A drowned girl, a hermit, and a horrifying collection of moldering toys set the scene for Mexico’s City’s most macabre attraction
Travellers hungry for eccentric thrills won’t find weirder than Mexico City.
From the witchcraft market where you can barter for the ingredients of a love spell – to lucha libre wrestling, crypts of rotting mummies, and public shrines honouring a skull-faced deity beloved by criminals and drug dealers – Mexico City is a dream for alternative travel.
But even if you’re used to taking the path less trodden, don’t lose your nerve if it leads you to Mexico’s gruesome gallery of terror tots.
Demon toys
The Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls) is found in Xochimilco, a sprawling rural neighbourhood on the southeast fringes of Mexico City.
Xochimilco is criss-crossed by an intricate network of manmade canals and chinampas (floating gardens) created by the ancient Aztecs. It’s all that’s left of the Valley of Mexico that predates today’s modern metropolis.
Mexicans and foreign tourists flock to Xochimilco to take colourful, gondola-like boats or trajineras around the peaceful canals. There you can spot interesting wildlife, sup a spicy michelada, and take a break from the bustle of the city.
But if you’re made of sterner stuff, the Isla de las Muñecas is a surreal manifestation of one man’s obsession with death.
The doll master
The origin of the Isla de las Muñecas is shrouded in hearsay, but it’s widely acknowledged that it was founded by Julián Santana Barrera from the nearby La Asunción neighborhood.
Although he was well liked, Santana Barrera was a loner. He was rarely seen in Xochimilco, and spent most of his time exploring the canals, fishing and tending to crops on his chinampa.
He also built a hut on the remote island to escape humanity.
According to local legend, Santana Barrera discovered a dead girl floating in the canals, who’d died in mysterious circumstances.
Nearby, Santana Barrera also found a doll which he assumed belonged to the dead child. As a sign of respect, he plucked the doll from the canal and hung it from a tree on his island.
Doll graveyard
After reporting the death to police, Santana Barrera said he was visited by spirits of the dead. At night he heard footsteps pacing around his hut, and strange whispers and screams on the wind.
The only thing that silenced the supernatural voices was hanging more dolls on the trees surrounding his hut. Santana Barrera spent the next 50 years fishing lost dolls from the canal and suspending them from trees around his remote homestead.
Santana Barrera died in 2001. Unconfirmed reports suggest that his body was found floating in the same spot where he’d discovered the drowned girl half a century earlier.
But the death of its creator wasn’t the end for the Isla de las Muñecas.
Locals and tourists continued to visit the island, and brought more dolls to swell Santana Barrera’s nefarious necropolis of macabre moppets.
Although research by the Pew Research Centre suggests that 81% of modern Mexicans identify as Catholic and are more religious – and superstitious – than people in other Latin America countries, locals aren’t nervous of the Isla de las Muñecas.
Nobody in the rural community thinks Santana Barrera’s ghoulish sanctuary is evil or haunted, and neighbours all pitch in to help to keep his work alive.
They regard the island as “charmed”, and a place where the worlds of the living and dead intersect.
Decayed dolls
The moment I arrived on the Isla de las Muñecas, I wanted to turn on my heel and flee.
As my trajinera pulled alongside the island – and I saw the first disembodied heads staring blankly from trees bordering the island – I heard the unmistakable, gut-rattling sound of a petrol engine roaring into life.
Having spent my college days gorging on hardcore horrors such as the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I had visions of Leatherface lumbering towards me, swinging a deadly power tool above his head.
It turned out the ‘chainsaw’ was a grass strimmer, and that a neighbour was taking advantage of the fine weather to mow the lawn.
But the damage was done. My nerves were jangled, making my visit to the island more unnerving.
Unlike the beautifully maintained scarecrow villagers at Nagoro in Japan, all the dolls on the Isla de las Muñecas are unloved, neglected and forgotten, and spent months floating in the canals of Xochimilco before they were fished to safety.
Most dolls are stripped naked or clad in tattered clothes. Almost all are missing limbs. Some have eyes that have been flipped backwards, or even pushed back inside their heads.
The plastic ‘skin’ of some dolls has blackened and blistered in Xochimilco’s fierce sunlight, making them look like victims of a cruel wasting disease.
Insects and animals have also made their homes in exposed necks, eyes and stumps. It’s hard not to recoil when you come across a doll swaddled in webs, which looks like a human baby cocooned by a monster spider.
But despite the overwhelming creepiness of the Isla de las Muñecas, it’s one of Mexico’s most compelling attractions.
As the journey is long and uncomfortable, there’s a great sense of achievement in finally setting foot on the island for the first time.
The dolls are also amazing to see first-hand, and it’s intriguing how nature has taken control and transformed cute toys into the stuff of nightmares.
Getting to the Isla de las Muñecas
Getting to the Isla de las Muñecas isn’t easy.
Public ferries departing from the main piers in Xochimilco often stop at the island. But as these boats take tourists on a larger tour of the canals, you may not get to spend much time with the dolls.
The best option is to hire a trajinera. It’s a four-hour round trip to the island, so bring plenty of water and sunscreen.
Many trajineras departing from the main piers in Xochimilco don’t visit the Isla de las Muñecas, so take a short cab ride to the Embarcadero Cuemanco near the Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco.
Dozens of boats are available to hire, but make sure the captain understands you want to visit “La Isla de las Muñecas” – otherwise, you may end up wasting your time with a standard canal tour.
Prices for one or two people can be expensive – up to £70 – as most of the boats in this area take up to 10 passengers. But if you can get a group together it makes for a cheap day out, and an experience you’ll never forget.
Also, try to visit the island during the week. At weekends the island and canals can get crowded, but you’ll probably have the island to yourself if you visit on a weekday.
