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Life on the edge in Bolivia's gravity-defying 'suicide homes'

In Bolivia's. highland city of El Alto, the row of vibrant corrugated metal. roofings blues, oranges, reds and greens for a minute sidetracks. from the terrifying sight listed below: a precipitous drop inches (cm). from your houses, understood locally as suicide homes for the high. risk the residents take.

The thin row of lightweight structures hangs on the edge of a. cliff formed of earth with a sheer drop numerous feet. ( meters) to the rocky cliff listed below. Experts and city. authorities state the cliff is wearing down, making the homes even more. hazardous - for this reason their nickname.

The precarious homes often act as workplaces for Aymara. shamans, referred to as yatiris, where they make offerings to the. Pachamama, or Earth Mom. However heavy rains and international warming. are progressively undermining the buildings' structures.

The precipice in this valley is 90 degrees, said Gabriel. Pari, community secretary of water, sanitation, ecological. management and threat at El Alto's mayoral office.

That is precisely why we want them to leave this place, if. they do not wish to leave we are going to have to use force.

The shamans, however, are clinging on, despite the back. doors of the rickety homes having just a narrow ledge before the. ground drops away completely.

We are not going to move from this place, since this is. our daily work place, said yatiri Manuel Mamani, making an. using to the Pachamama with a fire outside his home.

However we are going to look after the soil, particularly the. rainwater, we are going to channel it so that the water goes. somewhere else.

El Alto, and the highland political capital of La Paz. nestled in the valley below it, frequently bend the mind with the. large landscape that shows the surrounding Andean mountains. It led regional authorities to develop cable cars and trucks to help people get. around.

And that landscape is getting more treacherous as weather condition. patterns become more extreme, something that has been. exacerbated by climate change.

Gabriel Lopez Chiva, another yatiri, stated he was confident,. nevertheless, that the Pachamama would safeguard him.

We can do an offering event, we do it as a payment and. in this method the land will never move due to the fact that Pachamama requires an. offering. It resembles giving food and this way this place will. stagnate. On the contrary it will stabilize, he stated.

(source: Reuters)