Cartagena’s literary set find expression at Abaco, a wonderful bookshop/cafe that forms a community hub for the city’s intelligentsia. The inventory covers a wide sweep of fiction, photography, art and architecture, with a strong slant toward Latin American and Colombian writers. There’s plenty of material with a Cartagena theme, and of course, English-language editions of Gabriel García Márquez’s prodigious bibliography. As well as a star-studded lineup of events during the Hay Festival in January, there are readings and literary gatherings each Wednesday evening.