The “Island Of The Dolls”: One Of The Creepiest Places In Mexico
PETER DAVIES/Alamy Stock PhotoDolls hanging from the trees at La Isla de las Muñecas.
If the Vent Haven Museum of ventriloquist dummies sent a shiver down your spine, you certainly won’t like what comes next: Mexico’s Island of the Dolls. La Isla de las Muñecas is exactly what it sounds like — an island filled with hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of eerie dolls hanging from the trees.
The island’s origin story is just as creepy as the location itself. In the 1950s, a man named Don Julián Santana Barrera moved onto the then-uninhabited island, which is located in Mexico’s Teshuilo Lake. Barrera had abandoned his family and was soon banished from the nearby neighborhood of Barrio de la Asunción because of his deep superstitions and his unwanted preaching.
Then, Barrera’s life changed when he found a young dead girl and her doll washed up on his island. The girl had apparently drowned, and Barrera began to believe that her spirit would haunt the land. He hung up her doll to try and appease her. But he soon decided that that wasn’t enough.
doleesi/Alamy Stock PhotoThe dolls are certainly unsettling to behold, which is why the Island of the Dolls is one of the scariest places on Earth.
As time went on, Barrera began to adorn his island with more dolls. He got the dolls wherever he could, including from the lake and trash heaps. Though these dolls were often in poor condition, covered in dirt and missing eyes or limbs, Barrera continued to hang them from the trees.
Before long, the island was filled with hundreds and hundreds of dolls. For Barrera, it was never enough. He claimed that he heard a ghostly whisper saying: “I want my doll” in the middle of the night, as well as unexplainable footsteps. And in 2001, Barrera was found dead on the shore of his island — apparently drowned in the same place where he’d discovered the girl.
Barrera had offered guided tours of his island for a small fee, but visits to the island increased after his death. Now, tourists in Mexico can sign up for a boat ride through the lake, which takes them right past the creepy Island of Dolls. There, they can gaze upon the unseeing eyes of Barrera’s doll collection. And some believe they might also catch a glimpse of Barrera himself, as he now allegedly haunts the island he once tended.
