La Paz

The trip to La Paz from Copocabana was a pretty standard bus trip. Except for the ferry crossing over the  Tequina Straights! We all jumped off the bus, boarded a old boat and watched with fascination as our bus was loaded onto a small, very basic looking ferry. The 25 x 5 odd meter barge was powered by an old 60 horse power two stroke that proved that two strokes never quite die! How it propelled the barge across the straights remains a mystery!

We were lucky to have missed the recent strikes and road blockades which had closed the city off to the world for the previous week and a bit. Several fellow Gringo Routers who were ahead of us had warned us that they had been stuck in the city for days! Life was back to normal when we arrived.

We did spend some time walking the streets (although we decided to skip the rather dodgy illegal tours of San Pedro prison!). The colours in the stores and vendors stands were stunning. The markets in La Paz, like most Latin American countries, are an essential part of the culture and a vital part of the city. La Paz has several markets that stretch across the city. And you can buy pretty much ANYTHING! There are food markets, a flower market, an artisans’ market and even a black market where you can buy knock offs of big brands from North Face and Mountain Hardwear and Polo and Tommy.

However, the most interesting market and one of the more unique sights in La Paz is the Witches’ Market.

Also known as El Mercado de las Brujas, in Spanish, the Witches’ Market is an experience not for the faint of heart. Witches wearing dresses and dark hats sell a bizarre assortment of goods including potions, amulets, candy, silver jewelery, owl feathers, dried snakes, dried turtles, dried frogs, llama and alpaca foetuses, hooves, bones and many other strange items. But it really is the dried llama foetuses, which is used for Aymara rituals, that make the stomach turn.

Loading the bus at the straights.

Crazy costumes on the side of the road!