Roaming and Reading: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Colombia

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Colombian Nobel Prize for Literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez (L) and his wife Mercedes Barcha lean out of the window of the train they are taking to got to his hometown Aracataca May 30, 2007 in Santa Marta, Colombia. Garcia Marquez didn't visit Aracataca in twenty years.
ALEJANDRA VEGA/AFP/Getty Images

We've started a segment on The Daily Circuit called Roaming and Reading. It's a mash-up of two things Kerri loves: literature and travel.

In this installment, we travel to the Colombian city of Mompos, a favorite of author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Our guide is travel writer Nicholas Gill. He recently wrote about Mompos in The New York Times:

The first time I heard of Mompos, officially called Santa Cruz de Mompox, was about a decade ago, while reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel "The General in His Labyrinth." "Mompox doesn't exist," Mr. Garcia Marquez wrote, "we sometimes dream about her, but she doesn't exist." For years, I assumed that to be true.

It wasn't until 2008, when an acquaintance, a British journalist in Colombia named Richard McColl, began building a hotel there, that I realized that Mompos -- a perfectly preserved colonial city nearly 500 years old, set on an island in the Magdalena River -- was indeed real. In fact, the region, rich in history and ripe with romanticism, was the setting of many of Mr. Garcia Marquez's most famous works.

Political Coverage Powered by You

Your gift today creates a more connected Minnesota. MPR News is your trusted resource for election coverage, reporting and breaking news. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.