For $500, donors are taken on an all-expense paid private tour from Bogota to the Magdalena River to visit and participate in the tree planting and explore Marquez’s favorite haunts.

"The Magdalena River will transform Colombia," said Carlos Nunez, head of Cormagdalena, the government agency overseeing digging, which began in June. "It's our salvation." ...

Every Day the River Changes starts, as many good travel books do, with an ambitious idea. Author Jordan Salama, while studying as an undergraduate at Princeton, wants to travel the entire 950 ...

Every Day the River Changes: Four Weeks Down the Magdalena Jordan Salama. Catapult, $26 (224p) ISBN 978-1-64622-044-1.