Witch’s Market

When researching about La Paz, one of the number one tourist attractions is the Witch’s Market. I was excited to see it, but knew incredibly little else.

The Bolivian people are very superstitious. They also have a strong faith in Pachamama (Mama Earth). They believe that she is the one who grants all blessings. She loves sugar, flowers and alcohol (what woman doesn’t?). When taking a sip of their drinks, they often spill a little on the ground below or dip their fingers in and sprinkle just a bit to share with her.

When they are looking for something specific, or some sort of guidance, they go to a sort of shaman or spiritual guide. This person will tell them exactly what to go purchase from the Witch’s Market. It is usually certain herbs, flowers, specific alcohol and combinations of sugar concoctions. Then, the shaman helps you to burn these items as an offering to Pachamama.

When entering one of the small stores (come on, you know I was going to), it is almost reminiscent of a candy shop, although not one like I’ve ever seen. There are bright colored labels, plastic bags of sugar creations for exactly what you want, incense burning, bottles of different colored liquids, candles and boxes with very descriptive images. These images describe exactly what the potion inside is for, everything from curing cancer to losing weight to finding love to wealth to making love last longer… whatever you might need! 

The collection of sugar items also have small images that help describe what they may be for. We were warned not to eat them because they also have a lot of glue in them. Personally, I also don’t want to take what is intended for Pachamama.

The most disturbing thing found inside the market are the llama fetuses. Bare with me for a moment (and feel free to skip the picture below). First off, know that these fetuses were not killed, but passed naturally. They honor animals here. These fetuses are buried underneath new construction as an offering to Mother Earth to bless the building. The larger the building, the larger the fetus should be. There are even dark stories (that haven’t been proven) about sky scrappers having the body of a person underneath them.

But the Bolivians are also Catholic. They’ve made the religion their own and sort of combined the two. When the Spaniards first built a cathedral here, they wanted to convert the locals, so they had the locals help with the design and construction. So on the Basílica de San Francisco, amongst the ornate depictions outside of the church, there is also the face of a witch doctor with coca leaves in his mouth. Right next to a sculpture of San Francisco is an image of Pachamama giving birth to a flower.

As the story goes, the Spaniards wanted to bring religion to the people here but couldn’t find a way to get them to church, so they sort of tricked them. They noticed that when the locals had a big scare like almost falling down something or almost getting run over by an animal, they thought their soul briefly left them. So, they got the locals to come to church and put up mirrors everywhere. At this point, the indigenous people living here had not seen mirrors and they were baffled. The Spanish told them the mirrors were their souls and that they were trapped in the church. In order to save their souls from going to hell (they described that torture in detail), they had to return and visit the church.

No one should ever be tricked into believing something, but I love how the two beliefs of these overwhelmingly kind people have melded into one.