Haunted Happenings In Latin America

Haunted Houses

Built on cursed land

Considered to be one of the most haunted houses in all of Latin America, La Casa Matusita is located in Lima, Peru. This house has a very frightening and violent history. Supposedly according to rumors, the house was built on land that had been cursed dating back to Spanish colonialism.

Legend has it that a woman named Dervaspa Parveneh was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. After the death of the so-called witch, La Casa Matusita was built upon the land. Anyone who lived in the house met with terrible deaths. You can certainly be sure that the spirits that roam here are not of the friendly type.

Murdered children

At the Claudia Mijangos House located in Queretaro, Mexico the woman whose name the house bears murdered her three children on April 24, 1989. The case became internationally famous when the accused woman claimed that a demon compelled her to commit acts of violence.

According to locals, there is paranormal activity on the premises. Neighbors say that there is an apparition of a bleeding child seen from a second-story window. When all is quiet and you listen closely you can hear the screams of children.

Other Haunted Places

The vampire of Pisco

Pisco, Peru is a charming port town bearing the name of the national spirit of the country. Pisco is a clear liquid that has been distilled from grapes. The region is beautiful and there are lovely vineyards and weekend resorts. However, this is also the place where you can run into a vampire. I don't know about you but somehow to me vampires and vineyard don't mix.

Legend has it that Sarah Ellen Roberts an English woman was charged with being a murderess, a witch, and a vampire. In short, she was supposedly one of the brides of Dracula. You must remember him and now this sounds like a Hollywood movie in a rather unusual setting.

After she passed on the Church of England refused to bury her in consecrated ground. So her husband John Roberts traveled about the world to find a place to bury his wife. It was the small town of Pisco that finally accepted her body.

Unfortunately, her body came with other responsibility of what would happen afterwards. Before she died in 1913, Sarah Ellen Roberts swore to everyone that she would rise from the grave and take vengeance in 80 years. However, nothing unusual happened.

Then in 2007, Pico was shaken by a deadly earthquake and Sarah Ellen Roberts' grave was among the few that was left totally unscathed. Now to this very day locals say they have seen the ghostly apparition of a woman wandering the streets at night apparently looking for someone to wreak vengeance on. So if you are prepared this is the place to have a drink of Pisco and then face the vampire.

Mysterious monsters

Many tourists are drawn by the beauty and mystery of the Amazon rainforest. They can cruise down the Amazon River and enjoy the wildlife and colorful exotic birds of the jungle. However. now what no one counted on is that they might encounter the mythical Brazilian Encantado which translates to "enchanted one"" and is a frightening creature you would nto want to meet.

So the question here is would you or would you not believe in strange monsters that supposedly live in the deep in Amazon waters and can turn into either sea snakes or dolphins. Things only get stranger if you know that when there is dancing at local festivities the Encantado can turn into a seductive human with incredible musical talent and beauty no one can resist. Once the monster has a human under its spell they are kidnapped and never seen again.

You might think this is a tale of the imagination but local jungal residents tend to avoid walking along the riverbank at night fearing for their lives if they should run into an Encantado. Well, there is no way of knowing the truth except for one - have you made your reservation for a trip to the Amazon rainforest? An Encantado might be awaiting you.

Buried alive

The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina is the place of burial for notable people such as Eva Peron, some Nobel Prize winners, and former Argentinian presidents, Among all of the grand mausoleums and crucifixes there is the grave of Rufina Cambaceres. Born into a wealthy family Rufina was a Buena Aires socialite. Her good life came to a tragic ending when in 1902 she suddenly collapsed but is then said to have been buried alive.

Legend has it that she was pronounced dead by three doctors at the age of 19. Then her body was put into a coffin and sealed into a mausoleum. It was a few days after her passing that a cemetery worker noticed her coffin had been moved and the lid was broken in several places. After opening the coffin the worker saw that there were scratch marks on the inside. She had not been dead and had woken up inside the coffin trying to get out and finally suffocating to death.

Her grieving father rebuilt her grave, portraying his daughter opening the door to her own grave. Now at night, the terrifying shadow of her real-life self walks about the cemetery digging up dead bodies to make sure that they would not suffer the same fate as she suffered.

Ghostly spirits roaming the sanitarium

Durán Sanitarium in Cartago, Costa Rica, a Central Ameircan country is one of the most haunted places. In 1973 the place was closed up after a volcanic eruption and remained empty and abandoned. The sanitarium has been a tuberculosis clinic, an insane asylum, an orphanage, and a prison.

There are dark long empty hallways and rooms filled with debris and restless spirits roam about. There have been ghostly sightings of nuns, little girls, and a mysterious monk all seen through the windows in the wee hours of the night.

Founded in 1918 the sanitarium has had a bad aura through the centuries. It began as a tuberculosis clinic and was closed when vaccines were found for the disease in 1963. Then it was home to orphaned children and later on prison for violent criminals. Today anyone who walks here can feel the disquiet where unhappy spirits wander in the dark and the handprints of dead children can be seen painted on the walls of the infirmary.