"The Long Road Home" from Otherworld

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.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Glynn Washington?

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• 0:43Glynn Washington?

  Spooksters, you have spoken. We want more spook, you said. We want the support to show, you said. And can we please, for the love of all that is holy, please get rid of those ads? Well, prayers answered. Spooked Plus has risen. Ad-free spook. The entire library, no interruptions. Just you and whatever's lurking in the shadows. Exclusive bonus stories every month. Fresh nightmares you won't hear anywhere else. The Spooked Plus community. Listen together, chat in real time because no one should face the darkest alone. And, and, ask me anything for yours truly.

• 1:28Glynn Washington?

  If you've got questions, I've got answers. Maybe. And we're just getting started. Spooksters, we are a small team chasing down the big mystery. Your support keeps this flame burning. So come on in. The door is open. Spooked.supercast.com. That's spooked.supercast.com. Spooked Plus. Don't turn out the lights.

• 2:03Glynn Washington?

  Ooh, spooksters. This week, I am excited to bring you an episode from our friends at the show Otherworld. Otherworld features real people who have 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.

• 2:45Glynn Washington?

  Jack picked out this episode specifically for Spook listeners. Otherworld.

• 3:02Speaker 01

  Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. I am 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,

• 3:44Speaker 01

  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 Other World 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 this show.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  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 Other World.

• 4:54Speaker 02

  Hello?

• 4:54Speaker 01

  Is this Bobby?

• 4:55Speaker 02

  Yes, hello. At its core, the science, you can't argue with.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  I'm worried about...

• 4:59Speaker 02

  All of a sudden.

• 5:00Speaker 03

  Up in the sky.

• 5:01Speaker 02

  It's almost frustrating that it's happening.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  I'm literally, he's, "I'm gonna die." I'm like, "It's limbs." We're just like, "Wrong."

• 5:08Speaker 04

  Everybody moves back into their mind, even if it takes them a minute.

• 5:32Speaker 05

  Hello, my name is Simon. I'm 23 years old. I live in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm currently a bartender and I'm gonna be going into studying my masters at the University of Glasgow. The rope 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, um, no, Scotland's lovely, especially. I live, well, I grew up between Glasgow and between like the Highlands.

• 6:15Speaker 05

  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 of years, worked as a camp counselor in Maryland. And it was like my first time in America and I, I was stationed, I guess, in a camp in Maryland. And I was like, I've never heard of this state. This is gonna be interesting. And then it turns out I had like Baltimore and Hairspray, all that sort of stuff. But, um, so it was a camp for boys and they were, you either got really, really polite ones

• 6:57Speaker 05

  or like, this is like my fourth home, which is 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? And 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. And I remember a child, and by child, I mean a thirteen 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.

• 7:39Speaker 05

  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, had 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 L A as well and.

• 8:10Speaker 05

  I had deferred my my masters for like this September coming for this next year because I wanted to keep travelling uh and I wasn't ready to get back to real life. I just thought I finally got this time where I can just do and go whatever I want. And I'm gonna take full advantage of that, like not it's like when am I gonna have this chance again and this time again to do this? And I I've just always wanted to see Mexico. I've got a friend who lives near I was gonna I went to go visit him. That's when I flew to Mexico City. Mexico City was lovely, so I went for Independence Day. Um, and do you know, I'll never like I keep saying this to everyone.

• 8:55Speaker 05

  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 kinda in it together and it just felt very it felt very not Scottish, but just very like everyone in this country is kinda banded together a little bit. And it just felt quite lovely and everyone was more than happy to help.

• 9:32Speaker 05

  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 DC, just outside DC. Um, I'm gonna call him Roy. We had the same route, the same route in Mexico, and we were gonna travel together because I just thought I don't wanna do this alone, especially in a place I've never been to before. Roy was like a very outgoing person.

• 10:15Speaker 05

  We don't talk anymore, um, but we'll get to that. Um, he uh, 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 realise 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, uh, right? Cause I had learnt enough Spanish to get me by. And, and it only strengthened my time there.

• 10:58Speaker 05

  But, um, he was a very, he, he was quite arrogant with, um, like, hospitality workers, things like that, hotel staff. And I, I kinda took that on note, but always put it to the back of my head because I just thought I'd, I don't wanna, I don't wanna be travelling alone. Um, and he came up with the idea after Mexico City to go to Puerto Escondido, which, like, I'd never heard of. Um, I, 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 wa, I knew that I wanted to go to Oaxaca next, but we decided to do Puerto Escondido for like, a few days.

• 11:44Speaker 05

  So we, it was like a fifteen hour bus journey, which I'd been travelling for a few months in America at this point. I can, I can handle a fifteen hour bus journey, you know, at least it's not a greyhound. Um, so we had the time of our lives in Mexico City. Um, 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.

• 12:14Speaker 05

  Um, I had booked a hostel for the three of us because I knew that we were gonna be meeting this kiddo that I'd not met before. And we got 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 kinda sick of them because they were just, they were being very horrible to like, that the staff in the hostel we cancelled and, um,

• 12:58Speaker 05

  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, this is my time to travel and they're kinda ruining it a little bit. And but anyway, uh, Puerto Escondido is an amazing town. There's lovely beaches. I've done a turtle saving sanctuary there, so, um, 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 legs 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.

• 13:44Speaker 05

  And it made me feel like I was doing something while I was traveling, like I was helping someone or something. Um, Roy and Nora didn't want to do this because they, they were, they were, not their thing. It was not their thing. Um, but it was nice to have that time alone with the turtles. Uh, anyway, I, I get back to this sketchy hotel one night after doing like the turtle saving sanctuary and they're like, we're gonna go to a party in Zep, Zepolite Beach, like it's just off Zepolite Beach, which is a, a nudist beach and just, it's like a,

• 14:29Speaker 05

  maybe an hour or so drive away from Puerto Escondido. And I've had a, a few nights of relaxation. I'm ready to party a little bit. And so they're like, okay, we found someone who's got a car and they're gonna drive us. And I was like. Great. Roy and Nora are like dangerously sociable people in the sense where like they, if you have a car, you will be driving them after meeting them for like ten minutes. So, do you know what I mean? Like those kind of people. And I was at this poor boy who had agreed to like drive them, I guess. Um, I had, I thought he was, I thought he was kind of cute. So like, he wasn't gonna be drinking at the party. And I was like,

• 15:15Speaker 05

  hmm, maybe I won't drink either because, I don't know, I was just had, 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 twenty 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,

• 15:57Speaker 05

  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 no- nothing really, just a road of nothing. Like, I can't really explain anything. It was just the plains, you know?

• 16:34Speaker 05

  Um, badda gadda nadda kind of thing. Um, like, on, on the way there, I just really wasn't taking note of too much, except I guess the, the cross that I saw and the scare. So, uh, we get to this party and it's like, um, like an abandoned building almost. And it's kind of just off from the beach, not too far away. People are clothed though, even though it's just off a minute, it's beach, I do need to, to see. But, um, I think that it was heavily Tourists who were at this party. Um, it was a kind of weird setup.

• 17:14Speaker 05

  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 about weird. It it was just like, it was like an average club, except that it was outdoors really. And everyone was recording it, like everyone had their camera phones out, all that sort of stuff. So it was, it was like very touristy. Uh, 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 wherever. And he was like, sounds good.

• 17:57Speaker 05

  So we said to Noda and Roy, um, we're leaving, what are you doing? And they said that they're gonna stay. And I said, well, good luck getting home, suppose. Um, best of luck. They have each other and there was like.

• 18:15Speaker 05

  Uh, uh, I just felt like I deserved, I deserved to to leave them there a little bit.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  I get it.

• 18:26Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  We all get it.

• 18:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, okay. I just hate coming across as 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. Um, we ended up leaving the party and getting, we got into the car. We'd been driving for about ten minutes. I was actually really relieved to be leaving these two, to be leaving Roy and Noda behind. Like, I can't even describe how, like, I've never met people that are so like irredeemably just not nice. And like, they just, there was 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.

• 19:10Speaker 05

  I'm going to have a good night with this Peter guy. So I was like, actually kind of happy and like, we were just having that weird small talk in the car. And.

• 19:23Speaker 05

  And it was like ten, ten minutes or so into the drive and we're on the dark road. So there was no, there's no other cars there. It was like pitch dark, there's no streetlights or anything. Uh, and we hear a thud under the car. Um, and we kept, 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. Cause we'd, we'd driven for like maybe ten more seconds and we're like, no, we should get out. So I, I get out of the passenger seat and the, the car's, yeah, still facing

• 20:07Speaker 05

  towards as the, the way we were driving. Cause 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 hit like an animal or like this isn't, we've hit something. And I'd started to feel really, really, really bad. Cause I've never, like, that's never happened to me before. Uh, like, how could we be, like, we, how could he not have seen that coming? Um, and then he takes out his fly, his like phone flashlight. And all I'm thinking is like, what is the, like, what have we hit?

• 20:52Speaker 05

  And like, whatever it is, I really, I really, really hope it's not dead because uh, this has never happened to me before. And I just, I've just spent like the past couple of days saving turtles. Like imagine it, like, I think going like hit something, it's, that's not a fun thought. Um, 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, fuck, we've had, we've had like a dog or something. And I remember like getting a little teary eyed because it was, I was just like

• 21:38Speaker 05

  upset, I guess, about the whole thing. Is like, I was having, you know, I was

• 21:46Speaker 05

  I was having like a decent night so far and this had happened and

• 21:53Speaker 05

  Peter, the guy who has a flashlight on to it. And um I was looking at its spine because that's what was facing us at the point, its back. And I thought we've 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 like 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 its of its back is that its back was disjointed looking. Its back had

• 22:39Speaker 05

  jags coming out of this like of 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 like just such a horrible pet of dread in my stomach of oh like like I've done such a horrible thing. Uh but then I started to realise that that's how its body was like that's um that that's not how it's not been messed up. Its body looks like that. It has

• 23:18Speaker 05

  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 um thank God it's alive um.

• 23:41Speaker 05

  Like I didn't really care at this point what it was. I was like it's alive. That's all that matters. Um. And then when that feeling of relief passed, I started to think oh, it's like a mutated dog or like a mutated goat.

• 23:59Speaker 05

  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, the, the eyes were that yellow.

• 24:22Speaker 05

  Its fur was so short, but it, it was like pitch black. The, the animal itself was pitch black. And almost like as, as dark as the rest of the night. And, um, but, but my mind is going in slow motion almost at this point. Cause I'm looking at this thing. I mean, its 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 animal? I've never seen anything like this before.

• 25:04Speaker 05

  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 how, 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 of seconds, you're just kind of in silence? It was almost as if he was in that, but for, 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.

• 25:45Speaker 05

  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, now what is going on? Like I have no idea what I'm looking at. And, 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.

• 26:30Speaker 05

  And at this point,

• 26:34Speaker 05

  I had gone over closer and Peter had held back, holding the light. And it didn't seem to mind it like up until this point that we had a light on it. I was just like making, like my number one goal is making sure that whatever this was, was okay. And then, um, 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.

• 27:14Speaker 05

  It's just so many feelings of confusion and

• 27:20Speaker 05

  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 red, like it, 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,

• 28:05Speaker 05

  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, we're good, we're good. It's alive. Let's keep driving. So we get back into the car and

• 28:24Speaker 05

  Peter is still in just this. I I'm, I guess, a state of shock, like he doesn't understand what he just what 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, I it feels like he doesn't wanna talk about it. And it feels like all I wanted to do was discuss what just happened. And 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.

• 29:07Speaker 05

  And he didn't wanna even think about what he just saw. And my mind is doing cartwheels at this point. Um, I'm trying to process things. Um, as we're driving away, I can still hear it screaming. And

• 29:24Speaker 05

  and I was just like, I gave him this look of

• 29:30Speaker 05

  what the fuck, like, what the fuck was that? Um, and he he looks at me

• 29:39Speaker 05

  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 drove, 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.

• 30:14Speaker 05

  I was like, I immediately thought, okay, everything that just happened was just a dream. We're fine. And then I looked to him. I like, I'm really trying not to sound crazy to this poor boy at this point. I was like, hey, um, did we get out of the car earlier and see that really weird looking animal with the yellow eyes? And he said, yes. Um, and then I asked him how long I'd been asleep for, and he said 20 minutes. I mean, like, I, I looked around and we were still driving on the dark road. And I was thinking, it just doesn't make sense that we're still on this road if we

• 30:57Speaker 05

  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 have taken us 20 minutes to half an hour. It didn't make sense that we were still here.

• 31:24Speaker 01

  All right, we have to take a break, but we'll be right back with the rest of Simon's story.

• 31:37Glynn Washington?

  This episode is sponsored by Vinted. Imagine opening my closet, looking for a shirt, and I see that jacket. That jacket, that jacket I got for that party I never went to three years ago. That jacket, it's still there, it's still mocking me. Well, it was still there. Because then I stopped and I reached for my phone because Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes that you no longer wear. Listing on Vinted is quick and simple. Once an item sells, Vinted creates the prepaid shipping label for you. And Vinted has no seller fees. I mean, you keep every dollar you earn.

• 32:20Glynn Washington?

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• 32:46Speaker 05

  So I was confused. And then we drove past the cross in 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?

• 33:29Speaker 05

  And I was like, what's going on? I looked at the time on the, like, the, the radio of the car. And it, 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, um, by the end of all, we had been driving for about two hours of, ish, on this just dirt road. We had driven past the cross and the scooter.

• 34:14Speaker 05

  Like, I lost count, but like, it was like, it kept, we kept driving past them, but it wasn't in ten years. 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 the.

• 34:44Speaker 05

  Like a loop almost of we 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 that felt like? I 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 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 realise that s- something wasn't right, like with with time. And that I I was so completely overwhelmed and just I wanted to throw up.

• 35:30Speaker 05

  So I I asked Peter to stop driving the car and

• 35:36Speaker 05

  I had to get out of the car to get fresh air.

• 35:42Speaker 05

  When I got out of the car, it was, of course,

• 35:47Speaker 05

  pitch black, um, except from the the light of the car. Uh, 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 realise that it was the exact same colour and make of car that we were driving.

• 36:17Speaker 05

  It was like the same white car and I thought that my mind didn't really

• 36:23Speaker 05

  think too much of it at first, because I just thought it 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.

• 36:46Speaker 05

  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 realised 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 a, like a movie of us from like an hour ago or whatever. Um, and my mind just couldn't handle it at this moment.

• 37:31Speaker 05

  So I just got back into the car and I told Peter, I'm okay. Let's just go home. And um, 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.

• 38:07Speaker 05

  And I was, I just, and I've never had this experience before, but my mind had already decided, we're gonna take all of this in, but we're gonna think about it later. We're just gonna, we're just gonna get home, we're gonna get you home Simon first and then we're gonna, we're gonna analyse these thoughts. But yeah, this is my first time deeply analysing all of this, which is um, bringing back a lot of memories. And we drove for maybe twenty more minutes and we passed the cross and we passed the

• 38:51Speaker 05

  scooter two more times. And then. I, it wasn't like, with a, it, it wasn't climactic or anything, we just got off the road. The, the dark 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, I just kept waiting to see the cross and waiting to see the scooter and waiting to be trapped in that loop again.

• 39:36Speaker 05

  And I find myself, like, even, think now I'm back home, sometimes waiting to see, like, 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, um, more or less in silence.

• 40:19Speaker 05

  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.

• 40:39Speaker 05

  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. It almost as if someone from a distance had been filming that and then. It, 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, um. It just, I just knew that what I was looking at was us.

• 41:19Speaker 05

  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.

• 41:27Speaker 05

  Because I didn't understand. I didn't understand anything that happened.

• 41:33Speaker 05

  So Roy and Nora get back the next day.

• 41:39Speaker 05

  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 realise, where is Roy and Nora? Like, why are they not here? And then they got, they were, they got back to the hotel, still drunk. At like, ten in the morning at this point.

• 42:17Speaker 05

  They immediately could tell that, like, the vibe wasn't there. Because they were like, oh my god, did you and Pierre like have a good night? And I was like, mm, no. No, we didn't.

• 42:35Speaker 05

  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 travelling with Roy and 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 of days later. Roy and Nora said to me, alright, 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

• 43:19Speaker 05

  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.

• 43:32Speaker 05

  So I'm living in Playado 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'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 didn't seem like it. And 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

• 44:16Speaker 05

  and it, it like drinks cows or goats' bloods and all that sort of stuff. And it, when I, when I went to do some research and I looked at pictures, there were similarities to what I saw.

• 44:33Speaker 05

  I, it did look, it looked a bit alien. They're all like illustrations. They're all like drawn in pictures, more or less. It was a lot like smaller in the pictures, I thought. It was a lot, um, 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 it's just a creature minding its business. And to me, that horrible, horrible scream, I interpreted it as just,

• 45:17Speaker 05

  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.

• 45:36Speaker 05

  Well, the whole point of me travelling was to find myself. Fringy, uh, and I remember this whole experience, I was like, you know, I didn't find myself, but I definitely find out who I, I found out who I wasn't. And I wasn't someone who was gonna let people like Ryan know that, like, keep me from seeing what I wanna see and doing what I wanna do. I wasn't gonna let one weird, weird night kinda keep me from enjoying the rest of my travels. Um, Saul was a swimming instructor in the mornings, so I was sitting on the beach, watching him take his swimming class.

• 46:16Speaker 05

  And enjoying a margarita, like some kind of soccer mum, like, um, 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.

• 46:59Speaker 05

  I, I think honestly, being able to re-analyse all of this has left. 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, I guess that's, I guess that's, that's what makes it more interesting and that's what's gonna 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

• 47:41Speaker 05

  um, core moments of my life. This is definitely up there because it shaped me.

• 47:48Speaker 05

  To be more inquisitive, I guess, and braver when it comes to to weird situations and creepy situations. And I'm not so afraid of the dark anymore either.

• 48:11Speaker 01

  All right. 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.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  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,

• 49:35Speaker 01

  because they were rude and unkind to people. Even though he encountered this terrifying creature.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  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 of the stories you hear on this show are submitted by listeners. So if you have a story, send it in to [email protected]. Simon actually wasn't even a listener of this show at the time. His friend is, and the friend basically made him send the story in. I'm so glad that they did.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  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 Schaefer. Our artwork is by Cul-de-sac Studios. Our associate producer is Nikki K. Delgado. Production help by Haley Parison.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  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 at patreon.com/otherworld. Our social media is @otherworldpod. That's on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Thank you to the team at Odyssey: J.D. Crowley, Jenna Weiss-Berman, Leah Reese-Dennis, Rob Morandi, Eric Donnelly, Matt Casey, Laura Curran, Josefina Francis, and Hillary Schuff. Follow and listen to Otherworld now for free on the Odyssey 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 [email protected].

• 52:10Glynn Washington?

  That was the long road home from Otherworld. And yes, you can find more Otherworld episodes wherever you get your podcasts.