I finally got to see the film Quantum of Solace on DVD the other day, having missed it in the cinemas.

Part of the action supposedly takes place in Bolivia.  I say “supposedly”, because I recall that a number of outside shots were actually done in Chile – much to the anger of the local mayor, who objected to his community portraying Bolivians. (The area concerned had actually been part of Bolivia until 1883).

In fact, very few of the scenes were actually shot in Bolivia itself.  Even La Paz airport, which I was suspicious of when I first saw the scene, turned out to be at Farnborough in the UK!

But there were two things about the Bolivian scenes that I spotted right away.

Firstly, the roads.  Those roads to the hotel in the desert were too new!  I don’t remember the roads between the main towns being that good.  In fact, I remember in particular the road out of Potosí on the way to La Paz being of a high standard until about 5km north of the town.  Then it reverted to the usual dusty and bumy version for the rest of the journey.

However the line that really caught me off guard was at the party in La Paz.  The character Dominic Greene said that Bolivia had a water problem, because they had cut down so many trees that the topsoil had sliden into the sea.

Now, quite apart from the fact that I was not aware of such activities on Bolivia (I thought that was one of the problems in Africa…), which “sea” exactly would that be?

If you’re learning Spanish with a view to visiting Bolivia, then you may be interested in the offer that I read this morning on Twitter.

The Notes in Spanish store is offering 47% off ANYTHING until midnight tonight (EST).  The site offers podcasts for learners of Spanish at different levels, and the store contains the transcripts, vocabulary lists and exercises that accompany them.

But not only will you need to hurry to take advantage of the offer, you’ll need the promotion code as well.  You’ll find it on this Twitter feed.

The latest bestseller book may not come directly from Bolivia, but it deals with the history of the South American contintent as a whole.

I am, of course, talking about “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Eduardo Galeano.  A book that only last week was probably little known, even amongst Latin American enthusiasts, but has now risen to fame after President Chavez of Venezuela gave a copy to President Obama.

The book is available on Amazon, although it currently shows delivery times of up to 6 weeks!

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.de

One of the main German news programmes reported last night that President Morales has ended his hunger strike.  He has good reason too, as the Bolivian senate has now approved his electoral reforms, meaning that he can re-elected in December and remain in office until 2015.

Some last-minute bargaining tactics meant that he had to make some concessions himself, but in return he can introduce the collection of biometric data to allow for digital fingerprinting after the election.