Nine Climbers Report Shadowy Leaping Figures on El Yunque Trail Through the Night

EL YUNQUE, PUERTO RICO — A party of nine set out for the summit trail of El Yunque, the roughly 1,065-metre peak in Puerto Rico's Caribbean National Rainforest, intending to watch for unidentified flying objects. What they report having met instead, according to a case file republished by the blog Inexplicata, were four unidentified figures on a darkened path.

The account is by Noel E. Rigau and was credited to the periodical Awareness, Summer 1974. According to the write-up, the group arrived at about 6 p.m. on a Saturday in October. It included an engineer, Heriberto Ramos, a commercial pilot, Juan Jiménez, his brother Luis, a university student, Efraín Arroyo, and a teacher with four students. Several asked not to be named. They carried an infrared-film camera, flashlights, possible flares, food and camping gear.

On the way up, the report says, they passed three young women and a young man descending with a single flashlight. One of them asked the way to the main road, which the climbers found odd, since dusk was falling and only their own vehicle stood at the trailhead. One witness described the women as strikingly alike and dressed identically in blue trousers and red sweaters. Rigau says Arroyo confirmed these details in an interview on November 9, 1973.

Near midnight, according to the account, one climber felt watched, and a noise prompted the pilot to photograph in the dark. By flashlight the party found deep footprints in flattened grass and broken branches. Ramos and Arroyo then went down the slope alone and saw four shadowy shapes moving in a zigzag. The leader, they said, held a small device showing green, blue and red lights. When a companion shone a light on one figure, the beings moved off. The witnesses say they felt an unusual calm.

The witnesses estimated the closest distance at 15 to 20 feet. They described figures 5 to 6 feet tall with long arms and rapid, leaping movements. One account reads: "a creature with large eyes, a nose, pointed ears, and horns", though the report notes that not all agreed on the horns. At 5:30 a.m. the party descended and, the report states, found oversized footprints, smaller marks and severed branches along the whole trail to the vehicles.

The strangeness, as told, followed them home. Juan Jiménez's mother and a neighbor reportedly heard a sound like someone tampering with his film, and fled the house. Arroyo's parents described moving floorboards, thuds on the roof, a bell-like sound and a rolling electric fan. Rigau says he is inclined to attribute this to poltergeist activity, which ceased after some days. The developed film, he writes, showed nothing significant and was discarded.

Other witnesses reportedly suffered nightmares. One anonymous student claimed an apparition told him he would forget everything. The report adds that the case drew wide media coverage because the witnesses were regarded as serious, respected people. No independent corroboration is offered in the source.