Mexico's Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls) is one of the most unnerving locales on Earth, a place where you are greeted by dirty, damaged baby dolls wherever you look. Take a video tour of this creeptastic island if you don't mind plastic infants popping up in your nightmares.
Isla de las Muñecas is a tiny island located in the canals of Xochimilco. The popular story of the island says that a young girl drowned off its coast roughly 50 years ago. The island's sole permanent inhabitant was hermit Don Julián Santana Barrera, who, shortly after the girl's death began finding dolls in the canal. He feared that these were a sign from an evil spirit, but believed that hanging the dolls on trees would direct him from evil spirits and the girl's ghost. Soon he began actively searching for dolls in the canals and the trash near the island and trading for dolls. He hanged them on trees and wires stretched between trees and kept some of the dolls in his own cabin.
Over time, even the dolls that weren't already battered and broken were distressed by time and exposure. Eventually, tourists got wind of the creepy island, and began paying a Barrera a small fee to take photos of the island. But for all of Barrera's superstition, he drowned in 2001, much like the little girl whose ghost he hoped to keep at bay.
The island has been mentioned here before, but these videos, taken by Michael deMeng, offer a tour of the island and plenty of views of those poor dolls. If you want to skip right to the weird doll parts, I recommend starting with the second part of the two-part video below.
Island of the Dolls: Mexico's Creepiest Places [Amusing Planet - link and videos via MetaFilter]
Photo by Esparta Palma.
Photo by Esparta Palma.
Photo by Rick Hall.
Photo by Cordelia Persen.
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