LINDSAY SELBY: Bigfoot in Guatemala?

The Sisemite is a Bigfoot/ Yeti type creature reported to live in the Mountains of Central America and Guatemala. The creature is also cited in the folklore of Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The name varies by region; the original name is said to be Tzitzimilt, which became in Spanish, sisimite, and is also written as Sisimito, Sisemite, cicimite, sisimique and even sometimes called Dontos (though that may be a mistake on the reports as Dantas is the local name for a Tapir, I believe). What is interesting is that some places in Guatemala and Honduras have the name 'El Sisimite.'

The creature is often said to be 6 feet (2 metres) to 8 feet( 2. 6 metres) tall, ape-like and walks with a bipedal gait of long strides. Its fur/hair is described as shaggy and long and that it sweeps the ground as the creature walks. The Sisemite’s vocalisation is reported to be very loud and piercing, and to be heard for miles around the mountains.

In Chorti folklore the sisemite is a rapist who abducts human women. (Similarities here with Bigfoot, said to abduct humans)

In Guatemala the Sisemite is described as an ape with human-like face, but so big that he could "cross the Motagua river just walking." It is also said to have glowing eyes and big backwards feet. (Some monkeys can rotate their feet so not quite as far-fetched as it sounds).

The similarities between stories of bigfoot, yeti and the Sisemite could mean a genus of large ape or a possible human /ape hybrid either still lives or once lived in remote places. Nearly all the places where these creatures are reported are wilderness or mountains and not very accessible nor habitable for humans. Maybe they retreated up there after the ice age or maybe folklore is just similar all over the world and it is just a story. But stories have to start somewhere and even if they don’t exist now, they may have done in the past and the stories of encounters have been passed on through oral history. There is often some truth in old stories I have found and if these creatures are no longer with us, someone may find a fossil or remains to verify they existed.


Story of encounter from Panama


http://www.bigfootencounters.com/creatures/darien.htm

See also the book Abominable Snowmen, by Ivan T. Sanderson,1961 chapter 8

See also this site http://kengerhard.com/

By a CFZ cryptozoologist who went to hunt for the creatures in Belize in 2004 and 2006