Island of Abandoned Dolls, Mexico. Island of the Dolls and its ghosts

Do you want to tickle your nerves a little? Island of the Dolls in Mexico.

Somewhere in the tropical Mexican forests, not far from the unremarkable town of Xochimilco, there is an island with a touching name Island of the Dolls. Don’t let such a harmless name deceive you; just visit it and your opinion will change radically. And.....not a trace will remain of your good mood. Because it island of dead dolls.
Stepping onto the island, you will find yourself in an ugly world consisting of the remains of dolls, which were once a great joy for children. These abandoned dolls make up entire compositions. Some of them are screwed to tree trunks, and some hang from trees on ropes, with their heads turned back. The blackened, dirty and crumpled faces of these dolls look at tourists with bright blue eyes or, on the contrary, empty eye sockets. The spectacle, it must be said, is not for the faint of heart. And the history of this place could begin like this...

Once upon a time there lived in a Mexican town an eccentric named Don Julian Santana. He was born in 1921 and did not stand out among people in anything special, except that he prayed to God more earnestly than others and drank heavily. History is silent about what went into his not entirely sober head, but at one point, this strange man became interested in collecting dolls, and not just any dolls, but certainly old ones and abandoned by people. And he didn’t disdain anything; everything was suitable, wooden and rag, plastic and rubber, with or without heads. And in 1975, Santana left the city altogether, loading his “favorites” into the boat and leaving his wife. He fell in love with a lonely island surrounded by an overgrown canal and never returned, preferring the company of his pets to human society.

On the island, Don built himself a hut and lived by growing vegetables, fishing in the canal, and maintaining contact with the outside world exclusively through his nephew Anastasio, who brought him the necessary equipment and exchanged the fruits and vegetables grown by Santana for the dolls so kind to him. Found this gloomy Island of the Dolls ecologists who cleaned the canal of algae and they spread the word about the old man with such a strange fantasy. Over the years of his voluntary solitude, thousands of these freaks have accumulated; they are everywhere, on the walls of his hut and inside it, on the fence and on the roof, and there is practically not a single free branch where dolls do not hang. Like this one island of dead dolls in mexico.


Even without visiting the island, you can understand that it leaves some kind of mystical and painful impression, is not it? And it would seem that the old man did not intentionally disfigure the dolls and did not make monsters out of them, but simply collected and hung up what once brought joy, and then was carelessly forgotten and abandoned by people. But come on, I have chills all over my skin and I wouldn’t want to spend the night there, would you?….Island of Dolls photo:

Island of the Dolls Mexico photo.

Getting to this mystical place is not easy. But, they say, it is even more difficult to leave it: with the onset of night, the dead inhabitants of the Island of Dolls come to life and enter into conversation with the living. Woe to the one who hears them...

Mexico is the country of the mysterious Aztecs. Indian tribes, united by this name, owned American lands long before the arrival of white people there. They created a unique civilization with rich culture, traditions and mythology. But after the arrival of Europeans to these places, the powerful kingdom of the Aztecs gradually fell into decay.

However, in the Valley of Mexico there is still an extensive network of water canals created by ancient people in marshy areas.

This was a unique form of agriculture: the Aztecs scooped mud from the bottom of the swamps, placed it on reed rafts, added soil and planted trees and vegetables on these man-made floating islands. After some time, thanks to the overgrown trees, these islands washed ashore and grew somewhere. In the literal sense of the word, they took root.

The water in the artificially formed canals among the swamps either dries up or rises, depending on the weather and time of year. There are now a lot of similar islands and canals near the capital of the state - Mexico City.

About 18 kilometers south of the city center, in the area of ​​the Xochimilco canals, there is an island that Mexicans call “La Isla de la Munecas,” which means “Island of the Dolls” in Spanish.

This unique place has a strange history.

They say that a little girl once drowned in a canal here.

And in 1975, Don Julian Santana from the town of Asuncion settled on the island. At that time he was 54 years old. Those who knew him said that this strong elderly man was distinguished by his religiosity. But he loved to drink, and therefore often bothered his neighbors. Perhaps this was the reason that he decided to choose the life of a lonely Robinson on a tiny uninhabited island among the swamps. Maybe Don Julian lost his job because of his addiction or had a quarrel with his family? History has not preserved accurate information, but this is not important.

Another thing is interesting: having become a hermit, Don Julian suddenly became interested in collecting old broken toys. He collected them from garbage dumps - plastic, wood, rubber, rag; whole and broken, and even just in parts.

He had no money, but he set up his own lonely kingdom well: he built a hut, began to cultivate the land and grow vegetables; I was fishing in the canal. And he continued to collect broken dolls, and even exchanged them with people for the products of his labor - vegetables and fish.

The dolls became his neighbors, his companions, his people.

He settled them all over the island: screwing them with wire to tree trunks, hanging them on branches and pegs driven into the ground, planting them in the grass and near the water.

All the dolls, even the most broken, dirty, mutilated ones, in the exhibition created by Don Julian, seem... alive.

What is this all for? Why?

Apparently, Don Julian saw in these dolls something more than other people.

From time to time, the hermit had to communicate with his nephew, Anastasio Santana, and he repeatedly asked him why he needed the dolls.

Don Julian explained that on his island he... is not alone: ​​the soul of a drowned girl often bothers him at night. It is for her that he buys and saves toys. So that, while busy with dolls, she would not offend the hermit himself.

And in general, dolls are protection from evil spirits. There are many, many of them on the canals among the swamps.

This is how the island of Don Julian became the Island of Dolls.

In 1991, a team of ecologists clearing canals of algae and water lilies came across this eerie place.

People were shocked to see hundreds, thousands of broken, mutilated dolls and a strange man existing alone in their frightening surroundings.

Having heard about the amazing phenomenon, journalists followed the ecologists to the island.

It was they who told all of Mexico about the Island of the Dolls. Rumors about it spread around the world, and soon this place, despite its remoteness from the comfortable roads of civilization, became another tourist attraction of the country.

Tourists also brought dolls to Don Julian. And the old man found a corner for each new toy.

There are almost no free branches left on the island trees.

The dolls hang on the fence, in the barn, on the roof and under the roof, on the walls of the hut - outside and inside.

Their dead eyes follow visitors to the island from everywhere. They are the true owners of this place.

Legend has it that each doll is associated with someone who died in the local swamps. And with the onset of darkness, the dolls come to life and enter into conversations with people. If you succumb to their bewitching whisper and follow them where they call, you can lose your life. Drown in a swamp. Choke in dirty water.

And then another broken doll will come to life, taking possession of the soul of a fresh dead man.

True or not, many people feel uneasy on the island: people here are haunted by a feeling of danger, anxiety and an unclear threat.

They say that after the death of Don Julian in 2001, not a single living person lingered until dark and spent the night on the island.

And Don Julian... By a strange irony of fate, he died by drowning in a canal. At the age of 80, he met death in the same way as that drowned girl whose soul he had been cajoling for so long.

Maybe his ward decided not to part with her faithful friend. Maybe she really called him to her?

In this case, the sinful soul of Don Julian now also resides in one of the broken dolls of the mystical island.

Only now I realized that I didn’t write anything about my trip to Mexico. Perhaps the reason for this was my natural laziness, perhaps it was my busyness, one thing or another happened in life. And so I finally decided to write a short excerpt from my journey. namely about Xochimilco and about the island of dolls. As a preamble, some information from the Internet:

XOCHIMILCO.

ISLAND OF DOLLS.

There is a very strange abandoned island in Mexico, most of which is inhabited by creepy dolls. Located in the heart of Xochimico's canals, the Island of Dolls has a completely unique history. They say that in 1950, a certain hermit Julian Santana Barrera began collecting and hanging dolls from trash cans, thus calming the soul of a girl who drowned nearby. The island was forgotten for many years, and Then in the 1990s, a canal cleanup program again made it possible for Mexican gondolas (trajineras) to pass by. There are now more than 1,000 exhibits on the island, all of which are horrifying. His family maintains the site with donations from visitors. There is no electricity or communications. and you can only get there by boat.

Second version of the story:

Known in Spanish as “La Isla de la Munecas,” the Island of the Dolls is probably the creepiest attraction in Mexico.
Every tree on the island is hung with old dolls, giving the impression of constant surveillance. The history of the island began when the hermit Don Julian Santana came here. Despite his marriage, he decided to live 50 years of his life alone.
Don Julian used to say that he was often haunted by the ghost of a little girl who had drowned in one of the canals around the island. They said that he caught dolls from the water. considering them to be living children. He himself said that he hangs them around the house to create a kind of sanctuary for the spirit that tormented him. For a time, he traded home-grown fruits and vegetables in exchange for old dolls.
Strangely enough, in 2001 he was found dead by his nephew in the very canal where the girl drowned. Now his island is a tourist attraction. Some visitors say they heard the dolls whispering. It is customary to leave gifts there to calm their spirit)

AND NOW MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE TRIP.

In Mexico, I preferred to get anywhere by taxi, because the local metro was something terrible for me, and besides, I didn’t want to delve into the bus schedule. The metro is basically like a metro, clean, beautiful, tidy, unlike ours, there is not a platform with trains running along both its edges, but vice versa: tracks in the center, and platforms at the edges, which in my opinion is not very convenient, since it is necessary use transitions. In my opinion, the taxi was cheap, although locals complain about its high cost. An hour of travel cost me about 250 Russian rubles. I would have paid more in my hometown, not to mention St. Petersburg or Moscow. And I was in the capital, so... Each car is equipped with a taximeter. Those. you sit down, it is turned on and the minimum price of the trip is immediately displayed. It varies depending on the time of day, as does the rate per minute. The initial daily rate was about 20 rubles, I don’t remember how much a minute costs. I also took a taxi to Xochimilco. Since I was not going there alone, but with my Russian-speaking friend, I allowed myself to take a little nap.

When I woke up and got out of the car, my eyes were full of color: in front of me was a pier and many bright boats, each decorated in its own way.

Jose brought me a bottle of water and went to find out about the cost of the boat. Important note: if you speak Spanish, then agreeing to rent a cheaper boat will not be a problem. Each boat has its own owner and competition is strong, so you can agree with the owner that you will approach the others and ask to call him, saying that you are his friends. Then he will not have problems, and you will have a discount. The boats vary in size, but as a rule they are designed for a trip of 8-10 people. In the middle of the boat there is a table and chairs. Some Mexicans like to go on a picnic, riding along the canals, or on one of the uninhabited islands, and families in Mexico are large. There is a wooden awning over the table, so you don’t have to be afraid of the sun. We agreed on a rental price of approximately 500 rubles per hour. Important note: no matter how many people there are, the cost of renting a boat does not change. You can go by completely occupying the boat (this option is good for tourist groups), then the price of the trip per person will be very small, or as we went - just the two of us. More expensive, but more comfortable. Those. I didn’t need to look for anyone else who wanted to ride to the island of dolls and I didn’t need to combine interests - I could ride as much as I wanted. While you are on the island, the gondolier rests, eats, and communicates with colleagues, but this is also considered rental time.

And now we are already on the boat. On a purely human level, I felt sorry for the gondolier guy; it’s quite hot outside, and he has to do hard physical labor all day long. Along the route there are islands, some of them are residential - the houses are located close to the water, each house has a pier for a boat, some are used as parks or for grazing livestock. There are a lot of flowers and greenery around. From time to time there were jams due to plants on the water, then the gondolier had to turn the boat clockwise (or counterclockwise) to get rid of the plants that stuck to the sides and made it difficult to move. We also met other boats and even athletes practicing rowing.

Incomprehensible flowers

Lonely grazing cow. There were also herds.

Cacti! Where would we be without them?

The same plants that stick to the boat.

Other vacationers. More locals than tourists.

Bright house by the water. Dogs run and children play near the houses.

Hot. I stay close to the water))

This time can simply be spent talking, having lunch or playing music, not forgetting to admire the views.

After an hour and a half of driving (yes, it takes a long time to get to the island), we finally saw the island! Jose, despite the fact that he is a resident of Mexico City, has never been there either. The island workers pulled us to the pier, and they helped me go ashore.

We're mooring. Those same athletes also decided to visit the island.

There were dolls hanging on the trees everywhere, but at that moment this did not bother me much, since I had drunk too much water and I needed to find a place in order to eliminate this problem. So, with a speed that would make a sprinter envious, I rushed towards the building that resembled a toilet. And I was right, it was him! To use the toilet you need to pay 5 pesos (less than 15 rubles), but if you go there once, then you go for free throughout your stay on the island. The toilet was a strange structure. It seems like our village toilets are of a direct fall, with cracks in the walls, but for some reason it was raised about 2 meters from the ground. You can't see anything from below, if anything. You can wash your hands in the sink nearby, where there is liquid soap and paper towels. Then we went on a short excursion. In one of the rooms (if you can call it that: a house where there are just openings instead of windows, and an arch instead of a door) dolls are collected and a small altar is made, next to which sits the very first doll of Don Julian. Unfortunately, I didn't remember her name.

Altar and doll.

His nephew talks about the history of the island and Don Julian. What a stupid memory I have for names!!! Basically, nothing new, all the information is on the Internet. But still, my brief retelling of what I heard: Julian lived on the island, and one day he saw a girl fall into the canal and begin to drown, he tried to save her, but could not. After this, the girl's spirit sometimes appeared to him. She was very sad, and in order to please her and calm her spirit, Julian began collecting dolls. Some of the dolls were brought to him by people, and some he found thrown in the trash. His nephew brought him food, water, and helped him look after the island. One day Julian looked at the waters of the canals for a long time and asked his nephew to go get something he needed. When the nephew returned, he found Julian dead next to the water. The official cause of death is a heart attack. But the nephew says that he heard the voices of spirits (mermaids/water spirits - I could not understand due to difficulties in translation. Jose said that a close meaning is mermaids), who were swimming away into the distance laughing. By the way, not only a girl drowned in these canals, but also adults and 2 brothers drowned - there is an island. Dedicated to the brothers and their mother, but we didn’t go there anymore because I was already too tired.

After the story, you could communicate directly with your nephew, sign yourself up in the visitor log (optional), walk around the island, buy souvenirs and eat.

In the same excursion room.

The man was very surprised that I was from Russia, and asked (through Jose) how I knew about the island of dolls and was very upset that I did not bring him a doll from Russia, because they do not yet have a single doll from such remote places on Earth . I honestly didn’t know, and what should I bring? Matryoshka? After all, the rest of the dolls are, as a rule, imported. Well, I didn’t bring it and that’s fine, everyone here is still very happy to see me. On the excursion (it’s free! They get their income from souvenirs and food stalls) there were 2 families with us - one large and one of 2 people. A girl came up to me and asked me something, but I don’t know Spanish! The only thing I could answer was “but entiendo” (I don’t understand). Jose translated: it turns out that they consider me someone special, not like them, something like a superhero and they want to take a photo with me. (Lyrical digression - many in Mexico called me an angel who descended from heaven to bring good luck to those who had the pleasure of communicating with me O_O) Initially, the youngest girl in the family was sent to negotiations in the hope that I would not be able to refuse the child , then older children ran up too, and finally the adults decided too.

Jose didn’t have time to take a photo of me with the baby at all. so that photo is only of the Mexican family.

After taking photos, we went for a walk around the island, looking at dolls and buying souvenirs. I bought a set of tequila shot glasses with an engraved picture of a tree with dolls hanging from it and the words La Isla de la Munecas, a mouse pad with a photo of the island and Julian, a mug with the same photo and a lapel badge. Again many photographs were taken on the island

In contact, a colleague asked if I was living well in such a room. She replied that everything was fine. In fact, Mexico is not a backward country at all and everything at the hotel was super.

No, it’s not a toilet behind, but just some kind of utility room. I didn’t understand the meaning of the drawers next to the sofa.

I just couldn’t help but take a photo with this cutie!

and we went to eat. Mexican food is very spicy. No, I have to say it the wrong way, she's SO FUCKING SHARP I'M BURNING THE FUCK! Knowing this, I refrained from eating the traditional dish (corn tortillas with meat and vegetables wrapped in them) and bought corn chips. And here he is on his way home. To make it less boring to spend the remaining time, the gondolier took a different route. And then I saw swans. And the swans saw me. And my chips) I happily fed them to the swans, who were very brave and swam almost close to the boat. One even took a chip from my hand.

We saw the family from the island again, they waved at me and I asked Jose how to say “I love you” in Spanish and shouted it to them. They were delighted)

In conclusion, the trip is approximately 4 hours (3 round trip and an hour on the Island of the Dolls). This was enough for me, but no one limits time, so you can wander as much as you like. The trip was not terrible! How could she be creepy when there are friendly, smiling people walking around everywhere? Although maybe my psyche is sufficiently hardened by horror films, who knows))) Despite the fact that it wasn’t the least bit scary, I really liked it and would repeat the trip to the island of dolls again, taking with me a gift from Russia.

The Island of the Dolls is deservedly considered one of the creepiest attractions of modern Mexico. Just seven or eight decades ago, this place did not stand out among the small abandoned islands scattered among the canals south of the Mexican capital.

Today the island is “inhabited” with hundreds of mutilated dolls hanging on trees and walls of buildings.

The opening views are more like the scenery of a horror film: everywhere you see empty eye sockets, twisted bodies with broken limbs, crushed heads.

The ominous transformation of the island began in the mid-1950s. An ordinary Mexican guy, Julian Barrera, became an accidental witness to a tragic incident: a little girl drowned in one of the canals, leaving only her doll on the shore. It is unknown what prompted Julian to think about the existence of a mystical connection between the doll and the soul of the deceased.

According to Barrera, from that day on, the spirit of the dead girl constantly appeared to him. In an attempt to appease the alien from the other world, Julian began to create a kind of sanctuary, using old dolls found in trash cans.

For about 50 years, Barrera lived as a hermit in a hut on the island. All these years he continued to tirelessly add to his terrifying “collection.” To the exhibits found in garbage dumps were added dolls, exchanged with local residents for vegetables, which Barrera cultivated in a small garden.

As a result, the number of toy monsters exceeded 1000.

The life of a strange hermit was cut short in 2001 - like the girl whose spirit accompanied Julian all her life, he drowned in one of the canals.

Today, the Barrera family is engaged in maintaining the unique appearance of the island.

Creepy place island of dolls

General attention to the unusual island was attracted in the 90s, after special services cleared the canals around the island. The only way to get to the island is by boat. It is this way that thousands of tourists come to this terrible place every year.

According to visitor reviews, it is difficult to find another place that makes such a depressing impression. The feeling of dead eyes looking from all sides, etched into the memory, the sights of countless mutilated dolls, the special gloomy atmosphere reigning on the island - all this, like a magnet, attracts those who like to tickle their nerves to the island.

The stunning island has already given rise to many rumors. They say that almost every doll has an astral connection with one of the children who drowned in the canals and is fueled by their energy. Particularly impressionable tourists who ventured to walk along the ominous island in the dark claim that they clearly heard the whispers of dolls luring unwary passers-by into the canals.

It has already become a tradition for visitors to the island to light candles in front of the dolls and leave small gifts for the mysterious and terrible inhabitants of the island.

Address: Tepoztlan, Greater Cuernavaca, Oaxtepec / Lomas de Cocoyoc
Coordinates: 19°17"2"N 99°5"38"W

Photos

“La Isla de la Muneca” is the Spanish name for the Island of the Dolls in Mexico. Despite the childish and kind name, the island offers a sight not for the faint of heart, which means that if you suddenly decide to visit this not very friendly island, then you should not take your impressionable girlfriend. And not at all because the island is teeming with pretty mulatto girls.

So, when you set foot on a tropical island, you will find thousands of mutilated dolls hanging on almost every tree! And there is only one person to blame - Don Julian Santana, a hermit who renounced the world and family only to populate the island with dolls. Don Julin worked tirelessly on this for 50 years. There are rumors that the reason for such strange behavior was a tragedy in Don’s life - before his eyes, a little girl drowned in a canal and in order to appease her spirit, he created what is now known as the Island of Dolls. A very creepy and scary place where the terrifying gaze of mutilated dolls watches every movement of anyone who dares to visit thousands of dolls.



After the tragedy, Don Julian spent the rest of his days in seclusion. He made an exception only for the sake of his cherished goal - he wandered through trash cans in search of abandoned dolls or exchanged vegetables and fruits he grew with his own hands for old dolls from local residents. In addition to trying to appease the spirit of the girl that haunted Don by hanging mutilated dolls on trees, he pursued another goal - to scare away uninvited guests from his home.


The hermit's life ended tragically - in 2001 he was found in the same canal where the same girl drowned. Apparently the spirit of the girl did not leave the poor fellow alone until the end of his days.

If you have a delicate psyche, then you shouldn’t go to an island with such a harmless name. This attraction attracts many tourists, especially young people hungry for adrenaline. But according to reviews, a visit to the Island of Dolls is imprinted on the brain for a long time by the sight of countless unfortunate dolls. Tourists are aware that these are inanimate beings, to whom such concepts as feelings and pain are alien, but are amazed by the dead doll faces that constantly look at them, as if they are responsible for their