We went to the tourist area of La Paz to visit the artisan shops of Caserita.com associates.

Amongst the stalls we came upon Doña Augustina who sells her colorful finger puppets in the middle of the street, unlike the other artisans.

We took advantage of a break in shoppers to ask her about how she got started: "We failed selling used American clothes; I am still paying off the bank for that fiasco. As a result, we started looking for other ideas and things to make. Thanks to my daughter who knits, we started making finger puppets which she invented. We have been making and selling them in the street for nine years now."

We got a few more details about her business while her customers kept interrupting: "We sell individually and wholesale. We earn a few cents for each one by selling them on the street. When we get orders from Europe, we earn more... A well-finished puppet takes about a half hour to complete... Foreign clients don't visit so much, but they have copied a lot. There are now people who make them all over the world... I am older now, and my vision is failing, so I will stop making them... My daughter lives in Europe, in Rome, now and sells the puppets there. I didn't want to go there because the trip is very long and I'm an elderly person... We have 195 models; my daughter made most of the designs. I do some... since I work on them all day, I also invent some designs."

Dogs, horses, snails, giraffes, elephants, lions, pink panthers, cats, mice, television personalities, cholitas, etc. - a tremendous variety of models perfectly finished are testimony to the creativity and amazing manual dexterity of these artisans.