2 Best Sights in La Paz, Bolivia

On Calle Linares, just off bustling Calle Sagárnaga, you'll find the Witches' Market, where indigenous women in tall bowler hats sell lucky charms, curses, medicinal herbs, and ingredients for powerful potions. You can have your fortune told through the reading of coca leaves, or if you are building a new house, you can buy a dried llama fetus to bury in the yard for good luck. Although this market is internationally recognized, it is not the best place to find gifts for the folks back home.

Near the intersection of Calle Max Paredes and Calle Graneros, the streets are filled with peddlers hawking clothing, handcrafts, and household goods. Making your way through the twisting maze of knock-offs and cheap imitations can take time, but you can find just about anything. Tucked into alleys and courtyards are tambos (thatch or tin roof structures meaning "place of rest") where you can purchase oranges, bananas, and coca leaves. The leaf is chewed by farmers and miners (and tourists) to ward off hunger and the effects of the altitude.