573: Richard McColl reads from his book: "The Mompos Project: A Story of Love, Hotels and Madness in Colombia."

When British foreign correspondent Richard McColl purchased, on a whim, a ruined colonial building in the rural Colombian town of Mompós, he imagined a lifestyle of relaxation, with idle afternoons reading the works of Gabriel García Márquez, writing glib observations and enjoying the hypnotic momentum of a Caribbean tropical narrative, swaying in a hammock and the promise of an ice cold beer never far away. He was mistaken.

His first restoration yields a hostel, which later becomes a hotel and then spirals into further projects including the restoration of three more colonial houses, experiencing challenges that make him reconsider his upbringing, education and outlook on how he fits into his adopted homeland. With two hotels in Mompós, he experiences the joy of new friendships and a despair over the predictability of guests.

With a journalist's eye for a story, McColl navigates the history of Mompós and how its society is a microcosm of today's Colombia, with its feudal system still very much in place, inherent prejudices, stigma surrounding the politics, the people and the past, all coming to the fore.

 

Buy the book: https://a.co/d/ezGbsP3

 

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.