‘That Was No Animal’: Man Recalls Encounter With ‘Sincinito’ in Quintana Roo Jungle

Muyil, Quintana Roo — Beyond the dense vegetation, jaguars, tapirs, monkeys, and venomous snakes, the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula carry a mystical weight that even the most skeptical minds find hard to dismiss. Among the many stories told in rural communities, one stands out for its chilling detail and the suggestion that it might have been real.

A social media page called Leyendas de la Zona Maya y el Mundo recently shared the testimony of a man who claims to have encountered a large hominid that his grandparents linked to the “Sincinito.” The incident, dated to the 1990s, took place on a dark night at a ranch beside a highway between Muyil and Tulum.

The Dogs’ Warning

According to the account, the man lived on the ranch with his wife and dogs. That night, his dogs — animals accustomed to the jungle — began barking and then howling desperately before running away, which he took as a bad sign.

Armed with a loaded shotgun, he walked to the edge of the property where the tall jungle began, intending to confront the threat. From the darkness, something approached, breaking thick branches and scaring off animals. He fired his shotgun toward the sound. After a deafening silence, a rotten smell — described as old mud — filled the air.

Unable to see anything in the dark, the man fetched two buckets of kerosene to light a fire.

“And that’s when I saw it. In the darkness of the jungle, still … there was something. A large figure, taller than any man. Dark, as if the night itself covered it. But what I remember most … were its eyes. They shone. A fixed glow, looking directly at me,” the story describes.

For a few moments, the man stood still, not firing, watching as the creature watched him. Then, without a sound, it turned and disappeared among the trees.

Footprints That Gave It Away

Unable to sleep that night, at dawn the man inspected the area. “The tree branches were torn off, broken from above, not from below,” he said. Then came the most surprising discovery: footprints. Three prints, similar to a person’s but too large and deep. After seeing those tracks, the man decided to leave the ranch, which he later sold.

“In time I sold that land to someone from outside. I never told him what happened, why would I? But there are nights, when the wind blows and the jungle moves, that I still remember those eyes shining in the dark,” he concluded.