They were having a great time in Scotland and it was the first time I had spoken to Mike who was very excited about coming to meet us in Africa.

We did a marathon internet session but the internet was fast and cheap and you really do need it sometimes. We still hadn’t been able to buy a guide book on Southern Africa so were trying to do as much research as we could whenever we got decent internet. After a couple of hours researching car hire I was ready for a break so we headed out into the city for a look around. The Witches Market is really famous for handicrafts but it was so busy that we gave it a miss. We’ve seen enough handicrafts to sink a ship so we weren’t too bothered and were only to glad to avoid the massing crowds.

One thing we had read about La Paz was the

startling appearance of the shoeshine boys. Now this is one thing that I have noticed worldwide and I find fascinating. People in poor countries are obsessed with having clean and well polished shoes - I find it bizarre but it is true. They put us to shame, I only ever used to give my shoes a quick wipe if I trodden in a load of mud, but these folk have their shoes polished on a daily basis. We have witnessed this all over South America, India and South East Asia. Shoe polish is also on sale in abundant quantities, even though there are literally rows and rows of shoe shine boys that line the main streets. The difference with the shoe shine boys in La Paz is that they wear black balaclava type masks, our guide book told us not to be scared by this. It is not that these people are violent it just has something to do with their social status. Apparently it is the lowest of the low being a shoe shine boy or girl and they hide their faces as a result of this social stigma. They did look quite menacing but once you