Explore the Route of García Márquez in the Colombian Caribbean

This is a fantastic journey filled with real landscapes and fictional characters that have their origins in the imagination of a genius and in the nature of a Region that ignites the heart of those who visit it, when faced with its impressive contrasts. We present to you the route of García Márquez in the Colombian Caribbean.

The Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez narrated with astonishing lucidity what his eyes saw and what his ears heard and put them in the eyes and ears of others, and thus, the written project he carried out was classified in a unique genre given an international name: magical realism. In this literary genre, he wrote almost songs, entirely novels. No one can believe just by reading that such a beautiful, vast territory exists.
 

A tour of the places he describes in his novels is what many travelers need to realize that the settings described by the Colombian Nobel are not pulled from thin air. Everything is real. So real that they can be visited. And, not only because the tourist sites he narrates in his works are entirely true, but because the cultures and the environment in which he narrates his stories are part of the Colombian Caribbean culture. 

His characters and Macondo—that's what he really pulled from his imagination. Vallenatos, cumbias, and other Caribbean rhythms adorn his books, among which he once stated: “One Hundred Years of Solitude is a vallenato.”

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Santa Marta: the start of the route of García Márquez in the Colombian Caribbean

We will begin our journey in Santa Marta, a historic city, the first to be colonized and founded in Colombia. An unmissable destination for its location at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and on the coast of the Caribbean Sea.  

A friendly city, where the Festivals of the Sea are held in July.  White sandy beaches and a port visited by boats from around the world adorn the beauty of this city that carefully guards its colonial tradition.  

Visiting the historic center is a must on the García Márquez route; there you will find buildings in Spanish colonial style, hotels, restaurants, cafés, and the Cathedral of Santa Marta, the first in Latin America built in 1760, where the remains of the Liberator - Simón Bolívar - rested for 12 years in the 19th century. 

Santa Marta Bay is an attraction for walking and contemplating the sunsets that the author wrote about in the novel “The General in His Labyrinth”: 

“Without taking my eyes off the splendor of Santa Marta Bay, which he himself considered the most beautiful in the world. –My eyes hurt from looking at it so much.”

Bolívar Park, the Park of the Lovers, and the Customs House are representative places in the city worth exploring. The Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino is a hacienda that holds the memories of Bolívar's last days, which now also features a Botanical Garden and where sugar cane was once grown for the production of panela, honey, and rum. 

Tayrona Park

The García Márquez route continues very close to the city, in the Tayrona National Natural Park, which undoubtedly inspired the Master to write and describe the territory where his novel took place.  

“On the other side of the Ciénaga Grande rose the crown of eternal ice of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta” 

The General in His Labyrinth

This journey changes the perspective of all visitors. The Sierra, besides being designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve, is the place where the past touches the present; the indigenous guardians of the Sierra kindly await travelers, younger siblings, to share their knowledge, reflections, and ancestral traditions.

La Guajira

On the way to Riohacha (Department of La Guajira), along the road where the sea kisses the path, in the municipalities of Palomino and Dibuya, the experience of entering and climbing the mountain to float down the river to its mouth in the sea is one of the sensations travelers in the area enjoy the most. 

“José Arcadio Buendía was completely unaware of the geography of the region. He knew that to the East was the impenetrable sierra, and on the other side of the sierra lay the ancient city of Riohacha” 

One Hundred Years of Solitude and the fantastic connection to the route of García Márquez

A few hours away lies the city of Riohacha, where the protagonists of One Hundred Years of Solitude leave to found Macondo. A culturally inexhaustible space from which the writer learned to tell fantastic stories as if they were real. 

The Wayúu indigenous people belong to this region of the country and have blood ties to the writer, as his grandmother belonged to this ethnicity. The rancherías await travelers to share their traditions, myths, and legends and to showcase the best of their fine craftsmanship, which is now sold worldwide. Riohacha is the world capital of “Vallenato,” the traditional music of the area around which a whole culture is woven, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.  

“What opened my eyes, more than books, was music; the vallenato songs narrated like my grandmother” 

Aracataca, a must-visit destination on the route of García Márquez in the Colombian Caribbean

The journey continues through the municipality where the writer was born. Aracataca, a town in the department of Magdalena, which houses the Gabriel García Márquez Museum and all the inspiration from the author’s childhood.

Valledupar

Valledupar is the next destination on the García Márquez route, a plain at the foot of the Sierra and the Serranía del Perijá, surrounded by multiple indigenous corregimientos. In this city capital of the Department of Cesar, the Guatapurí River and mango and cañahuate trees dictate the rules of a rich ecosystem, caressed by the breeze coming down from the snow-capped mountain just a few kilometers from the city. 

“Two days later they descended to the luminous plain where the joyful town of Valledupar was settled. There were cockfights in the courtyards, accordion music on the corners, horsemen on good blooded horses, rockets, and bells” 

Love in the Time of Cholera

In Valledupar, it's worth visiting the modern Cathedral of Ecce Homo, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary built in 1563, the Alfonso López Pumarejo square, and the swimming areas of the Guatapurí River. The festival that marks the visit of folklore lovers is the “Vallenato Festival,” a celebration of accordions and poetry that sweetens existence with the kindness of vallenatos and their artistic sensitivity and talent.

Cartagena de Indias, the best destination to end the route of García Márquez

Once Valledupar is explored, you return to the city of Cartagena, “La Heroica,” a colonial city with Spanish architecture and traditional churches that has become an unmissable international destination for its beauty, history, and color. The walled city is the setting for one of García Márquez's most prestigious novels, “Love in the Time of Cholera.” 

“From the sky, as God saw it, they saw the very ancient and heroic city of Cartagena de Indias, the most beautiful in the world”

Love in the Time of Cholera. 

A UNESCO World Heritage site, Cartagena is the city where Gabriel García Márquez went to study at university after leaving the National University of Bogotá.  There he took his first steps as a journalist at the newspaper “El Universal”:  

“We had arrived at the grand Clock Gate. For a hundred years, there had been a drawbridge there connecting the old city with the suburb of Getsemaní and with the dense neighborhoods of the poor mangroves, but it was raised from nine at night until dawn. The population was isolated not only from the rest of the world but also from history. It was said that the Spanish colonists had built that bridge out of fear that the poverty of the suburbs would creep in at midnight to slit their throats while they slept. 

However, something of its divine grace must remain in the city, because it was enough for me to take a step inside the wall to see it in all its grandeur in the mauve light of six in the evening, and I could not suppress the feeling of having been reborn”

Living to Tell the Tale (Autobiography)

In this beautiful city is where the writer built his house, the one he thought would accompany his last days. The walled city is a place to walk, to contemplate, to appreciate the colonial architecture of the churches built since 1580.  

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The route of García Márquez and Macondo ends here, a journey rich in culture, music, stories, poetry, and celebration. The Colombian Atlantic coast is a real dream worth living and experiencing at least once in a lifetime.  

Learn more about Literary and Musical Tourism at the following link: https://pazapporte.com/

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