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?

Radio La Plata - 26th July 2000

I missed an anniversary at the end of last year, and only found out about it by reading the Correo del Sur website – the local newspaper in Sucre.

I didn’t realise that the station had been going so long!  The reason I am particulary interested is that this is the radio station that I gave an interview at when I was in Sucre many years ago.

At the time I had been learning Spanish for about 18 Months and the interviewer asked me about my trip with the Scouts to Bolivia.  I am pleased to say that I was able to understand most of what he was asking, but he professionalism showed through when he asked me something that I didn’t understand and was able to read in my eyes that was having trouble with the question.  Before I even had a chance to say anything, he rephrased it and hopefully the listeners did not even notice.  I was so proud to have given my first Spanish press interview!

So, even if it is a bit late: ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Radio La Plata!