HANGING off the edge of a 200ft cliff lies a row of flimsy houses that appear to be mere inches away from plunging onto the razor rocks below.
Dubbed “Suicide Homes”, these poorly built shacks look like they’re on the verge of collapse – yet the locals who live inside them refuse to move out.
These dwellings with colourful rooftops are built in Bolivia’s highland city of El Alto – and for a moment could distract viewers from the terrifying sight below.
They stand on the edge of the cliff which experts and city officials say is eroding.
And at the bottom lies a large chunk of rocky escarpment, making the structures even more dangerous.
The precarious homes often serve as workplaces for Aymara shamans, known as yatiris.
Yatiris are medical practitioners and community healers who believe that human health has a relationship with nature.
They believe in communicating with spirits for health and well-being.
These shamans use the space inside these tiny box-sized rooms to make offerings to the Pachamama, or Earth Mother.
But torrential rains have increasingly weakened the buildings’ foundations over the years.
Officials in the city have urged the shamans to vacate the homes immediately.
However, they are clinging on and refusing to move out because they think the Pachamama will protect them – leaving their lives hanging by a thread.
Gabriel Pari from the city’s mayoral office said: “The precipice in this valley is 90 degrees.
“That is precisely why we want them to leave this place, if they do not want to leave we are going to have to use force.”
Refusing to move out, one yatiri Manuel Mamani said: “We are not going to move from this place, because this is our daily workplace.
“But we are going to take care of the soil, especially the rainwater, we are going to channel it so that the water goes somewhere else.”
Nestled between the Andean mountains, El Alto offers a sheer landscape that attracts a lot of local visitors.
Local authorities even built cable cars to help people get around.
But the landscape is getting more treacherous as weather patterns become more extreme.
However, Gabriel Lopez Chiva, another yatiri, said he was confident that the Pachamama would protect him.
He added: “We can do an offering ceremony, we do it as a payment and in this way, the land will never move because Pachamama needs an offering.
“It is like giving food and this way this place will not move. On the contrary, it will stabilize.”
