Literature/Literary Travel

I just returned from northern Colombia, where essentially I was following the "trail" of Gabriel García Márquez, from his earliest journalistic days in the sweaty, ramshackle port of Barranquilla (be sure to see its wonderful Museo del Caribe, which has a floor dedicated to the 1982 Nobel Prize winner (this year's winner, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa, was the first south American winner since the Colombian)). I also went to Santa Marta and Riohacha, where the La Guajira Wayuu indians influenced his novella, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother. One notable excursion was to a hot spring in the Cienaga swamp, unlit (the car's headlights helped a little), with bats the size of dinner plates swooping down and, unseen behind thick foliage, a goods train rumbling by from the mines of Aracataca, García Márquez's birthplace. This really set my literary mind aswirl, images of the 3,000 dead workers massacred in the banana plantation of his fictional town of Macondo (did you see that the BP oil rig in the Mexican Gulf was called Macondo!) being transported away, as memorably portrayed in his One Hundred Years of Solitude.

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David Paul Appell October 12, 2010 at 9:51pm

Cool trip, Terry! In Quilla, did you go to La Cueva, the bar/restaurant where Gabo & cronies hung out? It's a bit tarted up these days but still has a lot of lore inside (I wrote about Barranquilla for MSNBC.com a little while back; click here if you're interested in having a look). Then in Cartagena last year I rode by the house he owns there -- zipped up like a fortress, that one!
Sam Scribe October 10, 2010 at 6:43pm

I've just discovered this group. I read One Hundred Years of Solitude when I was a teenager, and its images are still with me. Terence, will you be writing about your trip, and if so, where?
Terence Baker October 10, 2010 at 6:35pm

I just returned from northern Colombia, where essentially I was following the "trail" of Gabriel García Márquez, from his earliest journalistic days in the sweaty, ramshackle port of Barranquilla (be sure to see its wonderful Museo del Caribe, which has a floor dedicated to the 1982 Nobel Prize winner (this year's winner, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa, was the first south American winner since the Colombian)). I also went to Santa Marta and Riohacha, where the La Guajira Wayuu indians influenced his novella, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother. One notable excursion was to a hot spring in the Cienaga swamp, unlit (the car's headlights helped a little), with bats the size of dinner plates swooping down and, unseen behind thick foliage, a goods train rumbling by from the mines of Aracataca, García Márquez's birthplace. This really set my literary mind aswirl, images of the 3,000 dead workers massacred in the banana plantation of his fictional town of Macondo (did you see that the BP oil rig in the Mexican Gulf was called Macondo!) being transported away, as memorably portrayed in his One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Tripatini October 4, 2010 at 10:52pm

Don't miss the Tripatini blog post on the Agatha Christie trail in Devon, England!
Vera Marie Badertscher October 4, 2010 at 10:44pm

Where has this group been all my (LinkedIn) life? I'm a seasoned travel writer, but more important, I blog about books that inspire travel at ATravelersLibrary.com So this is right down my ally!

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