August 15, 2024 • 34 mins
Walk a mile in these Louboutins! In this episode, Ayden tells the story of La Taconuda, a legend from Honduras and Cuba. La Taconuda is a vengeful spirit who haunts the streets, particularly targeting taxi drivers. The story is rooted in tales of lost love, betrayal, and tragic accidents.
Want to share your own creepy story, picture, or recording? Leave a 5 star review with your story attached, email Ayden at sustopodcast@gmail.com, DM on social media, or visit SustoPodcast.com to be shared on the show!
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Want to share your own creepy story, picture, or recording? Leave a 5 star review with your story attached, email Ayden at sustopodcast@gmail.com, DM on social media, or visit SustoPodcast.com to be shared on the show!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey, girlfriends, it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to Sustill,
the podcast of ooky spooky scary story centered on paranormal
folklore from Latin American and Hispanic cultures.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Thank you so much for being here, and if this
is your first time, welcome, thank you for joining us.
We're glad that you're finally here. All right, cool friends. So,
last episode we wrapped up the Grandismo series. I know
that I had I think maybe one more suggestion, but
I'm gonna save that for later. But still, if you
have any suggestions or leads on Grandettes, please send those in.
(00:59):
If you happen to know of anybody, whether it's a
personal connection or someone that you heard of, I would always,
of course love to hear from you all. Speaking of
hearing from you all, I'm just going to get it
out of the way. If you have your own scary
story that you would like me to share Annie letters
from the Beyond episode, you can do so by you
already know how sending me an email hitting the contact
button on the website sustalpodcast dot com, Sending me a
DM on any social media platform, that's at sustal podcast,
(01:21):
or by leaving a five story review on Apple Podcasts
or leaving a comment on Spotify. Also, as you may
have heard me say in that last episode, you can
also send in a voice message.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So if you visit the.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Website again, sustopodcast dot com, on the right hand side
of the page, whether you're on mobile or on a computer,
there's going to be kind of a little tab sticking
out on the right side that says send me a
voicemail or something like that. Hit that button and you
can send in your own recording if you want to
tell your own story using your own voice. As a reminder,
it doesn't have to be a scary story. If you
have a photo, video, audio recording, anything that you think
(01:54):
is spooky that I should share either on the show
or on social media, send it in those ways as well, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I don't know if you saw.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I just remembered because I was talking about the social
media pages, but I went a little viral on TikTok recently.
I uploaded a video of me and my cat Margaret,
and I did the a Quiet Place challenge if you will,
where I said, this is my cat Margaret I'm gonna
see if you would survive in a quiet place, and
I ran with her and immediately even before we started
(02:21):
the test, she failed. But that video now it has
over like eight million views, which is wild to me,
also very ironic. All this work that I try to
put into making those videos on TikTok were like coming
up with ideas to do things on there, about to
the show itself and about the stories. And the thing
that goes viral is my cat. She goes viral before me.
(02:42):
But you know what, she has star quality. Apparently she's
just got it. She's got the X factor. So she's
earning her rent in our house now. Finally, you know,
I did tell her to get a job, So now
she's an influencer, I guess.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
But if you haven't seen that, go check it out.
It is. It's pretty cute, she's adorable.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And now my TikTok page is basically a Margaret page,
So if you haven't seen her before, go check her
out there, you all. We are approaching the Ber months,
as they are calling them, so September, October, November, December
my favorite months because it gets cooler and because it's
spooky season. And with that of course, Sustill will start
making appearances. I will claw my way out of the
(03:20):
grave and into the living world. I have a few
things lined up, but the one that I've started promoting
already is the night Owl Spirit Fest. So one of
my favorite podcasts, the night Owl Podcast, they are putting
on for the very first time, the inaugural Spirit Fest,
and we are going to have an amazing lineup of panels.
There are going to be some super cool vendors there.
(03:41):
It's just gonna be a really fun experience. Again, that's
going to be here in Austin on October twelve. I've
started posting about that on social media, so if you
haven't seen it, go check it out. It's going to
be so much fun. But again, follow social media for
any and all updates. You know, a spooky season approaches,
some people get really interested in bringing me out from
the other side. So yeah, just up on there and
you'll see where I'm going to be in I will
(04:02):
keep mentioning it. Don't worry, it looks like I don't
have any other updates for this show. I'm excited for
this episode in particular because it feels like a return to.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The Soustal formula.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
We've been kind of exploring different formats of episodes with
the Gudandaisma series that was more about like history and culture,
but this one, of course, is gonna reflect on that.
But it's also just a good scary story. I'm so
excited to tell you. And additionally, this is an original story.
I've said this before. I'm not a writer. I don't
(04:32):
credit myself as a writer, but this story, I wrote
it from scratch just because I was so inspired when
I was reading all of the sources and it just
made me excited and I just kind of imagined it
like a movie. So you all feel free to leave
me feedback. I would love to call myself a writer
more often, but yeah, this is an original story. So
(04:53):
I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you
think in the comments, in the reviews, in the dms, anything,
Just let me know what you think. If you have
any feedback, welcome at constructed criticism. Please don't just bully me.
I will cry, but without further ado. Today I'm telling
you the story of La Takuda. Almah was on Cloud nine.
(05:34):
It was her and her boyfriend's anniversary and she knew
it was the night he would finally ask her to
be his wife, or so she hoped. Their plan was
to meet at the final stop of his shift as
a bus driver. From there, they would drive to the station,
get in his car, and enjoy the evening that would
mark the beginning of their new life. She slipped on
(05:55):
her nicest dress, styled her long silky black hair, made
her makeup the way she knew he liked it, and
slid on her favorite pair of heels. The bus stop
was a short walk from her home, but Almah's excitement
made her feel as if she couldn't get there fast enough.
The whole way there, she imagined how he would ask
her what food they would serve at their wedding, how
(06:17):
handsome he'd look in a tuxedo. When Almah finally arrived
at the bus stop, she was left speechless. Her lover
adorned his bus with string lights, their song played softly
from its intercom. He stood at the door of his
five ton steed, dressed in his own best, holding a bouquet.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Alma was right.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
She knew in her heart, in her soul that he
was going to propose. Her smile stretched across her face,
illuminated by the glow of the lights. As he began
to profess his eternal love to her. He was nervous,
like she knew he'd be, But at last he reached
the end of his speech, Alma, he said, what I'm
trying to tell you to ask you is will you care?
(07:02):
A piercing screech tore through their song, interrupting his final words.
The lights grew brighter, blinding them. Before they could realize
what it was, A bright yellow car blazed through the
red light at the intersection. It missed one car, then
the next, before slamming into the nose of the bus,
pinning Almah's would be fiance in its doorway, where he
(07:23):
stood only seconds before. Almah's lover was dead on impact.
When first responders arrived, she was frozen in place, eyes wide, shaking,
and quietly crying. She's in shock, someone shouted. As medics
attended to her, trying to get her to respond. She
overheard an officer telling another the taxi driver is going
(07:44):
to make it. He said he was distracted by the girl,
missed the red light and swore through traffic. Although she
was physically untouched, Almah felt a pain so deep and agonizing,
an excruciating sensation that never left her. Days later, Almah
was found unresponsive in her home, still in her dress,
her makeup she knew he liked and her favorite heels.
(08:07):
In the following weeks after her and her lover's passing,
taxi drivers throughout the city reported strange events. Footsteps in
empty streets, a serial fair evader who seemingly vanished into
thin air, leaving only traces of perfume behind. Strangest of all,
and what made drivers and their shifts before sundown was
the deaths of four taxi drivers. But these stories didn't stop.
(08:31):
Oscar recently kicked out of his girlfriend's apartment when she
discovered his infidelity. He needed quick money for his own place.
He knew there was a driver shortage and took advantage
of the situation. It wasn't long before Oscar fell witness
to a bizarre late night incident. In the dead of night,
he pulled over on a quiet, stone paved road to
take his break. Oscar rolled down his window to enjoy
(08:54):
the cool breeze. He hummed along to the song playing
faintly on his radio. He was tired afterwards, looking days
on end and late into the nights, he was nodding off.
When he woke, startled by the sound of footsteps right
by his car, but the road stood empty still. He
could hear what sounded like high heels on stone in
the distance. Brushing it off, he started his car, and
(09:16):
as the headlights came on, he jumped again. Standing in
front of his car was a woman. Hey, beautiful, Nita, ride,
he asked with a chuckle. Silently, she walked over to
the back passenger side of his car. The vehicle's door
opened and shut.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Where we're going to night?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Gorgeous, he asked in a low, barely audible voice. She
gave him an address, He plugged it into his GPS,
started the fair meter, and they left. Oscar tried to
make small talk, but was met with silence. His questions
became more and more personal. What do you do for fun?
Do you have a boyfriend? Ever been at this cafe here?
(09:53):
I could take you sometime. I'll take your number when
I drop you off. What are you doing out so late?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Looking so nice?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Huh? Eventually Oscar became enraged when she would not answer.
You know, he said, you could stand to be more polite.
His GPS interrupted him with an alert, you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Are approaching your destination.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
More frustrated now, he turned to continue. When a man
is being nice to a pretty lady like you, you
should show some gratitude. As he turned to face the
beautiful stranger, he exclaimed, You're not even that pretty. The
glint of her blade caught his eye, and before he
could continue, she plunged it deep into his neck. His
car continued to roll slowly down the road. He began
(10:34):
to lose consciousness when he noticed the song playing was
the same one as when he pulled over earlier, a
song about lost love. The music began to loop and
glitch in a way he'd never heard before. In his
final moments without a sound, the woman vanished and the
smell of perfume filled his car. He could taste blood
pooling in his mouth. He could see a hazy glow
(10:57):
from above, the light from a bus stop. Welcome back
(11:19):
with Friends. Okay again, that was an original story.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
It was very easy to write this story because there
were there were good like bits and pieces about this
story that already existed, and I kind of just took
those things and instead of piecing those things together, I like,
you know, the meme of that lady with the numbers
floating around her face doing the math. That's me right now,
trying to explain what writing is to you. But anyway, okay,
So to get into it from what I saw, the
(11:45):
sources that I used really heavily is this story is
based out of Ondudas, more specifically in the I think
it's the capital of Hondudas. Yes, the capital Degusi Gaapa.
And actually when I went to Honduda's, I was very
close to the capital, to Sigalpa.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I am sad that I didn't hear this story. I
don't think.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I don't know if I was doing Susto then yet
maybe that was during my hiatus. I'm not sure, but
I wish I had thought to ask or like to
ask about scary stories. But also we were with a
bunch of little kids, and so I'm sure that they
didn't want to scare them. But anyway, so this story
is based again out of the Usial and Das, and
so we're gonna go through the sources here. Again, the
direct links to the sources are in the Susto Google doc.
(12:25):
So the first one that I have here is from
Rivista Chilena delta ratura and it's a it's an academic
article that looks like from Universidad de Chyenne, Espana. And
this article is titled the Weeping Woman, the Sejanaba and
other female ghosts typological configuration and legendary motifs okay, And.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
There's just a snippet.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
This is like, of course, an entire article about all
of these types of as I like to call them
here on Susto cryptid fems. But they bring up the
specific instance of the takuda in English. I think it's
just like a woman wearing heels, yeah, or like high heels,
but in this instance it's latak know that as a
woman or a person wearing high heels. This stimpet of
this article says, on the other hand, there are stories
(13:05):
that only describe the appearance of ghostly women on the
road without adding the reason for the driver who put
her in the car. Quote, a large light crossed in
front of our car, and out of nowhere, when we
turned to look, we saw women dressed in white. She
was illuminated and looked half blurry because of so much
light shining on her, to which is added in this
endurant exhibition of the explanation of the reason for her death.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
A gas station worker told us that this ghost is
of a woman who died in a car accident. He
told us that she was with her family in a
car and they flipped. The man says that.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Only she died.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
These types of apparitions are characterized as malignant beings in
many of the stories, as is this exhibition also from
hondudas quote. When someone is driving alone downhill, that is
when the driver turns to look in the rearview mirror,
and it is at this very moment that the woman appears.
That ghost has caused all kinds of accidents. Here Jarvis
lose control and crash. There's another part here, but before that.
(13:56):
This reminds me of stories like is it like the
Is it the Donkey Lady Bridge. I think I remember
growing up as if anyone listening is from the Rio
Grande Valley. There's this stretch of road I think it's
one oh seven in Edinburgh, like on the edge of
or the outskirts of Edinburgh, and they would say that
you there was there was a y I think it
was a convenience store called the Why out there, but
(14:16):
they said that if when you if you drove past
that late at night, that you would see a beautiful
woman on the side of the road, and that you
were supposed to offer her a ride, but before you
got to the destination or when you like looked back,
she wouldn't be there anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
She would vanish.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
And they said that a different version of that same
story was that if you saw her and you did
not offer her a ride, that when you looked in
the rearview mirror, she would be in your back seat
and she would have the face of a horse.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I think I may have mentioned this in the.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Episode of The Donkey Lady Bridge, because this idea of
a horse or a equine kind of shaped face is
something I think that we see repeated in these types
of stories. Okay, but this continues the same context serves
as a framework for some legends about the Takududa told Induras.
According to the testimony of informant from the Gusigalpa, she
is the girlfriend of a bus driver who died when
(15:08):
his vehicle collided with a taxi. Since then, her ghost
has wandered the streets looking for taxi drivers to take
revenge on. When the taxi drivers pick her up. They
look at her, and when they turn around to collect
their fare, she was no longer there, and she doesn't
make any noise or anything to get out. They say
that when they turn around to look back, she is
already there with a knife and stabs them and kills them.
(15:29):
They say that she has already killed about four taxi drivers.
That was a story from someone, and it continues. In
other Ondurdan stories, she is described as the ghost of
a woman with high heels who is murdered in the
streets by an individual who tried to abuse her. As
in certain versions of Layorona, this figure is also associated
with the motif of the contradictory perception of the feeling
(15:49):
of danger and the proximity of sound. So I tried
to add that in the story, because again this is
I think what we see with like Elsi Lan. I
think some people have said this about Lichusa's or other
kind of cryptids, is that the closer there sound is
so with and it's the whistling with la, It's it's
her weeping with Lata, it's her high heels. The closer
(16:10):
that you hear her, the further away that she is
versus the further away that she is. That means that
she's actually nearby. So this just kind of echoes that
it says. They also say that when footsteps are heard nearby,
it means that Latakunuda is already far away, but if
the footsteps were heard far away, it means that she
is approaching. So again, I don't know what it is
with this. Maybe I think maybe it's just a trope
(16:32):
that people use in these kinds of stories, is to
add this element of confusion or disorientation. It makes it
more dangerous because you think you're safe because you would think, Okay,
it's far away, I can hear as far away, but
that's not the truth. That's when you let your guard down,
you're more vulnerable and that's when they get you. Right.
So yeah, just these kinds of I think interesting connections
(16:53):
between these stories of women on the side of the road,
like hitchhikers or whatever. But this one was interesting because
there's a distinct story or a distinct cause for the
reason that she haunts, right is that and I guess
tegically there's two is. Some people say that she witnessed
her her boyfriend, her lover being killed by a taxi driver.
(17:15):
I think some people also go so far as to
say that the reason that the taxi driver, and that's
why I included it in the story, the reason that
the taxi driver collided with the bus is because he
was distracted because he was looking at her, and so
she I guess eventually, either she dies of a broken heart, maybe.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
She dies by suicide.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's not clear how she passes, but her spirit is
still so unsettled and so upset that she takes it
upon her to seek revenge on any taxi drivers, which
sorry taxi drivers, but if you're out there, be careful,
and maybe you know that's it falls into that realm
of the types of stories that are meant to discipline
us or to keep us in check. So I guess
(17:53):
then you could say that the takeaway from the story
is don't be a distracted driver, because if you're distracted
and you're looking around, you're gonna see it a talk
that she's going to get you. And also plot twist,
maybe this one is for the women and for the femmes,
and the story now is don't objectify women. Don't be
staring at women like pieces of meat and objects in
the street, because if you do. She's going to get
(18:14):
in your car and she's going to get you, and
then in some versions she just simply disappears when they
make it to the destination. So again, if you're not distracted,
if you're keeping your eyes forward on the road, then
you're fine. So the next source that I have here
is from it's a blog called de Wustounduras and this
is again about taxi drivers, but it also includes story
(18:36):
of someone just doing chores late at night, So again
it could be the whole thing of don't be out
late at night. This one's kind of a short one.
It says a neighbor from the Kennedy neighborhood tells of
an encounter with a woman in high heels. It happened
one night, as he was used to staying out late
at night in the blocks. He started smoking a cigarette
and it was almost three am. The atmosphere was calm.
Suddenly the wind started to get colder than usual, and
(18:58):
then he heard footsteps approaching. But with the sound of heels,
he saw the silhouette of a woman coming. He didn't
pay attention to it. What surprised him later was that
the woman wasn't moving. All he could hear was the
clicking of heels. Immediately, he felt a chill run through
his entire body, and without thinking twice, he ran out
and in the distance he continued to hear the footsteps
of heels as if they were following him. He entered
(19:20):
his house and from that day on he tried not
to wander around late at night. So again, behave stay home,
don't be out late at night, because the la tachunuda
will get you. Another event that occurred in the same
neighborhood in the blocks of Zone two, tells us that
a young man was doing tasks in the early morning hours,
approximately at one forty am, and that in front of
the house he suddenly heard the sound of heels. He
(19:40):
thought it was a neighbor who worked late and had
just arrived home, But the strange thing was that the
sound was short, only a few footsteps, and he did
not hear any door open. Later, on another day of
the same week, he had to repeat the same thing,
staying doing chores in the living room of the house,
and almost at the same time, he heard the same
footsteps of heels again, and immediately, out of curiosity, he
(20:01):
positioned himself to observe through a hole in the door,
while the sound of the footsteps came closer, hoping to
be able to see who it was when they passed
exactly in front.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Of the house.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But such was his astonishment when he heard the sound
so close, as if someone was walking in heels in
front of the door, and did not see anyone, not
even a silhouette. And to top it off, the blocks
looked clear, and the young man felt an intense fear
that he couldn't finish his task and instead went to
his room to try and calm down. Could it be
an evil ghost, a soul in pain, or simply a woman.
(20:30):
This page was originally in Spanish was translated into English,
so sorry if it sounded a little clunky, that's just
Google Translate. And then again, there's another short version of
the taxi driver kind of version. This one happens in
another city in Honduras called don Lee, and it says
this event happens in the city of the hills don Lee.
It is the taxi drivers who narrate this mysterious event.
(20:51):
They say that late at night, they're working on the
streets looking for passengers, and they see a beautiful young
woman wearing high heels stop them and they take her.
She starts talking to the driver and says that she's
coming from a part and it's late and she's going home.
The taxi driver is driving according to the address that
the young woman indicated, and suddenly he no longer sees
her in the back seat, but instead she is walking
on the sidewalk without realizing when she got out. There
(21:11):
are several taxi drivers who have gone through the same
experience without knowing the explanation for it. One of them
supposes that it could be the sole in pain of
a young woman who is perhaps assaulted and murdered when
leaving a party. But the strange thing is that nobody
knows her despite the descriptions and the detail that she
is wearing very high heels. And I'm reading this verbatim.
It says many taxi drivers no longer do the night
(21:33):
route very often for fear of this occurrence, since one
of their colleagues went quote crazy because of it. One
of the drivers says that he pays close attention to
who stopped him, and if he sees that it is
a beautiful young woman in a party dress and especially
with high heels, he does not let her get in
and speeds up. So he's just like, nope, sorry, sorry, okay,
so so sorry to all the pretty ghouls in high
(21:54):
heels like me, we just apparently can't get a ride.
I think what I really like about this story is
that when you strip kind of everything away from it,
it's saying leave women alone, leave women alone when they're
walking at night. Unfortunately, it's like, well, no, they should
still get a ride. They need a ride home maybe,
but yeah, I don't know. It adds this element of
danger to approaching women late at night on the street,
(22:14):
which I am one of those people where if I'm walking,
I will cross the road I will not make you
have to walk by me or near me, especially.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
If it's in the evening.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And I'd never even heard the story of the Takunuda
before putting this episode together. The next source that I
have here is this looks like it is a thesis
by two folks. One of them was referenced in the
first source that I had here. It's by Martinezreez and
Fernanda Maria, and this is an oral narrative in Honduras
New explorations at the beginning of the twenty first century.
(22:44):
So this thing is kind of spread out across different places,
but if you start to that you should be able
to find it. There's a PDF that I found of it,
and I have here the specific pages that I wanted
to reference. Okay, So in this thesis, it looks like
they collected various anecdotes from people about all these different
kinds of folklore and stories from people in Ondudas. But
(23:06):
this one, a couple sections I wanted to references about
Lata gun Nuda. So the one here is collected by
this woman named Stephanie Ferrufino, who is from the Saint
Lawrence Valley in Onduas, and it's just her telling basically
the same story about the taxi drivers. It says that
the taxi drivers don't pick women up at night because
(23:27):
there's a woman called Latakuda. She was the girlfriend of
a bus driver and that the bus and the taxi
crashed and that he died. This one, actually there's a
slight difference in it. It says that she was also
in the bus and that they crashed all together and
that she died and so now she, you know, haunts
the streets. But she was said to have long hair,
that she was attractive, that she wore high heels and
(23:50):
that's why they call her latakunuda, and that in the Gusigapa.
They say that she comes out in Vianueva, that when
taxi drivers pick her up they look at her or
when they like try to collect the fair, that she
not there. That she doesn't make any noise, so they
don't hear her getting out of the car.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
She just vanishes if.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
They're distracted and they look back at her while they're driving,
that she has a knife and she she kills them.
But the other parts of this that I wanted to read,
This is like a very lengthy document. Yeah, these are
just collected from people. This is from someone named Cecilia Mehia,
and she's from the Central and she says that she
(24:25):
was a very tall woman, she was young, she had
long hair, just describing how she looked, that she had
big lips, that she was dressed in white, and she
wore heels, like super high heels. And they say that
she is a woman that comes out in the middle
of the night in Tegucigalpa, that people can hear her
taku nasos, that they can hear her high heels in
the streets. Another one that says, oh, and that she
(24:46):
leaves a trace of perfume in her trail, that it
just attracts men. And then this next one says it's
called the tragedy La Ta leaves between midnight and three
in the morning in the pedestrian street.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They say that she was a pretty.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Girl, she had long hair, that she went to a
party in her dress, in her heels, that she was
on her way back home, that a man assaulted her,
she managed to escape him, she ran away in the
streets wearing her heels, screaming for someone to help her,
but that no one came out to help her, and
that the man caught her and he ended up killing her,
and that now her spirit remains on those streets.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
That's like the.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Other kind of popular version of this story of Latakunuda
that I keep seeing is that if it's not the
taxi driver, it's that she was assaulted and ultimately murdered,
and that her spirit, you know, of course, would remain disgruntled. Again,
we bring in this idea that we always talk about
here of traumatic events and how they leave an imprint
of energy. Obviously that would do it right. This last
(25:46):
one on here that was able to find in this
PDF is from someone named Zelenya Eggi Urre from the
Tumbla in Fra Cisco, Morasan, Okay. So this says that
that she used to live in a house I think
like off of us. I'd walk in that every day
at twelve at night, that they would hear heels in
the streets, and that they sounded like they were quick steps,
(26:07):
like if they were running, and that when they went
out to see what it was, they didn't see anybody there.
They see that only men can see Lataku Nuda and
that also when her steps again, when her steps are
heard nearby, it's that she's far but that if the
steps are far away, it's because she's approaching you or
she's nearby. So the next one that I have or
the last one that I have. Actually this is a
(26:29):
very different version of this story. This is actually a
story of Lataku Nuda from Cuba. This has nothing to
do with taxi drivers. It said that her spirit roams
staircases in haunted or abandoned homes. This is something that
was written on medium dot com by a user called
Chaotic Pair. This is actually posted in April of twenty
(26:50):
twenty four, so very recently. It says Echoes of the Night,
exploring the legend of Latako Nuda. And I'm not going
to read the entire thing. It's not super long, but
it says, step into the shadowy realms of Cuban folklore,
where the legend of Latako Nuda takes center stage. Described
as a ghostly woman clad in black with a veiled
face and long flowing hair, Latako Nuda is said to
appear to unsuspecting victims as they ascend or descend staircases.
(27:14):
The only warning of her presence is the faint sound
of her high heeled shoes tapping against the steps, drawing
ever closer with each passing moment. As children, you are
warned never to look back as you climb the stairs,
and most important of all, never dally as you go down.
In some versions, she is said to have long nails
that can act like claws, and some have seen her
dressed in all black except for her red heels. Okay,
(27:37):
red bottoms. So again, this is another kind of go
warning kind of a story. It's like, be careful in staircases,
don't like look where you're walking, don't be looking around.
I'll be messing around on the stairs because if you
are's gonna get you, which to me would make me
want to run up or downstairs right which I don't
think that is the goal, but I would run if
(27:59):
I heard that, I would run so that I wouldn't
encounter her.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Another piece of this says, when I was growing up,
my best friend at school came one day retelling her
encounter with the entity. She said that she had sneaked
out from home to go to a party and had
returned to her building in the early hours of the morning.
She was tired and her feet hurt. Since she had
stolen her older sister's heels, it didn't quite fit. As
she started to climb to her fourth floor apartment. We
do not have many elevators in Cuba, particularly in the
(28:23):
buildings that are less than eight floors, she all of
a sudden could hear heels going up the stairs loudly,
with her only problem, the sound was completely different from
her heels.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
She said.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
She started to worry when she heard a female voice
start to hum. As a wave of fear rushed through
her and she ready to sprint up the stairs, she
heard a very calm but completely inhuman voice say do
not run. With her heart in her throat, she did
her best to quickly but safely get to her floor.
She swears that as she slowly slipped into her home,
she heard those high heels begin the descent back down
(28:55):
the building, and a haunting hum.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Softly filled the space. Again.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Again, that would have just made me run if I
hear disembodied heels behind me, and then as I'm getting
ready to run, they say, don't run. Guess what I'm doing.
I'm a runner, I'm a track star. I am not.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Listen to whatever that is. I'm going to get out
of there. So this says that I want to read
the origin part of this. It says while the origins
remain shrouded in mystery. Some believe her legend is rooted
in tales of lost love, betrayal, or tragic accidents that
occurred on staircases. Others suggest she is the vengeful spirit
of a woman wronged, condemned to roam the earth in
search of justice, personally growing up. Every version I ever
(29:37):
heard mentioned she had an accident of some sort down
some stairs and now haunted steep or dangerous stairs This
is really cool. I'm actually I'm going to reach out
to this person because they're actively posting and this is
really cool and I would love to hear more about
Cuban folklore, so chaotic pair. If you actually are listening,
you feel free to reach out to me, but I'm
going to reach out to you. So yeah, this is
(29:58):
it was really really cool to to come across this one.
It's again a completely different culture, but it's this idea
of a woman's spirit wearing high heels. And let me
tell you something, this is the slayest. This is the
most slay she is serving giving. She's very demure. You
see how she walks down the stairs slowly. She's demure.
She's not like these other ghouls. She takes her time
(30:21):
on the steps. She's very cute.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
See.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I don't know if you've all seen that trend on TikTok,
but I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
With it right now.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
But yeah, again, just really fun to make these connections
to different cultures. I think this was the only other
one that popped up in the first page of Google
results about a high healed spirit about Lata Gunuda. So
if you have your own story about Lata Gunda obviously, always, always,
always feel free to send in your versions.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Welcome back, girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Honestly, this story just inspired me to make a bunch
of tiktoks wearing my heels. I have a collection of heels.
I don't know if anybody listening. I don't know if
you all know this. I don't know if you know
this you listener, But I have a collection of heels
that I like to wear heels sometimes when I go out.
When I say I'm GHOULI pop, I mean it. And
I don't get a chance to wear them often anymore.
(31:20):
You know, I'm in my thirties. My feet hurt very
easily now. But I will say I do marry the heels.
I do not take them off again. I'm demrror.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I'm not like these other ghouls.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I don't take my heels off and walk in the
streets and the club with my shoes off. I commit
to it, and then I don't feel my toes for
a week. But I can just imagine the the funny
tiktoks I can make about Latakunuda and walking to my heels,
especially with that sound that's like let it.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Let and then the heels, the clickings of the.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I don't know anyway, I'm I feel like I am.
My mind is slowly unraveling, the wrinkles in my brain
smoothing out. I don't know what's happening, but you know it.
But you're here with me, and I appreciate you, and
I'm so grateful. Thank you for spending this time with me.
Thank you for listening to today's episode again. Any and
all updates on the show on events that I will
(32:12):
be at, you can follow me on social media that's
at sostal podcast.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
On every platform.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Feel free to leave a rating review wherever you are listening.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That's the easiest way to support the show. The easiest
way to support Sustal is by interacting on whichever platform
you're listening, whether that's by following, subscribing, sharing, leaving or
rating a review, commenting, sharing it with your own friends
and family. And if you are feeling generous and you
would like to support Sustal by way of money, give
me my money, then you can do so by visiting
(32:42):
Patreon dot com slash sustal podcast. There are many different
perks and benefits and you can feel free to peruse
through them see which level is right for you. Any
and all support means the underworld to me, and I
would like to give a beautiful, special, extra spooky shot
out to this episode's patrons. You are Liza, Sadie, Rachel,
(33:04):
Alejandra Luther, April, Mario, Eva, d Joseta, sam Angela and Co. Mandy, Jules, Lori, Genie, Desiree,
Anna ashes Neressa, Rachel, Asusena, Rios, Marlen, Chata, Slaney, Desiree, Cynthia,
Serene Flamenca, Belinda, Isaiah Archer and Ricardo. Thank you all
(33:27):
so so much from the bottom of the pit where
my heart.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Used to be. I deeply appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I will talk to you all in the next one
and until then, do not take your heels off in
the club. Eis bye.
Hey, girlfriends, it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to Sustill,
the podcast of ooky spooky scary story centered on paranormal
folklore from Latin American and Hispanic cultures.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Thank you so much for being here, and if this
is your first time, welcome, thank you for joining us.
We're glad that you're finally here. All right, cool friends. So,
last episode we wrapped up the Grandismo series. I know
that I had I think maybe one more suggestion, but
I'm gonna save that for later. But still, if you
have any suggestions or leads on Grandettes, please send those in.
(00:59):
If you happen to know of anybody, whether it's a
personal connection or someone that you heard of, I would always,
of course love to hear from you all. Speaking of
hearing from you all, I'm just going to get it
out of the way. If you have your own scary
story that you would like me to share Annie letters
from the Beyond episode, you can do so by you
already know how sending me an email hitting the contact
button on the website sustalpodcast dot com, Sending me a
DM on any social media platform, that's at sustal podcast,
(01:21):
or by leaving a five story review on Apple Podcasts
or leaving a comment on Spotify. Also, as you may
have heard me say in that last episode, you can
also send in a voice message.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So if you visit the.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Website again, sustopodcast dot com, on the right hand side
of the page, whether you're on mobile or on a computer,
there's going to be kind of a little tab sticking
out on the right side that says send me a
voicemail or something like that. Hit that button and you
can send in your own recording if you want to
tell your own story using your own voice. As a reminder,
it doesn't have to be a scary story. If you
have a photo, video, audio recording, anything that you think
(01:54):
is spooky that I should share either on the show
or on social media, send it in those ways as well, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I don't know if you saw.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I just remembered because I was talking about the social
media pages, but I went a little viral on TikTok recently.
I uploaded a video of me and my cat Margaret,
and I did the a Quiet Place challenge if you will,
where I said, this is my cat Margaret I'm gonna
see if you would survive in a quiet place, and
I ran with her and immediately even before we started
(02:21):
the test, she failed. But that video now it has
over like eight million views, which is wild to me,
also very ironic. All this work that I try to
put into making those videos on TikTok were like coming
up with ideas to do things on there, about to
the show itself and about the stories. And the thing
that goes viral is my cat. She goes viral before me.
(02:42):
But you know what, she has star quality. Apparently she's
just got it. She's got the X factor. So she's
earning her rent in our house now. Finally, you know,
I did tell her to get a job, So now
she's an influencer, I guess.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
But if you haven't seen that, go check it out.
It is. It's pretty cute, she's adorable.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And now my TikTok page is basically a Margaret page,
So if you haven't seen her before, go check her
out there, you all. We are approaching the Ber months,
as they are calling them, so September, October, November, December
my favorite months because it gets cooler and because it's
spooky season. And with that of course, Sustill will start
making appearances. I will claw my way out of the
(03:20):
grave and into the living world. I have a few
things lined up, but the one that I've started promoting
already is the night Owl Spirit Fest. So one of
my favorite podcasts, the night Owl Podcast, they are putting
on for the very first time, the inaugural Spirit Fest,
and we are going to have an amazing lineup of panels.
There are going to be some super cool vendors there.
(03:41):
It's just gonna be a really fun experience. Again, that's
going to be here in Austin on October twelve. I've
started posting about that on social media, so if you
haven't seen it, go check it out. It's going to
be so much fun. But again, follow social media for
any and all updates. You know, a spooky season approaches,
some people get really interested in bringing me out from
the other side. So yeah, just up on there and
you'll see where I'm going to be in I will
(04:02):
keep mentioning it. Don't worry, it looks like I don't
have any other updates for this show. I'm excited for
this episode in particular because it feels like a return to.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The Soustal formula.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
We've been kind of exploring different formats of episodes with
the Gudandaisma series that was more about like history and culture,
but this one, of course, is gonna reflect on that.
But it's also just a good scary story. I'm so
excited to tell you. And additionally, this is an original story.
I've said this before. I'm not a writer. I don't
(04:32):
credit myself as a writer, but this story, I wrote
it from scratch just because I was so inspired when
I was reading all of the sources and it just
made me excited and I just kind of imagined it
like a movie. So you all feel free to leave
me feedback. I would love to call myself a writer
more often, but yeah, this is an original story. So
(04:53):
I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you
think in the comments, in the reviews, in the dms, anything,
Just let me know what you think. If you have
any feedback, welcome at constructed criticism. Please don't just bully me.
I will cry, but without further ado. Today I'm telling
you the story of La Takuda. Almah was on Cloud nine.
(05:34):
It was her and her boyfriend's anniversary and she knew
it was the night he would finally ask her to
be his wife, or so she hoped. Their plan was
to meet at the final stop of his shift as
a bus driver. From there, they would drive to the station,
get in his car, and enjoy the evening that would
mark the beginning of their new life. She slipped on
(05:55):
her nicest dress, styled her long silky black hair, made
her makeup the way she knew he liked it, and
slid on her favorite pair of heels. The bus stop
was a short walk from her home, but Almah's excitement
made her feel as if she couldn't get there fast enough.
The whole way there, she imagined how he would ask
her what food they would serve at their wedding, how
(06:17):
handsome he'd look in a tuxedo. When Almah finally arrived
at the bus stop, she was left speechless. Her lover
adorned his bus with string lights, their song played softly
from its intercom. He stood at the door of his
five ton steed, dressed in his own best, holding a bouquet.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Alma was right.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
She knew in her heart, in her soul that he
was going to propose. Her smile stretched across her face,
illuminated by the glow of the lights. As he began
to profess his eternal love to her. He was nervous,
like she knew he'd be, But at last he reached
the end of his speech, Alma, he said, what I'm
trying to tell you to ask you is will you care?
(07:02):
A piercing screech tore through their song, interrupting his final words.
The lights grew brighter, blinding them. Before they could realize
what it was, A bright yellow car blazed through the
red light at the intersection. It missed one car, then
the next, before slamming into the nose of the bus,
pinning Almah's would be fiance in its doorway, where he
(07:23):
stood only seconds before. Almah's lover was dead on impact.
When first responders arrived, she was frozen in place, eyes wide, shaking,
and quietly crying. She's in shock, someone shouted. As medics
attended to her, trying to get her to respond. She
overheard an officer telling another the taxi driver is going
(07:44):
to make it. He said he was distracted by the girl,
missed the red light and swore through traffic. Although she
was physically untouched, Almah felt a pain so deep and agonizing,
an excruciating sensation that never left her. Days later, Almah
was found unresponsive in her home, still in her dress,
her makeup she knew he liked and her favorite heels.
(08:07):
In the following weeks after her and her lover's passing,
taxi drivers throughout the city reported strange events. Footsteps in
empty streets, a serial fair evader who seemingly vanished into
thin air, leaving only traces of perfume behind. Strangest of all,
and what made drivers and their shifts before sundown was
the deaths of four taxi drivers. But these stories didn't stop.
(08:31):
Oscar recently kicked out of his girlfriend's apartment when she
discovered his infidelity. He needed quick money for his own place.
He knew there was a driver shortage and took advantage
of the situation. It wasn't long before Oscar fell witness
to a bizarre late night incident. In the dead of night,
he pulled over on a quiet, stone paved road to
take his break. Oscar rolled down his window to enjoy
(08:54):
the cool breeze. He hummed along to the song playing
faintly on his radio. He was tired afterwards, looking days
on end and late into the nights, he was nodding off.
When he woke, startled by the sound of footsteps right
by his car, but the road stood empty still. He
could hear what sounded like high heels on stone in
the distance. Brushing it off, he started his car, and
(09:16):
as the headlights came on, he jumped again. Standing in
front of his car was a woman. Hey, beautiful, Nita, ride,
he asked with a chuckle. Silently, she walked over to
the back passenger side of his car. The vehicle's door
opened and shut.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Where we're going to night?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Gorgeous, he asked in a low, barely audible voice. She
gave him an address, He plugged it into his GPS,
started the fair meter, and they left. Oscar tried to
make small talk, but was met with silence. His questions
became more and more personal. What do you do for fun?
Do you have a boyfriend? Ever been at this cafe here?
(09:53):
I could take you sometime. I'll take your number when
I drop you off. What are you doing out so late?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Looking so nice?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Huh? Eventually Oscar became enraged when she would not answer.
You know, he said, you could stand to be more polite.
His GPS interrupted him with an alert, you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Are approaching your destination.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
More frustrated now, he turned to continue. When a man
is being nice to a pretty lady like you, you
should show some gratitude. As he turned to face the
beautiful stranger, he exclaimed, You're not even that pretty. The
glint of her blade caught his eye, and before he
could continue, she plunged it deep into his neck. His
car continued to roll slowly down the road. He began
(10:34):
to lose consciousness when he noticed the song playing was
the same one as when he pulled over earlier, a
song about lost love. The music began to loop and
glitch in a way he'd never heard before. In his
final moments without a sound, the woman vanished and the
smell of perfume filled his car. He could taste blood
pooling in his mouth. He could see a hazy glow
(10:57):
from above, the light from a bus stop. Welcome back
(11:19):
with Friends. Okay again, that was an original story.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
It was very easy to write this story because there
were there were good like bits and pieces about this
story that already existed, and I kind of just took
those things and instead of piecing those things together, I like,
you know, the meme of that lady with the numbers
floating around her face doing the math. That's me right now,
trying to explain what writing is to you. But anyway, okay,
So to get into it from what I saw, the
(11:45):
sources that I used really heavily is this story is
based out of Ondudas, more specifically in the I think
it's the capital of Hondudas. Yes, the capital Degusi Gaapa.
And actually when I went to Honduda's, I was very
close to the capital, to Sigalpa.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I am sad that I didn't hear this story. I
don't think.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I don't know if I was doing Susto then yet
maybe that was during my hiatus. I'm not sure, but
I wish I had thought to ask or like to
ask about scary stories. But also we were with a
bunch of little kids, and so I'm sure that they
didn't want to scare them. But anyway, so this story
is based again out of the Usial and Das, and
so we're gonna go through the sources here. Again, the
direct links to the sources are in the Susto Google doc.
(12:25):
So the first one that I have here is from
Rivista Chilena delta ratura and it's a it's an academic
article that looks like from Universidad de Chyenne, Espana. And
this article is titled the Weeping Woman, the Sejanaba and
other female ghosts typological configuration and legendary motifs okay, And.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
There's just a snippet.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
This is like, of course, an entire article about all
of these types of as I like to call them
here on Susto cryptid fems. But they bring up the
specific instance of the takuda in English. I think it's
just like a woman wearing heels, yeah, or like high heels,
but in this instance it's latak know that as a
woman or a person wearing high heels. This stimpet of
this article says, on the other hand, there are stories
(13:05):
that only describe the appearance of ghostly women on the
road without adding the reason for the driver who put
her in the car. Quote, a large light crossed in
front of our car, and out of nowhere, when we
turned to look, we saw women dressed in white. She
was illuminated and looked half blurry because of so much
light shining on her, to which is added in this
endurant exhibition of the explanation of the reason for her death.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
A gas station worker told us that this ghost is
of a woman who died in a car accident. He
told us that she was with her family in a
car and they flipped. The man says that.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Only she died.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
These types of apparitions are characterized as malignant beings in
many of the stories, as is this exhibition also from
hondudas quote. When someone is driving alone downhill, that is
when the driver turns to look in the rearview mirror,
and it is at this very moment that the woman appears.
That ghost has caused all kinds of accidents. Here Jarvis
lose control and crash. There's another part here, but before that.
(13:56):
This reminds me of stories like is it like the
Is it the Donkey Lady Bridge. I think I remember
growing up as if anyone listening is from the Rio
Grande Valley. There's this stretch of road I think it's
one oh seven in Edinburgh, like on the edge of
or the outskirts of Edinburgh, and they would say that
you there was there was a y I think it
was a convenience store called the Why out there, but
(14:16):
they said that if when you if you drove past
that late at night, that you would see a beautiful
woman on the side of the road, and that you
were supposed to offer her a ride, but before you
got to the destination or when you like looked back,
she wouldn't be there anymore.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
She would vanish.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
And they said that a different version of that same
story was that if you saw her and you did
not offer her a ride, that when you looked in
the rearview mirror, she would be in your back seat
and she would have the face of a horse.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I think I may have mentioned this in the.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Episode of The Donkey Lady Bridge, because this idea of
a horse or a equine kind of shaped face is
something I think that we see repeated in these types
of stories. Okay, but this continues the same context serves
as a framework for some legends about the Takududa told Induras.
According to the testimony of informant from the Gusigalpa, she
is the girlfriend of a bus driver who died when
(15:08):
his vehicle collided with a taxi. Since then, her ghost
has wandered the streets looking for taxi drivers to take
revenge on. When the taxi drivers pick her up. They
look at her, and when they turn around to collect
their fare, she was no longer there, and she doesn't
make any noise or anything to get out. They say
that when they turn around to look back, she is
already there with a knife and stabs them and kills them.
(15:29):
They say that she has already killed about four taxi drivers.
That was a story from someone, and it continues. In
other Ondurdan stories, she is described as the ghost of
a woman with high heels who is murdered in the
streets by an individual who tried to abuse her. As
in certain versions of Layorona, this figure is also associated
with the motif of the contradictory perception of the feeling
(15:49):
of danger and the proximity of sound. So I tried
to add that in the story, because again this is
I think what we see with like Elsi Lan. I
think some people have said this about Lichusa's or other
kind of cryptids, is that the closer there sound is
so with and it's the whistling with la, It's it's
her weeping with Lata, it's her high heels. The closer
(16:10):
that you hear her, the further away that she is
versus the further away that she is. That means that
she's actually nearby. So this just kind of echoes that
it says. They also say that when footsteps are heard nearby,
it means that Latakunuda is already far away, but if
the footsteps were heard far away, it means that she
is approaching. So again, I don't know what it is
with this. Maybe I think maybe it's just a trope
(16:32):
that people use in these kinds of stories, is to
add this element of confusion or disorientation. It makes it
more dangerous because you think you're safe because you would think, Okay,
it's far away, I can hear as far away, but
that's not the truth. That's when you let your guard down,
you're more vulnerable and that's when they get you. Right.
So yeah, just these kinds of I think interesting connections
(16:53):
between these stories of women on the side of the road,
like hitchhikers or whatever. But this one was interesting because
there's a distinct story or a distinct cause for the
reason that she haunts, right is that and I guess
tegically there's two is. Some people say that she witnessed
her her boyfriend, her lover being killed by a taxi driver.
(17:15):
I think some people also go so far as to
say that the reason that the taxi driver, and that's
why I included it in the story, the reason that
the taxi driver collided with the bus is because he
was distracted because he was looking at her, and so
she I guess eventually, either she dies of a broken heart, maybe.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
She dies by suicide.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It's not clear how she passes, but her spirit is
still so unsettled and so upset that she takes it
upon her to seek revenge on any taxi drivers, which
sorry taxi drivers, but if you're out there, be careful,
and maybe you know that's it falls into that realm
of the types of stories that are meant to discipline
us or to keep us in check. So I guess
(17:53):
then you could say that the takeaway from the story
is don't be a distracted driver, because if you're distracted
and you're looking around, you're gonna see it a talk
that she's going to get you. And also plot twist,
maybe this one is for the women and for the femmes,
and the story now is don't objectify women. Don't be
staring at women like pieces of meat and objects in
the street, because if you do. She's going to get
(18:14):
in your car and she's going to get you, and
then in some versions she just simply disappears when they
make it to the destination. So again, if you're not distracted,
if you're keeping your eyes forward on the road, then
you're fine. So the next source that I have here
is from it's a blog called de Wustounduras and this
is again about taxi drivers, but it also includes story
(18:36):
of someone just doing chores late at night, So again
it could be the whole thing of don't be out
late at night. This one's kind of a short one.
It says a neighbor from the Kennedy neighborhood tells of
an encounter with a woman in high heels. It happened
one night, as he was used to staying out late
at night in the blocks. He started smoking a cigarette
and it was almost three am. The atmosphere was calm.
Suddenly the wind started to get colder than usual, and
(18:58):
then he heard footsteps approaching. But with the sound of heels,
he saw the silhouette of a woman coming. He didn't
pay attention to it. What surprised him later was that
the woman wasn't moving. All he could hear was the
clicking of heels. Immediately, he felt a chill run through
his entire body, and without thinking twice, he ran out
and in the distance he continued to hear the footsteps
of heels as if they were following him. He entered
(19:20):
his house and from that day on he tried not
to wander around late at night. So again, behave stay home,
don't be out late at night, because the la tachunuda
will get you. Another event that occurred in the same
neighborhood in the blocks of Zone two, tells us that
a young man was doing tasks in the early morning hours,
approximately at one forty am, and that in front of
the house he suddenly heard the sound of heels. He
(19:40):
thought it was a neighbor who worked late and had
just arrived home, But the strange thing was that the
sound was short, only a few footsteps, and he did
not hear any door open. Later, on another day of
the same week, he had to repeat the same thing,
staying doing chores in the living room of the house,
and almost at the same time, he heard the same
footsteps of heels again, and immediately, out of curiosity, he
(20:01):
positioned himself to observe through a hole in the door,
while the sound of the footsteps came closer, hoping to
be able to see who it was when they passed
exactly in front.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Of the house.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But such was his astonishment when he heard the sound
so close, as if someone was walking in heels in
front of the door, and did not see anyone, not
even a silhouette. And to top it off, the blocks
looked clear, and the young man felt an intense fear
that he couldn't finish his task and instead went to
his room to try and calm down. Could it be
an evil ghost, a soul in pain, or simply a woman.
(20:30):
This page was originally in Spanish was translated into English,
so sorry if it sounded a little clunky, that's just
Google Translate. And then again, there's another short version of
the taxi driver kind of version. This one happens in
another city in Honduras called don Lee, and it says
this event happens in the city of the hills don Lee.
It is the taxi drivers who narrate this mysterious event.
(20:51):
They say that late at night, they're working on the
streets looking for passengers, and they see a beautiful young
woman wearing high heels stop them and they take her.
She starts talking to the driver and says that she's
coming from a part and it's late and she's going home.
The taxi driver is driving according to the address that
the young woman indicated, and suddenly he no longer sees
her in the back seat, but instead she is walking
on the sidewalk without realizing when she got out. There
(21:11):
are several taxi drivers who have gone through the same
experience without knowing the explanation for it. One of them
supposes that it could be the sole in pain of
a young woman who is perhaps assaulted and murdered when
leaving a party. But the strange thing is that nobody
knows her despite the descriptions and the detail that she
is wearing very high heels. And I'm reading this verbatim.
It says many taxi drivers no longer do the night
(21:33):
route very often for fear of this occurrence, since one
of their colleagues went quote crazy because of it. One
of the drivers says that he pays close attention to
who stopped him, and if he sees that it is
a beautiful young woman in a party dress and especially
with high heels, he does not let her get in
and speeds up. So he's just like, nope, sorry, sorry, okay,
so so sorry to all the pretty ghouls in high
(21:54):
heels like me, we just apparently can't get a ride.
I think what I really like about this story is
that when you strip kind of everything away from it,
it's saying leave women alone, leave women alone when they're
walking at night. Unfortunately, it's like, well, no, they should
still get a ride. They need a ride home maybe,
but yeah, I don't know. It adds this element of
danger to approaching women late at night on the street,
(22:14):
which I am one of those people where if I'm walking,
I will cross the road I will not make you
have to walk by me or near me, especially.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
If it's in the evening.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And I'd never even heard the story of the Takunuda
before putting this episode together. The next source that I
have here is this looks like it is a thesis
by two folks. One of them was referenced in the
first source that I had here. It's by Martinezreez and
Fernanda Maria, and this is an oral narrative in Honduras
New explorations at the beginning of the twenty first century.
(22:44):
So this thing is kind of spread out across different places,
but if you start to that you should be able
to find it. There's a PDF that I found of it,
and I have here the specific pages that I wanted
to reference. Okay, So in this thesis, it looks like
they collected various anecdotes from people about all these different
kinds of folklore and stories from people in Ondudas. But
(23:06):
this one, a couple sections I wanted to references about
Lata gun Nuda. So the one here is collected by
this woman named Stephanie Ferrufino, who is from the Saint
Lawrence Valley in Onduas, and it's just her telling basically
the same story about the taxi drivers. It says that
the taxi drivers don't pick women up at night because
(23:27):
there's a woman called Latakuda. She was the girlfriend of
a bus driver and that the bus and the taxi
crashed and that he died. This one, actually there's a
slight difference in it. It says that she was also
in the bus and that they crashed all together and
that she died and so now she, you know, haunts
the streets. But she was said to have long hair,
that she was attractive, that she wore high heels and
(23:50):
that's why they call her latakunuda, and that in the Gusigapa.
They say that she comes out in Vianueva, that when
taxi drivers pick her up they look at her or
when they like try to collect the fair, that she
not there. That she doesn't make any noise, so they
don't hear her getting out of the car.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
She just vanishes if.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
They're distracted and they look back at her while they're driving,
that she has a knife and she she kills them.
But the other parts of this that I wanted to read,
This is like a very lengthy document. Yeah, these are
just collected from people. This is from someone named Cecilia Mehia,
and she's from the Central and she says that she
(24:25):
was a very tall woman, she was young, she had
long hair, just describing how she looked, that she had
big lips, that she was dressed in white, and she
wore heels, like super high heels. And they say that
she is a woman that comes out in the middle
of the night in Tegucigalpa, that people can hear her
taku nasos, that they can hear her high heels in
the streets. Another one that says, oh, and that she
(24:46):
leaves a trace of perfume in her trail, that it
just attracts men. And then this next one says it's
called the tragedy La Ta leaves between midnight and three
in the morning in the pedestrian street.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They say that she was a pretty.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Girl, she had long hair, that she went to a
party in her dress, in her heels, that she was
on her way back home, that a man assaulted her,
she managed to escape him, she ran away in the
streets wearing her heels, screaming for someone to help her,
but that no one came out to help her, and
that the man caught her and he ended up killing her,
and that now her spirit remains on those streets.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
That's like the.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Other kind of popular version of this story of Latakunuda
that I keep seeing is that if it's not the
taxi driver, it's that she was assaulted and ultimately murdered,
and that her spirit, you know, of course, would remain disgruntled. Again,
we bring in this idea that we always talk about
here of traumatic events and how they leave an imprint
of energy. Obviously that would do it right. This last
(25:46):
one on here that was able to find in this
PDF is from someone named Zelenya Eggi Urre from the
Tumbla in Fra Cisco, Morasan, Okay. So this says that
that she used to live in a house I think
like off of us. I'd walk in that every day
at twelve at night, that they would hear heels in
the streets, and that they sounded like they were quick steps,
(26:07):
like if they were running, and that when they went
out to see what it was, they didn't see anybody there.
They see that only men can see Lataku Nuda and
that also when her steps again, when her steps are
heard nearby, it's that she's far but that if the
steps are far away, it's because she's approaching you or
she's nearby. So the next one that I have or
the last one that I have. Actually this is a
(26:29):
very different version of this story. This is actually a
story of Lataku Nuda from Cuba. This has nothing to
do with taxi drivers. It said that her spirit roams
staircases in haunted or abandoned homes. This is something that
was written on medium dot com by a user called
Chaotic Pair. This is actually posted in April of twenty
(26:50):
twenty four, so very recently. It says Echoes of the Night,
exploring the legend of Latako Nuda. And I'm not going
to read the entire thing. It's not super long, but
it says, step into the shadowy realms of Cuban folklore,
where the legend of Latako Nuda takes center stage. Described
as a ghostly woman clad in black with a veiled
face and long flowing hair, Latako Nuda is said to
appear to unsuspecting victims as they ascend or descend staircases.
(27:14):
The only warning of her presence is the faint sound
of her high heeled shoes tapping against the steps, drawing
ever closer with each passing moment. As children, you are
warned never to look back as you climb the stairs,
and most important of all, never dally as you go down.
In some versions, she is said to have long nails
that can act like claws, and some have seen her
dressed in all black except for her red heels. Okay,
(27:37):
red bottoms. So again, this is another kind of go
warning kind of a story. It's like, be careful in staircases,
don't like look where you're walking, don't be looking around.
I'll be messing around on the stairs because if you
are's gonna get you, which to me would make me
want to run up or downstairs right which I don't
think that is the goal, but I would run if
(27:59):
I heard that, I would run so that I wouldn't
encounter her.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Another piece of this says, when I was growing up,
my best friend at school came one day retelling her
encounter with the entity. She said that she had sneaked
out from home to go to a party and had
returned to her building in the early hours of the morning.
She was tired and her feet hurt. Since she had
stolen her older sister's heels, it didn't quite fit. As
she started to climb to her fourth floor apartment. We
do not have many elevators in Cuba, particularly in the
(28:23):
buildings that are less than eight floors, she all of
a sudden could hear heels going up the stairs loudly,
with her only problem, the sound was completely different from
her heels.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
She said.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
She started to worry when she heard a female voice
start to hum. As a wave of fear rushed through
her and she ready to sprint up the stairs, she
heard a very calm but completely inhuman voice say do
not run. With her heart in her throat, she did
her best to quickly but safely get to her floor.
She swears that as she slowly slipped into her home,
she heard those high heels begin the descent back down
(28:55):
the building, and a haunting hum.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Softly filled the space. Again.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Again, that would have just made me run if I
hear disembodied heels behind me, and then as I'm getting
ready to run, they say, don't run. Guess what I'm doing.
I'm a runner, I'm a track star. I am not.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Listen to whatever that is. I'm going to get out
of there. So this says that I want to read
the origin part of this. It says while the origins
remain shrouded in mystery. Some believe her legend is rooted
in tales of lost love, betrayal, or tragic accidents that
occurred on staircases. Others suggest she is the vengeful spirit
of a woman wronged, condemned to roam the earth in
search of justice, personally growing up. Every version I ever
(29:37):
heard mentioned she had an accident of some sort down
some stairs and now haunted steep or dangerous stairs This
is really cool. I'm actually I'm going to reach out
to this person because they're actively posting and this is
really cool and I would love to hear more about
Cuban folklore, so chaotic pair. If you actually are listening,
you feel free to reach out to me, but I'm
going to reach out to you. So yeah, this is
(29:58):
it was really really cool to to come across this one.
It's again a completely different culture, but it's this idea
of a woman's spirit wearing high heels. And let me
tell you something, this is the slayest. This is the
most slay she is serving giving. She's very demure. You
see how she walks down the stairs slowly. She's demure.
She's not like these other ghouls. She takes her time
(30:21):
on the steps. She's very cute.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
See.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I don't know if you've all seen that trend on TikTok,
but I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
With it right now.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
But yeah, again, just really fun to make these connections
to different cultures. I think this was the only other
one that popped up in the first page of Google
results about a high healed spirit about Lata Gunuda. So
if you have your own story about Lata Gunda obviously, always, always,
always feel free to send in your versions.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Welcome back, girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Honestly, this story just inspired me to make a bunch
of tiktoks wearing my heels. I have a collection of heels.
I don't know if anybody listening. I don't know if
you all know this. I don't know if you know
this you listener, But I have a collection of heels
that I like to wear heels sometimes when I go out.
When I say I'm GHOULI pop, I mean it. And
I don't get a chance to wear them often anymore.
(31:20):
You know, I'm in my thirties. My feet hurt very
easily now. But I will say I do marry the heels.
I do not take them off again. I'm demrror.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I'm not like these other ghouls.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I don't take my heels off and walk in the
streets and the club with my shoes off. I commit
to it, and then I don't feel my toes for
a week. But I can just imagine the the funny
tiktoks I can make about Latakunuda and walking to my heels,
especially with that sound that's like let it.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Let and then the heels, the clickings of the.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I don't know anyway, I'm I feel like I am.
My mind is slowly unraveling, the wrinkles in my brain
smoothing out. I don't know what's happening, but you know it.
But you're here with me, and I appreciate you, and
I'm so grateful. Thank you for spending this time with me.
Thank you for listening to today's episode again. Any and
all updates on the show on events that I will
(32:12):
be at, you can follow me on social media that's
at sostal podcast.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
On every platform.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Feel free to leave a rating review wherever you are listening.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That's the easiest way to support the show. The easiest
way to support Sustal is by interacting on whichever platform
you're listening, whether that's by following, subscribing, sharing, leaving or
rating a review, commenting, sharing it with your own friends
and family. And if you are feeling generous and you
would like to support Sustal by way of money, give
me my money, then you can do so by visiting
(32:42):
Patreon dot com slash sustal podcast. There are many different
perks and benefits and you can feel free to peruse
through them see which level is right for you. Any
and all support means the underworld to me, and I
would like to give a beautiful, special, extra spooky shot
out to this episode's patrons. You are Liza, Sadie, Rachel,
(33:04):
Alejandra Luther, April, Mario, Eva, d Joseta, sam Angela and Co. Mandy, Jules, Lori, Genie, Desiree,
Anna ashes Neressa, Rachel, Asusena, Rios, Marlen, Chata, Slaney, Desiree, Cynthia,
Serene Flamenca, Belinda, Isaiah Archer and Ricardo. Thank you all
(33:27):
so so much from the bottom of the pit where
my heart.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Used to be. I deeply appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I will talk to you all in the next one
and until then, do not take your heels off in
the club. Eis bye.
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