Traditions of La Paz
The highest seat of government on earth, where Gran Poder, Alasitas and the Witches' Market keep Andean faith.
La Paz sits in a canyon at 3,600 metres, with El Alto above it. The Aymara and Quechua peoples make up a large part of the population, and Andean customs flourish alongside Catholicism. The Alasitas fair, in January, sells miniature objects to be blessed, and the Gran Poder festival in May and June has thousands of dancers.
Alasitas and Gran Poder
At Alasitas, the god Ekeko, a small figure laden with miniatures, is blessed so that what is bought in miniature, such as a house or a car, may come true in life. The Gran Poder procession fills the streets with dancers in embroidered costumes of morenada and caporales. At the Witches' Market, yatiris sell llama foetuses to bury under new houses as offerings to Pachamama.
At the table
Salteñas, baked pastries with a juicy stew, are a mid-morning snack. Chairo, a mutton and chuño soup, and anticuchos de corazón, grilled heart, are classics. Api morado, a hot purple corn drink, goes with buñuelos. Chuño is freeze-dried potato, and quinoa grows in the highlands.
Signature traditions of La Paz
Also part of it, and being written: Salteña (The pastry.), Pachamama (The mother earth.).
A trail idea for La Paz
- Witches' Market Look at offerings.
- Mercado Lanza Eat salteñas.
- Plaza Murillo See the cathedral.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Opening hours, markets and festival dates change; check locally before travelling. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Carnival of Oruro: Pame82s, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Alasitas: Ener6, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cueca: Manuel Antonio Caro, Public domain, source
- Tinku: CassandraW1, CC BY 2.0, source
- Morenada: Alfredobi, CC BY 3.0, source
- Ekeko: Ciudades, CC BY-SA 4.0, source