La Paz Witches' Market

About the Witches' Market

La Paz is Bolivia's highest-altitude capital, home to the legendary Mercado de las Brujas (Witches' Market) nestled in the steep streets near Cerro Cumbre. Here Aymara herbalists and yatiris sell dried llama fetuses, talismans, and amulets used in traditional offerings to Pachamama — Mother Earth. The dried llama, the market's most iconic symbol, is buried beneath new buildings to bring prosperity and protection. This centuries-old tradition blends indigenous Andean spirituality with daily life in one of the world's most extraordinary marketplaces.

Along Calle Linares and the streets near Calle Sagárnaga, in La Paz's Rosario district, Aymara vendors known as yatiris sell herbs, amulets, soapstone figures and dried llama fetuses (sullu) used in offerings to the Pachamama, often buried in foundations or burned in a ch'alla ritual. Precise founding dates are not documented; the trade is generally traced to the growth of indigenous migrant commerce in the city during the twentieth century rather than to a single event. Its reputation rests on the visible survival of Andean ritual practice alongside Catholicism, reinforced each January 24 by the Alasitas fair and its Ekeko figures. Guidebooks and city tourism promotion have since made the market a standard shorthand for La Paz.