On the bus from Puno to Cuzco, there are all these ceramic Pucara bulls on every rooftop, sometimes accompanied by a cross, a ladder, an empty bottle, etc.
We were told they're another Catholic tradition (like the baby Jesus dolls in baskets I loved so much) meant to bring health, wealth, fertility, a happy marriage (etc.) to the household.
Later we found them in airport gift shops, but they just didn't hold the same magic the dirty brown ones I saw from a moving bus window did - watching over some twenty person household in the Andes who fiercely believed in them with all their hearts.
