The witches market or ‘mercado de las brujas’ in La Paz is surely on every tourist’s must see list when visiting the capital. On Calle Linares, just off Calle Sagarnaga (aka Gringo Street), it seems more touristy than mystical nowadays as the artesian stores make up the majority of the area. At the Calle Santa Cruz end of Linares however there are still a few genuine stalls selling all sorts of weird and wonderful, well wonderfully disgusting, things. Dried Llama fetuses, dried toads, amulets and statues of naked couples, incense and burning stoves are all used in ancient ceremonies and rituals still practised by the Aymaras in modern day Bolivia as they have been for centuries.

Ive heard and read many different things that people think the Llama Fetuses are used for, putting spells on people, eating them to increase sex drive and other strange rumours that backpackers seem to pass on. However they are seldom correct. They are actually used to be buried underneath someones home or business as a kind of blood/life sacrifice to pachamama to bring the location, and therefore the people that live/work there, good luck and protection. The dried llama fetuses are for the poorer people to use as a sacrifice, richer people are expected to sacrifice a live llama, a pure white one being the ideal. Ive even heard some horror stories of the ultimate sacrifice and there being a human corpse underneath some of the larger buildings in La Paz!