Walking tour and cable cars

We were up for 8am breakfast.  A few of us had booked a walking tour to include rides on 5 of the 11 state of the art cable car lines in La Paz.

We organised our laundry and caught up with some posts before meeting the others in the hotel lobby at 10.30am.  We walked down to the church of San Francisco, where we met our guide, Valeria.  She proved to be an excellent guide!  She was born and bred in La Paz and is an anthropologist.  She loves being a tour guide, but, with 1000 guides in the city and fewer tourists since Covid, she doesn't get enough work.  She has to work three jobs just to make ends meet!

Our first stop was at the church itself, where Valeria pointed out all of the indigenous imagery and symbolism in the stone carving on the exterior.  I didn't notice any of this when I visited yesterday.  She told us how the Spanish built the church in 1750 to show their power over the locals.  They employed indigenous people to do the stonework.  These artisans included carvings of naked women giving birth to flowers, a symbol of Mother Earth (Pachamama).  These figures still offend the Spanish and the Catholic church today!  There is an ongoing campaign to have them removed.

From the church, we walked up to the Witches Market, where Valeria explained all about the traditions and beliefs of her culture.  It was rather disconcerting to see dead llama foetuses and baby llamas on display, but these are still used today to bring good fortune and wealth to an individual.  When people build a new house or business, they bury a llama foetus in the foundations to ensure the success and prosperity of the building!Read more