The cold cuts to the bone and little puffs of steam escape from the mouths of people stopping on their walk to work to drink a glass of fresh donkey milk, believing it will fight respiratory problems during the raw winter of the Bolivian Andes.

Aymara women position their female donkeys every morning on a street corner in El Alto, a city neighboring the capital of La Paz. Then they milk them for clients lining up in the cold air.

"I had a cough for five years and couldn't sleep," Luz Mamani said, ordering a small glass. Mamani said she's been healthy since she started drinking the milk.