Location: 14 mi from Monterrey Map
The cave Cueva de la Boca is located 14 miles from Monterrey. It is
famous for its sizeable bat population that numbers in the millions.
Original count of bats in Cueva de la Boca numbered approximately
twenty million. However due to human exploration of the cave the
number fell to 600,000. Makeshift torches were often made from
materials that upon burning harmed these small creatures. However
the damage was soon stopped and two years after official designation
of Cueva de la Boca as a bat roost the numbers went above two
million.
Today the population in Cueva de la Boca seem to
grow. Mexican free tailed bats are primary residents of the cave.
Their main target is corn earworm moth that eats corn crops during
migration from Canada to Texas. Bats help agricultures by eating
approximately 15 tons of these bugs a night traveling up to 60 miles
a night. The bats leave Cueva de la Boca around 6 pm on daily hunts.
Then hundreds of thousands of these fury little creatures leave the
cave it is quiet a scene.
The story emerged at the end of the 19th century but, in the
eighties, in and around Monterrey the rumor spread that many
inhabitants of the area had witnessed strange sightings of a
supernatural creature. There are still those who claim that, late at
night, a being with enormous wings and a human body appeared in
places near the hills near Cueva de la Boca.
At the end of
the 19th century, in the La Huasteca Park region, a man was walking
with his dog when, suddenly, he found huge footprints that seemed to
be human shaped in the ground. The dog began to bark, for strange
noises were heard near the bushes.
Minutes passed and the
noise did not stop. So, Mr. Pantaleón Magaña decided to throw a
stone into the bushes: let's see what would happen. With eyes of
amazement and chills on their bodies, Pantaleón and his dog saw a
creature emerge, flapping its large black wings to take flight
towards the river. Afterward, the man told his neighbors everything,
who commented that the hunters in the area had already seen him. By
the way, they assured that it was not difficult to find it.