying seeing this thing, he was still experiencing guilt about potentially hurting it. I think that says a lot. Finally, I just want to say we're always looking for stories from other countries, from other cultures and places. But of course, all the stories you hear in this show are submitted by listeners. So if you have a story, send it in to stories@otherworldpod.com Simon actually wasn't even a listener of the show at the time. His friend is, and the friend basically made him send the story in. I'm so glad that they did. If you have stories from Mexico, Latin America or anywhere we want to hear them, send them on in. Thank you so much to Simon for sharing this story. This has been episode 90. The title is the Long Road Home and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself, Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by Juice Jackal. This episode was edited by Theo Krantz and engineered by Theo Schaeffer. Our artwork is by Cul de Sac Studios. Our Associate producer is Nikki K. Delgado. Production help by Haley Pearson. Please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five star review and telling your friends about Otherworld. If you want to hear bonus episodes of Otherworld, you can become a patron@patreon.com Otherworld Our social media is Otherworldpod. That's on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Thank you to the team at Odyssey. JD Crowley, Jenna Weiss Berman, Leo Rhys, Dennis, Rob Morandi, Eric Donnelly, Matt Casey, Ora Curran, Josephina Francis and Hilary Schuff. Follow and listen to Otherworld now for free on the Aussie app or wherever you get your podcasts. And finally, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural or unexplained, you could send us your story at stories of the worldpod.com.
- [49:44]
Jack Wagner
That was the long road home from Otherworld. And yes, you can find more Otherworld episodes wherever you get your podcast.