Mercado de Hechiceria, Mercado de las Brujas, or better known in english as The Witches’ Market. This small street in La Paz is home to a hand full of small markets shops selling all kinds of bizzare items including dried frogs used for Aymara rituals, soapstone figurines, aphrodisiac formulas, owl feathers, dried turtles and snakes, herbs, and folk remedies, good luck charms and even dried llama foetuses which are used in the foundations of new constructions as an offering to the goddess Pachamama. It is believed that the buried llama foetuses keep construction workers safe, but these are only used by poor Bolivians where as wealthy Bolivians sacrifice living llamas to Pachamama instead.
So we had planned on seeing more than just the Witches market for our fist day in La Paz, but it turned out that today was another public holiday and another day of celebrations for the last day of Carnival. So pretty much the entire city was shut down and people roamed about blessing shops and houses with fireworks, confetti, flower petals, beer and spirits, as well as pelting passers by with yet more water balloons and silly string while drinking and dancing in the street. Oh well, better luck tomorrow.
