Here are the most interesting islands from around the world!
7- Island of the Dolls
Located in the canals near Mexico City, this little island that’s known as Island of
the Dolls is very likely one of the weirdest places on Earth.
The person responsible for starting this doll collection is a man named Don Julian Santana
Berrera, a loner who lived on the island.
According to legend, Barrera discovered a little girl who had drowned in mysterious
circumstances in the canals over 50 years ago.
He also found a doll floating nearby and, assuming it belonged to the deceased girl,
hung it from a tree as a sign of respect.
Barrera somehow blamed himself for not being able to save her life.
Supposedly, Barrera began to hear whispers, footsteps and the painful cries of a woman
in the darkness even though his hut was miles away from civilization.
Apparently driven by fear, he hung more toys from the trees to protect himself from her
ghost and spent the next 50 years 'decorating' the woods in a desperate attempt to make the
little girl happy.
He hung hundreds of toys from the trees and the wire fencing which surrounded his wooden
shack.
Where’s he getting the toys from?!
Some people suggest the dead girl may never have even existed, and that she was a just
a story made up by Barrera after years of isolation in the woods.
I mean, years of living alone can do that.
I mean, look what happened to Chuck in Castaway!
He made friends with a volleyball!
Juuuuust saying.
Anyways, the truth, as told by his family members who now run the island as a tourist
attraction, is that Barrera simply believed the island was haunted by the spirit of the
dead girl he found in the canal, whether the little girl was real or not.
The biggest irony of the story is that he somehow managed to drown in the canals himself.
His son, I guess, is the perfect depiction of the saying when life gives you lemons,
make lemonade.
After his father’s unfortunate death, Berrara’s son managed to turn the island into a popular
tourist attraction where visitors bring even more dolls.
He regularly goes through the island and makes sure that every doll is in its spot because
there are plenty of tourists who make the trip.
Nice, he managed to monetize the family-business!
6 - Miyake-jima
Wanna visit Miyakejima, one of the Izu Islands in Japan?
Don’t forget your gas mask!
The reason why you’ll need a gas mask on this island is because of the constant flow
of sulfur dioxide gas coming from Mount Oyama, an active volcano on the island.
The residents of the island are required to carry gas masks with them at all times, but
they actually don’t need to be worn constantly.
Alarms go off if there’s a dramatic increase in the levels of toxic gases in the air.
Over the past 500 years, Mount Oyama has erupted 13 times.
A lava flow in 1940 killed 11 people, and other eruptions occurred in 1962 and 1983.
In 2000, Mount Oyama began another series of eruptions, and by September of 2000, the
island was completely evacuated.
After a four-year period of volcanic emissions, residents were finally allowed to return permanently
back in 2005, even though toxic gases can still dramatically increase beyond safe levels
at any time.
Many resident chose to go back even after they were all conveniently relocated to Tokyo.
Despite the re-populating of the island, nearly a third of Miyakejima remains permanently
off-limits and the government conducts regular health checks and enforces age restrictions
in certain areas.
Apparently, the place thrives now, although I wouldn’t recommend it for a romantic getaway
unless you’re into some weird gas mask thing.
Anyway, there are tourists’ shops all around selling gas masks to visitors so don’t worry
if the duty-free shop in the airport sold its last one!
5 - Thilafushi
Who would say no to the Maldives?
While most of the Maldives may be paradise on earth to its tourists, there’s a nasty
surprise on one of the islands.
The Maldives get a lot of tourists as it’s very popular vacation spot.
On average, every tourist usually produces up to 5 -10 pounds of garbage a day, so you’ll
soon realize why the Malé government had a problem with dealing with the trash once
tourism started booming.
So hey, someone thought that it was a good idea to use what was once a coral reef trash
as a landfill.
Workers and companies have dumped somewhere around 330 tons of trash per day for more
than 20 years on Thilafushi!
The island is growing at around a square meter everyday.
The ocean water around the floating dump site inevitably started getting disgusting near
the island as well.
In 2011, after several impatient boat captains couldn’t wait to go on with the dumping
process and decided to just dump trash into the sea, the government completely banned
trash dumping on Thilafushi that December.
The island has been described as an apocalyptic toxic waste bomb that’s just waiting to
go off.
Used batteries, asbestos, lead and other potentially hazardous waste mixed with the municipal solid
wastes are apparently being put into the water.
Although it’s a small fraction of the total, these wastes are still a source of toxic heavy
metals and it’s an increasingly serious ecological and health problem in the Maldives.
I guess only time will tell what the resolution with this man-made island will be.
4 - Snake Island
Snake Island, is luckily, not that close to the shores of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Are you actually wondering how this island got on this list?
Okay okay, you know why.
It’s cuz of the snakes!
The island is full of snakes, and by the looks of it, those snakes have no intention of leaving
anytime soon.
It’s estimated that 5,000 or more snakes happily live on this island.
The Golden Lancehead Viper is only one of two types of snake living on the island and
conveniently enough, this snake is one of the most venomous snakes in the world.
And hey, I said venomous, not poisonous!
That’s for some of you too-smart commenters out there who always catch me on this distinction!
Just a little shoutout; I got much love for you guys!
Anyways, the venom of the snakes on this Island can be up to five times stronger than the
ones found on the mainland and some say it can even melt human flesh.
Is that true?
I’d bet on the venom not melting anything.
Because there are so many of these guys on one island, researchers estimate that there’s
one snake to every square meter of the island.
Ugh.
Anyways, don’t get too excited, as access to the island is actually forbidden and only
the Brazilian Navy and a bunch of scientists get to go there sometime to do experiments.
3 - Reed Islands
At #3, we’re gonna learn about the fascinating floating Islands on Lake Titicaca which borders
Peru and Bolivia.
The Uru people started making these islands as a way to escape the much more powerful
Incas and other tribes in the past.
Kinda made a lotta sense if you ask me.
However, even though now there’s pretty much a zero chance of an Inca attack, they
still choose to live on and maintain the islands.
These islands are made completely out of totora reed that can be found in the shallows of
the lake.
The dense roots that the plants develop and interweave form a natural layer called Khili,
which are about one to two meters thick.
This Khili is the foundation that support the islands.
The islands are tied together so they don’t drift apart.
They’re anchored with ropes attached to sticks driven into the bottom of the lake.
The reeds at the bottoms of the islands rot away fairly quickly, so new reeds are added
to the top constantly, about once every three months.
The interesting part is that the islands sink a bit when you walk on them, but the islands
still manage to keep steady on the surface, which is apparently what makes it exciting
for tourists when walking on these islands.
Each step on an island sinks about 2 to 4 inches depending on the density of the ground
underneath someone’s foot.
As the reeds dry, they break up more and more as they’re walked on.
After approximately 30 years, the whole thing rots and you have to start building it all
over again.
The larger islands house about ten families, while smaller ones, only about thirty meters
wide, house only two or three families.
In 2011, around 1,200 people still inhabited and lived on what could be considered a whole,
man-made archipelago of around 60 islands in total.
While tourism provides financial opportunities for the natives, it does add challenges to
their traditional lifestyle.
But hey, isn’t that every business?!
2 - Migingo Island
When you hear about an island in the middle of Lake Victoria, which is the largest tropical
lake in the world, you kind of expect to see at least a few palm trees lining up a white
beach or something like that… well, not in this case.
Migingo Island is infamously known as a place having quote, “Africa’s smallest war.”
The island has a surface area of roughly 2000 square meters and has more than enough residents
to it for its size.
Official data says that the population of the island in 2009 was 113, although news
reporters said that there are almost 500 residents living in tiny shacks that fill every possible
usable surface, which doesn’t exactly make it the best looking island.
So why are Uganda and Kenya willing to fight for it?
Because there’s money to be made!
That was a softball down the middle the guys!
The island itself may look poor, but the waters around the island are full of Nile perch,
a fish that can be sold for quite a hefty payout in Europe and other Western countries
willing to pay for it.
Fishermen said that they could earn up to a few hundred dollars per day so it’s no
surprise both Kenya and Uganda rushed to declare ownership of the island.
Considering just how small the island is, a game of hide and seek is probably a better
idea than both sides sending a large number of actual troops there.
The governments agreed that the island belongs to Kenya, which Uganda disputed at first,
but then said that okay, the island is Kenyan, but the waters around it belong to Uganda.
Hey, if that’s not a ingenius resolution, I don’t know what is!
Of course, the story wouldn’t be complete without some African pirates, which is exactly
how this thing started in the first place; pirates started forcing fishermen from both
countries to pay them ransom and fishermen complained to each of their respective governments.
Interesting enough, the island has a pharmacy, a hair salon, four bars and uh…..a few brothels.
While everyone is forced to share this little island like a bunch of kids in a sandbox,
Lake Victoria itself is taking the real loss.
People are overfishing so much, the entire ecosystem of the lake and its surroundings
will soon be changed and yet no one seems to care.
Well, if you’re looking for an island in the heart of Africa with pirates, women, and
rum, you now know where to go!
1 - Rabbit Island
Ōkunoshima Island is an island located in the Sea of Japan and it goes by its more commonly
known name of Rabbit Island.
This island is filled with rabbits.
What’s there not to like about an island full of chubby rabbits?
Rabbit Island is hugely popular with tourists who visit the island in order to see the rabbits.
Hold up, sign ME up!
However, the history of the island isn’t as cute as it sounds.
The Japanese used the island to start a secret development program of chemical weapons during
the time period of 1925-1929.
They went great lengths in order to make sure no one would find out and some old maps don’t
even have the island on it.
The Japanese knew they weren’t supposed to be doing the chemical weapons program because
they signed the Geneva Protocol from 1925 which banned the use of chemical weapons.
However, the worst part of this island is the way employees were treated in the chemical
weapon plant.
Some had no idea what they were working on and many died or endured devastating injuries
from manufacturing the toxic gas.
As for the rabbits, some people say that these bunnies were brought in so the Japanese could
do gas testing on them in the past but when the program was closed, the bunnies just….well,
you know, what bunnies do best.
Others say that there are so many rabbits because of kids who kept them as pets during
the 70’s, and it has nothing to do with the rabbits that were involved in the tests.
Either way, there are plenty of cute little bunnies that live on the island.
The rabbits are supposedly extremely friendly with humans.
Just check out this video from my friend Angela when she was there!
They’re just super friendly and crawling all over her!
You can check out more of her video on her channel A for Angela.
By the looks of her video, these rabbits on the island have quickly moved on from the
past!
Here’s what’s next!