Mompox is a hot, humid, colonial town located hours from the middle of nowhere and with almost nothing to do. On paper, at least, it seems like an unlikely tourist destination. However, Mompox’s reputation as a must-visit destination in Colombia is growing.
I’m a big fan of Nobel Prize winning Colombian author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all-time favorite books. When I heard that Mompox may have been the inspiration for the fictional city of Macondo, I knew I needed to go there.
A Short History of Mompox
Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes a lot about nostalgia and Mompox is definitely a nostalgic sort of place. While the modern-day town is languid, dusty and remote without a whole lot going on, Mompox was once one of Colombia’s most important settlements.
Spanish conquistadors founded the city in 1537 as Santa Cruz de Mompox. It quickly became a major center for goldsmithing, as well as shipping goods up and down the Magdalena River. The town grew more and more prosperous and various religious orders founded churches, schools and even an unexpected center for the Spanish Inquisition.
In 1810, Mompox was the first city in Colombia to declare independence from Spain. The liberator, Simón Bolívar, arrived in Mompox in 1812 to recruit soldiers for his campaign to free South America from the Spanish Empire. Bolívar famously said “If to Caracas I owe my life, then to Mompox I owe my glory.”
Mompox’s glory days eventually came to an end, though. In the beginning of the 20th century, sediment began to accumulate in the Magdalena River. Highways replaced the old steam ships and Mompox’s bustling prosperity was lost to the currents of history.
This melancholic mix of nostalgia and economic collapse supposedly inspired Garcia Marquez when he was writing his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Some claim that he used Mompox as an inspiration for the fictional city of Macondo. Those claims definitely inspired me to visit. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that Garcia Marquez might not have ever even been to Mompox.
Despite the controversy, film adaptations of Garcia Marquez’s other books, Chronicles of a Death Foretold and Love in the Time of Cholera, were partially filmed in Mompox. And UNESCO declared the colonial center a World Heritage Site in 1995. The Colombian government declared it a “Pueblo Patrimonio” in 2010.
Today the tourist industry is trying to take the place of the shipping and goldsmithing of the olden days.
What to Know Before Visiting Mompox
However, despite drawing attention from literature and history buffs, Mompox is not very touristy. You can find closed down restaurants and empty hotels that hint at a past tourist boom. My guess is that the COVID 19 pandemic slowed things down. The remnants of the tourism industry that remain seem rather scrappy and thrown together. I mean that very much as a compliment.
Before visiting Mompox, the first and probably most important thing to know is that the city actually has a number of different names. Some still say “Santa Cruz de Mompox.” Some people say “Mompós.” The locals pronounce it so that it sounds something like “Momposh.”
In fact, the locals have a unique pronunciation of just about everything. Spanish speakers will find themselves questioning their abilities in Mompox. The local rapid fire, slurred, dialect of Caribbean Spanish is very difficult to understand. At least, I found it to be so, and I’ve studied Spanish for years.
The locals of Mompox are very friendly, though, and they’ll appreciate you making the effort to communicate with them in their native tongue. Very few people speak English, but if you do know a bit of Spanish, you’ll have some great opportunities to practice. If you can understand, them, that is.
You should also know that Mompox is quite hot and humid. It’s located in Colombia’s tropical lowlands, and there’s little escape from the sweltering midday sun. Don’t be afraid to take a siesta in the afternoon. Also, look out for mosquitos in the evenings.
On one of the most fun, but also most stressful, aspects of travel is finding and booking places to stay. These days you have options ranging from dirt cheap hostel dorms to luxurious White Lotus style resorts. Thankfully, the internet is here to make finding accommodation easier.
Hostelworld is the go to app for finding hostels. For everything else, there’s Booking.com. If you book through either of the previous links, I’ll gain a small commission at no extra cost to you.
How to Get to Mompox
The journey to Mompox is long and not for the faint of heart. The Colombian government recently built a bridge connecting the city to the highway. Apparently, you used to have to take a ferry across the river. Thank you, Colombian government, for investing in your infrastructure and making it easier on us poor tourists.
Despite the improvements, the bus still takes a whopping 16 and a half hours from Bogotá or nearly 13 hours from Medellin. We came from Bucaramanga after our time in San Gil and Barichara, which took about 8 hours. Luckily, Mompox is only about 6 hours from Cartagena, so it’s much more reasonable to bop over from the Caribbean coast.
No matter which way you come from, you’ll be dropped off at a small bus stop along the side of the dusty highway. Don’t let the modern corrugated metal roofs and cement buildings throw you off. You’re just a short walk from Mompox’s colonial center. In fact, you’re just a short walk from everything in Mompox.
Where to Stay in Mompox
While some of Mompox’s tourist infrastructure has fallen by the wayside, there are still a number of lovely hotels and hostels built in lovely old colonial buildings. We stayed at the Hotel Villa de Mompox, which was a cute little place just a short walk from the town center. I have no complaints. Click here to book your stay with Hotel Villa de Mompox. If you book using this link, you’ll help support this blog at no additional cost to you.
Things to Do in Mompox
Don’t come to Mompox expecting action and adventure. This is very much a sleepy town, where the main activity seems to be walking along the old streets and reveling in memories of bygone days, both real and imagined.
Wander the Streets
Mompox’s streets are filled with gorgeous old colonial buildings. Along the river, the former homes of the rich and prosperous are now hotels and shops. Mighty columns hold up the eaves of tiled roofs. Stucco walls gleam with bright, tropical colors. Vivid red and yellow churches overlook cobblestone plazas. Colorful flowers burst from cement planters. It really is a very beautiful town.
Outside of the colonial center, the paving stones disappear and dirt roads lead to the residential areas where most of Mompox’s modern residents live. These parts of town aren’t quite as photogenic, but are still interesting. You’ll see people going about their daily lives and maybe even stumble on one of the morning markets. The neighborhoods along these dirt roads almost feel more like Nicaragua than Colombia.
We kept running into a guy hanging out in the plazas and along the riverbank. He was very friendly. Maybe too friendly for our reserved, Mid-Western sensibilities. I kept expecting him to try and sell us something or ask for money. He never did. He was just a local weirdo who liked chatting with the gringos. Not everybody was as outgoing, but most people were quite friendly.
Visit the Cemetery
Mompox has an old cemetery as beautiful as you’d expect from a city lamenting the loss of its glory days. You’ll find a number of ornately carved tombs and mausoleums housing the dead of generations past. The most amazing things we saw Mompox’s cemetery, however were very much alive.
The cemetery was full of kittens.
At first, one little orange kitty walked out and started mewing at us. Then came a grey tabby. Then another. And another. We were soon surrounded by dozens of cats. Inside the cemetery chapel we found them washing themselves in the pews, curled up at the feet of a crucifix and even sleeping in the holy water basin. It was amazing.
I can’t really express how difficult it was not to pet all the kittens and pick them up and nuzzle them with my beard. The kittens were, unfortunately, filthy. They probably had fleas. I guess that’s to be expected living in a cemetery in a hot, dusty town.
Still, the kitten cemetery was very magical. It was probably the closest I got to the magic I was seeking in Mompox.
Take a Boat Ride
Mompox is a river town, through and through. As with any self-respecting river town with a partially functioning tourist industry, it’s a good place to take a little river cruise.
The old steamships no longer ply the Rio Magdalena, which is probably better for the environment anyway. Today, you’ll get taken on a boat journey on a small, gas powered lancha. It’s actually pretty fun. While there aren’t any majestic mountains or thick jungle, the flat riverside plains surrounding the area around Mompox are pretty in their own right. Depending on when you take the tour, you might also be treated to a lovely sunset, and a view of the city lights reflecting off the water as you pull in to the dock.
We saw a number of people selling river cruises on the riverside in Mompox. You could also, theoretically, probably arrange a tour with your accommodations. We just went with some random lady on the waterfront.
I don’t remember how much the tour cost, but the boatmen don’t like to leave without enough people to make it worth their while. Our group had trouble finding the other two passengers we needed. We ended up paying extra to cover their spots, since it was our last night in Mompox and we wanted to do the tour. I hope those two non-existent passengers appreciated it.
I usually like to travel and do activities independently, but sometimes you want to relax and let someone else take over. For those times, I suggest using Get Your Guide. Prices are reasonable and they have numerous tours available. Click here to explore options in Colombia. Tours booked through these links help support this blog at no extra cost to you.
Final Thoughts on Mompox
“Mompox doesn’t exist,” he said “Sometime we dream about it, but it doesn’t exist.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The General in His Labyrinth
The above quote seems to be mandatory for all blog posts or articles talking about Mompox. To be completely and entirely honest (which is something I usually always strive to do), the time I spent in Mompox left me feeling somewhat unsettled. Like there was some kind of weird energy in the air. A kind of miasma of longing for a possibly mythical past.
It’s only months later, reflecting on that time, that I realized the problem was with me.
Mompox is definitely a nostalgic place. But wandering the streets and seeing the closed down hotels and empty restaurants, I think the main thing Mompox is nostalgic for is pre-pandemic tourist dollars.
And why not? It’s one of the many towns in Colombia that sold itself as a travel destination for everyone seeking some version of Garcia Marquez’s fictional city of Macondo. It suffered when COVID killed the travel industry.
I definitely came to Mompox looking for my own version of Macondo. A strange thing to look for, because as anyone who’s read One Hundred Years of Solitude should know, Macondo isn’t exactly the most pleasant place. However, the idea of Macondo represents something. I’m not sure what exactly (and maybe I need to reread the book) but it represents something. Something important that’s gone missing.
But there’s the problem. Macondo doesn’t exist. Sometimes we dream about it, but it doesn’t exist.
Mompox, on the other hand, definitely does exist. It’s a real city, filled with real human beings you can talk to and real buildings you can see and real kittens you can touch if you aren’t worried about fleas. And it’s a very beautiful real city.
So, maybe the lesson of Santa Fe de Mompox is that the search for a real-life Macondo is ultimately futile. It’s far better to learn to appreciate the magic of reality and the present rather than wasting time searching for some nostalgic version of a fictional past.
Ready for more of Colombia’s magic? Read our travel guide here: Covering Ground in Colombia: A Travel Guide to One of the World’s Most Magical Countries
