El Jichi (The Jichi) is a mythological being that allegedly lives in rivers and lakes in Bolivia.
Description[]
El Jichi is described as having a long serpent body, a head that looked like a dinosaur, a tongue like a dragon, and white hair like an old woman.
Legend[]
El Jichi is considered a guardian deity of the waters. Few have seen it as it only comes out when the sun goes down. If you do not wisely administarte the water, Jichi will leave and cause drought, bad fishing, etc.
Sightings[]
One story comes from the jungles of Bolivia where a local fisherman went to a virgin lake in the area where the fishing had gone really well. He left his boat there, and upon coming back found it had been broken. He saw a very big monster swimming through the water as well.
Explanations[]
A theory was proposed in a Billschannel video that El Jichi is a surviving dinosaur.
This isn't unlikely, as there has been evidence that dinosaurs lived in Bolivia, such as the footprint found by Apesteguia.
The theory is supported by a drawing made by the son of Col. Percy Fawcett, one of the most famous Amazon explorers ever. Col. Percy Fawcett was obsessed with finding the golden city of El Dorado, and spent most of his life trekking in the jungle. However, Fawcett and his son eventually went missing in the jungle, and were never found. They left behind detailed diaries of their exploration and journey's, including the drawing.
Fawcett and his son were trekking not far from the amazon when they came across what they described as fresh dinosaur footprints. In his log, Fawcett wrote " In the forest along the Madidi River some mysterious and enormous beast has frequently been disturbed in the swamps - possibly a primeval monster like those reported in other parts of the continent...".
Fawcett gathered descriptions and sightings of the beast from local people. He thought it might be a Sauropod Dinosaur species, like a Diplodocus, which is about 30 feet in length with a long neck, snake-like head, and a huge flexible tale. Fawcett was convinced that the creature did indeed exist, and was part of a small band of surviving dinosaurs that somehow thrived in the deepest parts of the Amazon.
It could be possible that El Jichi is actually based upon accounts of different sea monsters of the same species, which belong to a band of dinosaurs that survived and evolved into whatever beast left behind the footprints Fawcett uncovered.