In front of the cathedral, vendors sell symbolic offerings to represent what a person wants to ask the Virgin for: house, car, money, etc. The women in the background wear the bowler hats of the Aymara.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana is a 16th-century Spanish colonial shrine. It houses the Virgin [Mary] of Candelaria (Virgen de Candelaria) statue carved out of wood by an Incan emperor’s grandson, Francisco Tito Yupanqui, in 1581. The statue has Incan features. Many cures and miracles have been attributed to the statue, including Bolivian independence in 1825. Our Lady of Copacabana is the patron saint of Bolivia. Construction of the current Basilica began in 1668. Although inaugurated in 1678, it was not completed until 1805. [Brazilian pilgrims returning home got caught in a storm at sea, prayed to the Virgin, landed safely on the Brazilian shore, and called the spot Copacabana in gratitude.]

On the shore of Lake Titicaca, Copacabana was an Inca outpost and place of worship prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1534. The Basilica was built where once stood the main temple to Kotakawana, the god of fertility in ancient Andean mythology who was believed to live in Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca (elev. 3,812m/12,507ft) on the border of Peru and Bolivia in the Andes is the largest alpine lake in the world and the largest lake in South America.

On Google Earth: