Boiling mud, lava, steam and smoke billowing up form the depths. This is the common image when anyone thinks of a Volcano. But what if you could bathe in the organic mud, suspended and weightless while sitting atop a Volcano. Well in Colombia you can make your desires of jumping into an “active” volcano come true.
Just a short bus trip from the city of Cartagena on the northern Caribbean shores of Colombia sits a tiny pimple on the landscape next to a lake. This tiny “Volcano” has been active as a mud vent for hundreds of years. Known to the locals as Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, this tourist attraction draws thousands each year to climb the slippery steps and cake themselves in mud and immerse themselves into a surreal sense of weightlessness in the soothing tepid mud of Volcan de Lodo El Totumo.
Handing over my camera to one of the local guides they guy managed to detect us amongst the many mud covered visitors that lay in the small mud pool like little piggies. Each of us in turn massaged to ensure that the mud was worked well into our bodies. Some of the massaging was a little close for comfort, but hey… I’m here for the experience right?
Our “Photographer” who seemed to have amassed numerous cameras snapped away and somehow managed to snap the right people on the right cameras.
The mud level varies and sometimes completely overflows the small crater, but lucky for us the mud wasn’t flowing down the side of the “mountain” today. There is one cautionary note that need to be remembered and that is once you climb down the ever so slippery steps and you’re in the mud that your center of gravity is certainly important and a sense of weightlessness will take control of your body. If you try to lean too far forward you’ll fall face first into the mud so, …. move slowly!
Volcan de Lodo El Totumo makes for a great day out and speaking of out once you do get out of the mud you’re instructed to take a muddy walk down the edge of the lake and be washed by one of the local ladies who help you remove all of that mud that’s got into places that you can only imagine… And yes, I was asked to remove my swimming shorts for washing! Oh, well sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
The tour takes in a stop for lunch and time for soak in the azure waters of the Caribbean on the way back to Cartagena. So if you’re a tourist who likes to tick unusual boxes, put Volcan de Lodo El Totumo on your bucket list. Oh and don’t believe all the negativity about Colombia not being safe. This day trip is a must if you’re in Colombia.
