There is nothing frightening within it. Nothing of the night. Even though those who act as trainers and guides to the Yatiri ( the wise men or women of the Aymara), the rarely found Ch'amakani, are known as ' someone who has or owns the darkness'.
After only a short time in Bolivia, the activity of witches, las brujas, on the streets, placating the discontented spirits with platitudes of offerings burnt on a fire of parlosanto, becomes something expected. When such activity was pointed out to me by my taxi driver as we descended from the heights of El Alto after my flight back to La Paz from Oyuni, I just nodded as I glanced towards the unfolding ceremony. What should have been mesmeric had been transformed within ten days of me experiencing Bolivia into something commonplace.
The witches on that occasion were on the hard shoulder of the closest thing to a motorway La Paz has. It was dusk and a series of low fires were burning close to a small thicket of trees. The wood is haunted my taxi driver told me. The witches have to go there.
The Witches Market in La Paz is situated on a cobbled street behind the very grand San Cristoforo Church.
In Bolivia as Juan had told me, pagan rituals and catholic ceremony go hand in hand. On Sundays the Yatiri are available on the steps outside the Catholic Churches to allow those who do not completely trust in the hand of God to seek advice, make an offering; content the spirits that may otherwise interfere in a life. Hedging their bets is I imagine how the Aymara see it.
The market is at first glance indistinguishable from the the stalls of Artesania selling textiles and woollen Llamas that children may play with. The businesses run one in to the other, the change from retail to hechiceria lacking subtlety as the soft children's toys with ribbons around their neck are replaced by suspended llama foetuses, aborted, during what is the trial of a pregnancy a llama endures, and then dried.
A foetus aborted at almost full term will bring the greatest luck. If buried within the foundations of a house, the house and all within it will be blessed. How horrendous, I told a witch, how are there any llamas left alive in Bolivia? Because they carry four or five foetus she told me. A llama cannot carry to full term all foetus created, abortion of many are intended. It is the way of the spirits.
What do you want to buy she asked me. What about something for good luck I suggested. There is only good luck here she told me. Here only good things are sold. Nothing here can ever do any harm, all things are for good. She pointed at her shelves crammed with carved offerings. Choose something she said. I will bless it, but you must keep it with you.
She meant I had to literally keep my charm in my pocket for as long as I wished my luck to last.
Bearing in mind that every one who comes to this market fervently believes in the power of the carved charms and the prepared offerings ready to be purchased and taken home and burnt, the market is an incredibly optimistic place. It is like fairground confession. I saw people walk in with concerned expressions and having made their purchase leave relaxed.
The witches and Yatiri are like community counsellors, they are known to sort out problems. Business relationships can be readjusted, marriages tweaked, a worn out sex life renewed. The witches and the Yatiri have the secrets in herbs and oils and carvings. Fire is an intrinsic part of the ritual. Remember the market only sells the component parts of the solution, it is the use of parlosanto a wonderously scented wood, that disperses the fragrance of incense, and the act of offering following invocation of a God or a discontented spirit that does the trick.
The witches of La Paz are not as presented in our western fairytales and the wise men soothsayers are not as I would have predicted. None like to be photographed. The witch I was buying from said I could take a photograph of her working but not of her face. Her daughter a trainee witch was much more amenable. She smiled broadly as she was photographed and went on to suggest oils and carvings that would solve any problem my life could possibly have within it.
I liked the Yatiri most, they exude the most delicious power. An almost malevolence. They are even more recalcitrant when it comes to people stealing their image with a digital camera. Perhaps they do believe the act of photography is tantamount to theft of their soul, or perhaps they would prefer to be paid. I did not enquire. I stood twenty yards away, and watched as this wise Yatiri pushed coca leaves in to his mouth.
Whatever a person's view of incantations and enchantment, El Mercado de las Brujas is an experience. I loved its strikingly unusual nature, without comparison in the majority of Western Europe but perhaps discoverable in the Eastern part. It is an essential part of Bolivian life. Without the pilgrimages from the rural communities to purchase the offerings that can only be bought in this street, crops and harvests would fail. Houses would not be built. There would be no point in selling or buying anything or getting out of bed. The government believes it has power and it has. Democratically elected it has the endorsement of the majority of the people. What however is that compared to the mind altering power of the Yatiri and the Witches.
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