leave the " Island of Misfit Toys . " Have you ever heard ofMexico ’s Isla de las Muñecas ( Island of the Dolls ) ? For anyone with an interest in themacabre , this is a moderately creepy , must - see destination , turn up about 26 nautical mile ( 42 kilometers ) from central Mexico City , Mexico , inXochimilco , a area known for its flower markets and electronic connection of man - made canals .
Small island — which are nothing more than floating garden — stud the watery landscape , and while most are densely covered with flora , the Island of the Dolls is home to thousands of maimed or grotesquely decorated baby chick , either hang from , or nail to , trees or other structures .
The dolls first seem on the scene more than 50 twelvemonth ago , the issue of the tragic death of a young tike . According to local , a young lady drowned in the H2O just off the small island under mysterious circumstance . Some locals believe that the fille ’s spirit possesses the dolls and make them to move their blazonry , open up their eyes and move their heads . Other attestator depose that they ’ve heard the dolls speaking to one another . Still others have enounce they were tempt onto the island , much likethe Sirensfrom Homer ’s " Odyssey " tempted straw hat onto the rocks .
The true statement is something arguably much lamentable andsimpler . A man named Julián Santana Barrera ( the island ’s caretaker and the young girl ’s uncle ) ascertain his niece ’s physical structure after she had drowned . tormented by the loss of his niece and his inability to save her , Barrera began collecting chick , hanging them up all over the island in an endeavor to appease her tone and assuage his grief .
But Barrera was clearly a disruptive human race , and he soon began to deface the dolls . Some doll are decapitated , others have crushed or paint faces or no limb . Their eyes gaze blankly . Over sentence , the dolls became stained , cobwebbed and battered . In 2001 , 50 years after his niece ’s last , Barrera himself drown in the same position where his niece pass away , grant toBarrera ’s nephew ( now the island ’s executive ) . He may have been drunk at the time , or simply had a philia attack . Either mode , the tragic report only sum to the Isla de las Muñecas legend . The island has had tourer gossip from all over the world , many bringing dolly to leave behind behind .
