Shops in Aracataca are bright and colourful, inside and out. And the shop owners always have time for a chat.
Service with a smile...
Healthy start to the day
I already miss my morning fruit shop and dose of vitamin C. Fruit is a major export for Colombia - they produce a tenth of the world's banana exports, second only to Ecuador.
The local laundrette...
Life's a playground
Who need iphones and computer games... I sat with these kids and watched them play and keep themselves entertained for over an hour.
Girls about town...
Kids in the UK could learn a lot from Colombian kids. I didn't hear a child scream or complain once, they smile and say 'hola' to people who walk past and have a lovely innocence about them, as children should.
94 years of stories...
Hannibal Calle, 94 years old, sits outside his house every afternoon and loves to tell his stories of his time with Garcia Marquez. I wish I could understand more Spanish as I'm sure his stories were fascinating!
A hundred stories...
Magdalena Bolano, Garcia Marquez's old nanny, and her son, welcomed me into their modest little townhouse. Their faces tell a hundred stories.
Cien años de soledad
If every country held a poll for the most popular writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez would apparently top them in more countries that than anyone else (Gerald Martin, biographer of Marquez). That makes him the worlds most popular writer. He was born and bred in the much overlooked, wonderful little village of Aracataca, in Northern Colombia.
The local library, Aracataca - a literature lovers dream.
Town life in the Amazon
It's not all trees and mosquito's. Football is a huge part of Colombian culture - if it's not being played in the football field (every village we visited in the Amazon had one) it's being watched in the local bar with a cerveza... by the men at least.
