A Cold Snap takes our WLBOTT World to La Paz, Bolivia
Much of the WLBOTT empire is experiencing a brisk morning.
The La Paz Connection
Let’s say that the Elders wish to embrace their dull side. We asked Elder G where we could go to experience the least fluctuation in weather.
La Paz, Bolivia, is a fascinating city with a stable climate due to its high altitude and proximity to the equator. The mild temperatures are consistent throughout the year, with average highs hovering in the mid-50s°F (10–15°C).
Other cities known for remarkably stable climates include:
Quito, Ecuador
Medellín, Colombia
Honolulu, Hawaii:
San Diego, California:
Nairobi, Kenya
Elder G
Nuestra Señora de La Paz
La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara: Chuqiyapu or Chuqi Yapu), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bolivia. Its metropolitan area, which is formed by La Paz, El Alto, Achocalla, Viacha, and Mecapaca makes up the second most populous urban area in Bolivia, with a population of 2.2 million, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra with a population of 2.3 million.
La Paz is a mere 25 miles from the shores of Lake Titicaca.
The straight-line distance (as the chicken flies) between WLBOTT HQ and La Paz, Bolivia, is approximately 3,772 miles (6,070 kilometers).
The Witches’ Market
The Witches’ Market, also known as El Mercado de las Brujas and La Hechiceria, is a popular tourist attraction located in Cerro Cumbre, a mountain clearing in La Paz, Bolivia. The market is run by local witch doctors known as yatiri, who sell potions, dried frogs, medicinal plants like retama, and armadillos used in Bolivian rituals. The yatiri can be easily identified by their black hats and coca pouches containing amulets, talismans and powders that promise luck, beauty and fertility. Most famous of all the items sold in The Witches’ Market are the dried llama fetuses. These llama fetuses are buried under the foundations of many Bolivian houses as a sacred offering to the goddess Pachamama.
Mercado de las BrujasBy PsamatheM – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0By Dan Lundberg – 20170812_Bolivia_1830 La Paz sRGB, CC BY-SA 2.0Wikipedia
Pachamama
Pachamama, the Earth-Mother goddess, is a central figure in the Andean spiritual worldview, particularly in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and northern Chile and Argentina. She is deeply revered by Indigenous cultures, including the Aymara and Quechua peoples, as the goddess of fertility, agriculture, and the earth itself. Pachamama is considered the provider of life, sustaining all living beings with her gifts of food, water, and shelter. She embodies the soil, mountains, and the natural cycles of life. Farmers and agricultural communities honor her for successful harvests and plentiful rains.
Reciprocity and Ayni: In Andean tradition, the relationship with Pachamama is one of reciprocity, called ayni. People must respect and care for the earth, offering gratitude for her gifts. This reciprocal relationship underscores Andean environmental ethics.
Pachamama is closely associated with the apus—sacred mountain spirits—and the majestic Andes are seen as her physical manifestation. In La Paz, nestled within the Andes, the connection to Pachamama is especially strong due to the imposing mountains like Illimani.
Bolivia’s 2009 Constitution, under President Evo Morales, recognized the “rights of Mother Earth” (derechos de la Madre Tierra), reflecting Pachamama’s enduring influence.
Elder G
Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an “Earth Mother” type goddess, and a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own creative power to sustain life on Earth. Her shrines are hallowed rocks, or the boles of legendary trees, and her artists envision her as an adult female bearing harvests of potatoes or coca leaves. The four cosmological Quechua principles – Water, Earth, Sun, and Moon – claim Pachamama as their prime origin. Priests sacrifice offerings of llamas, cuy (guinea pigs), and elaborate, miniature, burned garments to her. Pachamama is the mother of Inti the sun god, and Mama Killa the moon goddess. Mama Killa is said to be the wife of Inti. […]
Household rituals Rituals to honor Pachamama take place all year, but are especially abundant in August, right before the sowing season. Because August is the coldest month of the winter in the southern Andes, people feel more vulnerable to illness. August is therefore regarded as a “tricky month.” During this time of mischief, Andeans believe that they must be on very good terms with nature to keep themselves and their crops and livestock healthy and protected. In order to do this, families perform cleansing rituals by burning plants, wood, and other items in order to scare evil spirits, who are thought to be more abundant at this time. People also drink mate (a South American hot beverage), which is thought to give good luck.
On the night before August 1, families prepare to honor Pachamama by cooking all night. The host of the gathering then makes a hole in the ground. If the soil comes out nicely, this means that it will be a good year; if not, the year will not be bountiful. Before any of the guests are allowed to eat, the host must first give a plate of food to Pachamama. Food that was left aside is poured onto the ground and a prayer to Pachamama is recited.
[…] Pope John Paul II, in two homilies delivered in Peru and Bolivia, identified homage to Pachamama as an ancestral recognition of divine providence that in some sense prefigured a Christian attitude toward creation. On February 3, 1985, he stated that “your ancestors, by paying tribute to the earth (Mama Pacha), were doing nothing other than recognizing the goodness of God and his beneficent presence, which provided them food by means of the land they cultivated.” On May 11, 1988, he stated that God “knows what we need from the food that the earth produces, this varied and expressive reality that your ancestors called “Pachamama” and that reflects the work of divine providence as it offers us its gifts for the good of man.”
