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Stories by Richard McColl

Providencia, Colombia

Tales of pirates and Puritans in this Caribbean island hideaway.

Below us, the island came into view, encircled by a brittle ring of coral reefs made distinguishable by whitewater ripping at the edges. A turquoise iris skirted the white sandy edges of the Caribbean island ...

I Am Rambo in Chiribiquete, Colombia

Upriver expedition in the remote Amazon rainforest.

Strangely, the noxious swarm of mosquitos intent on doing me harm had ebbed, and the growl of the Chiribiquete waterfall (below) no longer sounded, as if its familiarity to my ears after a few hours ...

Surinam: Outpost for the Scottish Diaspora

The gravedigger noticed me looking a bit lost among the weeds and snakes of the old cemetery. He shouted to me. "Bakra, over there." I looked up. "More further," he said, wiping the sweat away ...

Striking a Balance: The Falklands

Keith the Kelper grapples with the wires, yanking some down, twisting them, forwards, backwards and then finally wrapping them tightly around the post. “It’s those cows that do this, they chew the signs I suppose ...

Into the Heart of Magic Realism Country

The world of García Márquez's novels.

There is a family somewhere near the Colombian Caribbean coast who have a novel way of caring for their elderly, infirm grandfather. Supposedly, along the banks of the river Magdalena, the very same river that ...

Carnaval en Rio – Firsthand

Experiencing a samba school procession.

My head was pounding. Fireworks crackled overhead. Hordes jeered, screamed, waved and then broke into joyous whirls of samba. The smell was unbearable, an open sewer ran beside our Sambódromo warm-up lane, and yet thousands ...