Monster of Lake Tota Sightings

A group of fishermen working the high-altitude lake reported that a massive serpentine creature surfaced alongside their boat, its dark scaly body glistening before it submerged. The witnesses described a length far exceeding any known aquatic species in the Andean lakes and said the creature's wake nearly capsized their vessel. The account was collected by local journalists and is among the most detailed modern reports on record.

Source: https://hangar1publishing.com/blogs/cryptids/monster-of-lake-tota

French explorer and diplomat Gaspard Théodore Mollien visited Lake Tota and recorded accounts of the creature in his published journal of travels through the Republic of Colombia. Mollien described the lake monster as a spectral presence — an 'evil character' that haunts the depths and surfaces just long enough to terrify those on the water.

Source: Gaspard Théodore Mollien, 'Travels in the Republic of Colombia in the Years 1822 and 1823' (1824); https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/06/a-strange-lake-monster-in-columbia

Doña Andrea Vargas, a landowner of the Boyacá region, gave a firsthand account of observing a large creature on the surface of Lake Tota to historian Lucas Fernández de Piedrahíta, who recorded it in his General History of the Conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada. Piedrahíta noted that 'trusted persons and the Indians affirmed' the creature's existence across multiple independent accounts.

Source: Lucas Fernández de Piedrahíta, 'Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Reino de Granada' (1676); https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_of_Lake_Tota

Conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, during his conquest of the Muisca highlands, recorded indigenous accounts of a creature inhabiting Lake Tota described as 'a fish with a black head like an ox and larger than a whale.' The Muisca called the creature diablo ballena — devil whale — and considered it a supernatural guardian of the lake's depths.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_of_Lake_Tota