Stranger THINGS (to do on holiday!)
Some people like to spend their holidays lazing on a beach with a good book. If that strikes you as unimaginative and beenthere-done-that, keep reading…
When most of us picture our ideal holiday, it usually includes white sandy beaches or taking in the cultural treasures of a quaint European city. I’ve never been one for sea and sand, though. Having been obsessed with the macabre since an early age, I much prefer something more unusual. The world is a weird and wonderful place – it would be a shame not to wander off the beaten track (and into the woods) every now and again…
Isla de las Muñecas (island of the dolls)
If the Chucky movies gave you sleepless nights, you may want to skip this one. In the mid-20th century, Don Julian Santana left his wife and child to live out his years on an island in the channels of Xochimilco, south
of Mexico City. Legend has it that one morning he discovered the body of a young girl who had drowned in the lake. A few days later, a doll washed up and he hung it in a tree in her memory. This simple gesture, however, kick-started a lifelong obsession.
Over the next 50 years, Don collected discarded dolls in the canals and in the trash near his home, and bartered with locals (giving them fresh produce he grew on his island) in return for dolls. He didn’t make any effort to fix them up or clean them, so if they were missing an eye or arm, that’s exactly how he hung them up around the island.
As time passes, the dolls become increasingly weathered and cracked, and, just in case you didn’t find that eerie enough, there have also been reports that you can hear them whispering to one another.
In 2001, Don’s body was discovered after he drowned in the same spot he claimed to have found the girl’s body. Since then, tourists come to the island with dolls of their own to hang in tribute to him. Locals believe the little girl’s spirit lives on inside the dolls, but his family questions whether she ever existed…