Netflix Hit ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’: Colombia’s Locations From Caribbean Sun to Rose-Tinged Salt Flats, Marshy Mountain Moors, a Mangrove Swamp and That Key Big Tree   

Early on in their accaimed TV series adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” Netflix and Bogota-based producer Dynamo (“Narcos”) set out to find Macondo. 

First, writers, producers and location managers visited Aracateca, the Nobel Prize winner’s birthplace on Colombia’s Caribbean seaboard. Later they toured Colombia’s Guajira peninsula, its Pacific Coast and Ciénega Grande swamp, capital Bogota’s province and Tolima in the high Andes. 

As they had always imagined, they never found Macondo – in the sense of one single village which could easily readapted into the icon magical realism. The idea, however, from the very beginning was to build Macondo from scratch. 

Those fam trips, however, left multiple health hostages to fortune. 

Most of the action of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” – the novel and series – in reality takes place in a relatively small strip of territory in Colombia’s far Caribbean north. 

Directed by Alex García and Laura Mora, the series’ story begins in a ranchería –  a traditional village somewhere on the plains outside Riohacha on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It then crosses the soaring Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and remains for most of the rest of Season 1 in Macondo north-west of the Sierra, in the Ciénaga Grande, but so near to the Caribbean Sea that the later discovery of its proximity breaks Macondo founder José Arcadio Buendía’s spirit.

In contrast, the series’ locations range from Guajira in the north to Alvarado, Tolima, in central Colombia’s Andes. Reasons for that range explain very much the locations of “One Hundred Years of Solitude. 10 takes and photos: 

Looking for Macondo 

Macondo couldn’t be any old place, however. Locations are very much a matter of logistics. “The biggest challenge was to find locations that were visually incredible but also practicable,” says Macondo location manager, Cristiano D. Toro. “One request I made was that Macondo had to be near an airport. But most importantly, we’re a very large production. If I have problems with crew, cameras, for example, we needed to be able to move easily, and given our long shooting days, it’s always best to have Bogotá near,” recalls Carolina Caicedo, executive producer of of “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”  

Macondo Ground Zero: A Wild Tree Hunt

Macondo also wouldn’t be built quite from scratch. In a drive for authenticity, art director Eugenio Caballero requested any Macondo to have high mountains behind and be built around a real-life big tree which would end up at the center of Macondo’s square. And it couldn’t be any tree either. It needed to allow enough space between it and key buildings such the school and church, and catch sunrise light one side and evening sun on the other, remembers Emerson Espinosa, also “One Hundred Years of Solitude” location manager. A large caucho cartagénero was found on the Arizona ranch, vast green pastures outside Alvarado, less than an hour’s drive from Tolima capital Ibagúe, itself an hour’s flight to Bogóta. Colombia’s real life steep-backed Western Andes rise behind Alvarado. Topping them in the series are the snow capped peaks of Sierra Nevada de la Marta, added by VFX. Macondo – its backlot site for the two biggest sets at least, including the biggest,capturing Macondo in its largest splendor from EP. 4 to Ep. 6 in Season 1 – had been found.

Creating Locations

Which aren’t explicitly in the novel. 

One example: “On Sunday, effectively, Rebeca arrived. She had made a difficult journey from Manaure,” Garcia Márquez writes in “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” chapter three. He makes no explicit mention, however, of the feature for which Manaure, on Colombia’s northernmost La Guajira coast, is best known: Its extraordinary salt flats. 

When Netflix optioned the novel’s adaptation rights in 2019, García Marquez’s widow, Mercedes Barcha, has widow and sons Rodrigo García (the distinguished director, “Albert Nobbs”) and Gonzalo García Barcha insisted that the series was shot in Colombia by Colombians. Rodrígo García also gave directors Alex García and Laura Mora total creative freedom.

Naturally enough, in a supremely visual (and more narrative-driven) medium such as TV, they often take it. “Somebody’s coming,” an adolescent José Aureliano predicts at the end of Ep. 2. Its climax is dramatic but also aesthetic: a shot of the extraordinary real-life rose-tinted salt plains of Manaure. Cut to Ep. 3’s opening as a cart and donkey are driven across the same salt plains, this time chalk white and as hard as ice, carrying Rebeca. Netflix popularised the idea that series have to grab the attention in its first few minutes. Here, the series has done so in a one-minute sequence thanks to an extraordinary location.

One Hundred Year’s Industrial Agenda

There’s also an industrial agenda at work. Colombia is already South America’s biggest big international shoot hub, with 64 projects approved over 2023-24 amounting to a total $249.8 million in investment in the country. The best way to encourage more shoots to come is by proclaiming Colombia’s production capacity in a banner series which captures global attention. Enter “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Over two-parts and 16 hour the series forefronts one of the main reasons why international shoots set up in any country: the stunning impact variety of locations. “The objective of the series in part is to show Colombia in all its diversity,” says Espinosa. 

Finding Macondo All Over Colombia

So it’s no coincidence that the series finds Macondo all over Colombia, in a total 32 provinces (departamentos), whether a street-corner building backed by modern high-rises (above), or a perfectly preserved dining room in a private house (below) or the facade of an 1890’s pharmacy. The first’s dining room (below) was used to shoot scenes in Arcadio’s house. It’s not so dissimilar to Ursula’s dining room either (below). Director Alex García shot interiors in the pharmacy while its facade helped inspire that of anarchist Alirio Noguera’s shop in Ep. 2.

The Dazzling Light of the Caribbean

And “A Hundred Years of Solitude” proclaims the diversity of Colombian locations. The biggest location outside Macondo in terms of series time spent there, is cousins José Arcadio and Úrsula’s native village where they wed in Ep. 1., which begins the series broad narrative. Created adapting or building for scratch huts in an old ranchería near Valledupar, the main town east of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the opening scenes captures the climate of the Caribbean seaboard. Throwing open the shutters of a window (Ep. 1, minute 7.48), Úrsula reveals the dazzling light, blue skies and low-lying trade wind cumulus clouds of the Caribbean seaboard (above) plus other huts simulating the mud, cactus trunk wood and palm roofs of a Guajira Wayuu ranchería, notes Toro.

”Smooth White Rocks Like Prehistoric Eggs”

It’s one of García Marquez’s most famous descriptions in the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” ending its second sentence, to describe the bed of the Río Ancho beside on whose banks Macondo was founded. Río Ancho was shot in a river descending from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to the Caribbean Sea near to Dibulla in western La Guajira. Macondo 0-1, as it is called, the rudimentary village of Macondo, was built at Garanchal Ranch, Venadillo, a 20-minute drive north go Alvardo, on the edge of the Magdalena River, Colombia’s longest, in Tolima. But it doesn’t have rocks like dinosaur’s eggs. So Río Ancho scenes, including José Arcadio¡s dream, were shot 700 miles northwards. Locations is the art of the possible.   

The Series Highpoint

Though tropical, Colombian capital Bogotá is lodged in high mountains, seeming like Scotland when it rains or hails, a mist enveloping its northern parts. Nowhere is colder and more inhospitable in the whole of Season 1 than Episode’s 1 high mountain moors scenes where José Arcadio’s expedition edges along a path half way up a precipice, a mule slipping into the void. As rain later lashes their tent, José Arcadia assures the shivering rest of the expedition that they’re very near to getting to the sea. These scenes were shot in the Páramo de Chingaza, a national natural park two hours car ride east of Bogotá, whose peaks rise to 13,000 feet. But ease of access remains key. So it’s no coincidence that one of its wildest locations also has a road snaking between its peaks (below). The road, naturally, was not seen in the series. 

Securing Locations

One key to a location is finding it. Another is preparing it. Natural locations can also change, varying according to season, Espinosa observes. Near to the Rio Ancho and Palomino, on the Magdalena/La Guajira border, the location team found a swamp which was a mix of mangroves, river and salt water. “It was marvellous, with beautiful, brilliant water which gave off reflections, reaching up to people’s chest,” Espinosa remembers.

The locations team was worried, however, that the swamp was too slippery for actors, crew and animals, its bed made up of mud and roots. The second time they visited, however, water levels were far lower. “So we cleaned the swamp bed, so that footing was safe when it had more water,” he adds. Scenes of José Arcadio and friends sloshing through the swamp, completely lost, are among the most memorable of Season 1.  

One of the Series’ Most Spectacular Locations is Heard But Hardly Seen

During the expedition, Úrsula gives birth to José Arcadio, terrified the baby will have a pig’s tail. Dynamo chose a special site: Tolima’s Cuevas del Mohan,  – a huge 160-foot waterfall cascading down to a small cave beside a river. “The access was not easy; however, everything necessary was done to make it easy and suitable for the crew and for the baby, who was our priority on that shooting day to ensure their safety. It was necessary to adjust the roads for the access of all the trucks and all the logistics involved in this night shoot,” Toro recalls. The birth scene is shot at night. The walls of the cave can only be seen briefly behind, but the waterfall can be heard. The sense of water is always present, he adds.