Cartagena is the city that inspired Gabriel Garcia Marquez to write. Whenever I visit a place, I like reading books inspired by it, hearing its music, learning its dances and art...it not only lets you keep that place and that memory alive for you while you’re far away, it also gives you another perspective on the culture you spent time in. •• So it seems I’ll finally be getting to “Love in the Time of Cholera” when I’m back in LA. And on that note, though I usually shy away from quotes, there is one by Marquez I really love: “Take advantage of it now, while you are young, and suffer all you can, because these things don’t last your whole life”. . . . .