Why Colombia?

In 1985, Colombia's literary hero, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, published what was to become one of his most beloved novels, Love in the Time of Cholera.

An anti-romance romance, it sweeps gloriously from decade to decade, as Marquez deliciously unravels the lives of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza.

The book turns 35 this year, and so do I. What better way to celebrate than going on the trail of Marquez in Colombia, his home and inspiration.

It's my birthday in a few days. Reflecting on this over dinner with a friend earlier this week, I told him I thought I was growing down, rather than up, explaining I'd been much more serious in my 20s.

He gently suggested to me that adulthood wasn't a measure of how serious you are, but how well you know yourself.

I won't presume to know how well Marquez knew himself, but he certainly understood the human condition, particularly its physical and mental frailties.  

He delights in writing about his character's flaws; from misbehaving bodies to duplicitous acts and shameless scheming. 

It's this unflinching revelry in the muck of humanity that keeps me reading. Marquez seeks truth, which is why he can veer from devastating to hilarious and back again in a single sentence.

"My heart has more rooms in it than a whore house."

Such is his legacy, that Marquez and Colombia have become bywords for each other, it's impossible to divorce one from the other. 

Colombia is the recurring guest star in his work. Its cities, towns, natural landscape and people appear warts and all, from the heaving Magdalena River to the backstreet brothels of Barranquilla.

So as I head into another year, I'll be rolling up my sleeves and digging deep into the guts of Marquez's Colombia.

Here's hoping I end up elbows deep in the truth.