TV Review: Destination Truth 3.06 – “Chullachaqui/Bermuda Triangle”

Episode: Destination Truth 3.06 – “Chullachaqui/Bermuda Triangle”
Original Air Date: October 14, 2009

In this episode, the team go head into the Amazon jungle with Robb and Dustin from Ghost Hunters International to look for the gremlin-like chullachaqui, then out to sea to investigate the Bermuda Triangle.

The team meets up with Robb and Dustin in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, where Josh inaugurates them on the Destination Truth ritual of eating/drinking the local food/drink and immediately crapping themselves from it. After sliding in first, they meet up with a professor who’s been tracking the chullachaqui sightings. Josh asks him if the native tribes out in the wilds of the jungle will kill them and eat them, and he only replies with a warning that they need to meet with the tribes to let them know what they’re doing out in the jungle.

Giant bugs and death are what the Amazon are made of, and that’s why they call it the jungle, Sweetheart. They meet with the chief of the first tribe the come across. He tells them about the creature and gives them a quick lesson on how to use a bow and arrow. In the next village, they meet a shaman who tells them some more about the creature and where they can find it.

Almost immediately on the initial sweep, they start to hear things moving all around them. Back at base camp, the noises turn to growling and snapping noises. Again, I’m baffled by the apparent lack of self defense weapons; what are they going to do if they come across a jaguar or something? Use strong language? They head deeper into the jungle despite it, and Josh gets caught in quicksand. That was pretty crazy because I’ve never actually seen someone in quicksand before. Obviously, he gets out and doesn’t die there. He doesn’t even get attacked by R.O.U.S.es when he gets out of it!

They find some prints that they make casts out of and a bone/tooth that they take back to L.A. with them. Their animal expert concludes the evidence they have points to a feral pig of some kind. Those things are nasty and mean, so I can totally see them maiming natives, but I find it hard to believe a feral pig would be mistaken for a bipedal creature the size of a child.

Next up is the Bermuda Triangle, which had been relatively quiet until recently when a plane carrying 12 went missing on its way to the Bahamas. No wreckage had been found as of the filming of the episode. They get to an island paradise, taste whatever that local pulled out of that conch, then get serious by talking to a woman who lost her pilot brother in the Triangle. Eventually, his plane was found, virtually untouched, but there was no sign of her brother or the passengers.

The theory is that there are “trouble spots” in the Triangle that show up and disappear continually. Josh takes a plane up to find these spots, and while over Bimini everything on the plane goes haywire. All the equipment starts shorting out, the compass starts spinning like a top, communications with the ground are cut off, and there are major magnetic disturbances. They land on Bimini to investigate.

The locals of the island all seem to have experienced the Triangle in one way or another, and they come across tons of ship and plane wrecks on and around the island. They don’t find too much during the daytime investigation except for a case of the heebie-jeebies.

That night, their equipment goes bugnutty again, Josh, Mike, and Evan get stranded at sea for a decent chunk of time, and Bicha and Gabe get lost in the woods on their way from a camera to base camp. Eventually, everyone makes it back to civilization alive, but they have nothing in the way of actual evidence. The personal experiences where pretty interesting, but I wonder if they spent more than one day/night investigating if they’d find something really compelling.

Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars