Island of the Dolls (La Isla De Las Muñecas) near Mexico City, Mexico

South of Mexico City, Mexico there lies a series of waterways called the Xochimilco canals that tourists navigate by boat or what the locals call the trajinera.  However, the trajinera pilots will avoid going near a particular island in the canals, the Island of the Dolls which is said to be very haunted.

Island of the Dolls (La Isla De Las Muñecas) near Mexico City, Mexico

La Isla De Las Muñecas or Island of the Dolls, gets it's name from an event that happened back in the 1950s or 60s.  A little girl accidentally drowned in these canals.  A hermit type man named Don Julián Santana Barrera lived on an island which was close to where the little girl died.  It is said that the next day Don Julián was fishing and pulled a small doll out of the water near the spot where the girl perished.  Then he found another, then another, and another.  He kept finding dolls in the canal after the tragic death of the little girl, so he believed that this was the spirit of the girl manifesting itself in the form of dolls.  He would take each doll and hang it on a tree and formed sort of a shrine to act as guardians of the island.

Entrance to the hut of Don Julián Santana Barrera on  Island of the Dolls (La Isla De Las Muñecas) near Mexico City, Mexico

Some years later, either driven mad by the haunting of the dead girl, or as some say he was actually killed by the doll spirits in some strange way.  Regardless of how he met his end, his body was found in the same spot in the canal as the little girl was.  However, they say that the spirit of Don Julián Santana Barrera now roams the island as well.

Xochimilco canals near Mexico City, Mexico

Trajinera on the Xochimilco canals near Mexico City, Mexico

Even today as visitors glide by the island by trajinera or those brave enough to hire a willing boat to take them there, have witnessed the dolls still eerily hanging in the trees of the island which has become known as Island of the Dolls, a sort of bizarre macabre art exhibit.  The dolls and the spirits within them are the only inhabitants of the island today except for a curator of sorts who is a family member of Don Julián.  Many visitors believe that they have seen them move after the sun goes down.

The spirited dolls still hang in the trees on the Island of the Dolls (La Isla De Las Muñecas) near Mexico City, Mexico