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Mexico’s Creepiest Tourist Destination: Island of the Dolls

#1
C C Offline
Mexico’s Creepiest Tourist Destination: Island of the Dolls

EXCERPT: The Island of the Dolls (Isla de las Munecas) sits in the canals south of Mexico City and is the current home of hundreds of terrifying, mutilated dolls. Their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes adorn trees, fences and nearly every available surface. The dolls appear menacing even in the bright light of midday, but in the dark they are particularly haunting.

Not surprisingly, the island’s origins lie in tragedy. The story goes that the island’s only inhabitant, Don Julian Santana, found the body of a drowned child in the canal some 50 years ago. He was haunted by her death, so when he saw a doll floating by in the canal soon after, he hung it in a tree to please the girl. He hoped to both appease her tortured soul and protect the island from further evil. One doll in a tree, however, was not enough to ease Santana’s troubled mind. He continued to fish dolls and doll parts out of the canal whenever he saw them, hanging each one carefully on the island. There weren’t enough canal dolls to satisfy Santana’s tortured spirit, so he began scavenging more [...and...] trading [...] fruits and vegetables for dolls. [...] The story took a particularly sinister turn in 2001 when Don Julian drowned in the canal just like the little girl. Many people said that the dolls, inhabited by tortured spirits, conspired to murder the old man. [...] Although the island did not receive much tourist attention during Don Julian’s lifetime, it has become a well-known attraction since then....



Xochimilco

EXCERPT: [...] The best-known chinampa in Xochimilco belonged to a man named Julián Santana Barrera, a native of the La Asunción neighborhood. Santana Barrera was a loner, who was rarely seen in most of Xochimilco. He came to fame after he began to collect the old broken bodies of dolls from the canals and rubbish tips, and then hang them from branches and tie them to tree trunks to keep away evil spirits and appease the spirit of a dead girl he had found. He would say that he believed that the dolls were somehow still “alive” but “forgotten” by their owners and at night, these dolls are said to walk around the island killing animals, and other places were “discovered” in the early 1990s, when the area was being cleared of excessive water lilies. Before this, it was thought that no one lived on this chinampa, but Santana Barrera was there, living in a hut with no services and generally did not receive visitors, other than family. The display of dolls and parts attracted attention of the press. Eventually, he stated to them that the dolls were there to keep away evil spirits and to help with the harvests in his gardens. His favorite was called La Moneca and he frequently moved the dolls around among the tree branches. He began to receive more visitors to see the dolls, which eventually included local political figures. Santana Barrera died in 2001. The dolls, however, are still on the island, accessible by boat....
#2
Magical Realist Offline
They did a Ghost Adventures investigation at that Doll Island. One doll started laughing, apparently capable of some sort of electronic shenanigans by unseen forces. I will not come within 50 miles of that little island. lol!


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