Volcano Dipping
On our way to Santa Marta, a coastal town on the Caribbean, we stop a Volcan de Lodo El Totumo for a mud bath. We take a detour off of the coastal highway and arrive at what looks like a really big ant hill. The volcano is only about 50’ high, a detail that I missed when reading the tour book. We pay the $2.50 entrance fee and climb up the steep stairs. I gasp at the top – about 15 mud-covered people sitting in a big hole filled with grayish, brownish mud – kind of like a big hot tub party with mud.
Connor decides to skip the mud bath and be the official photographer. Quinn plunges in first and tries to swim through the mud. I carefully go down the ladder and lower myself into the mud. Weirdest experience! Once immersed, I can barely move and a guide pushes/pulls me away from the ladder. The volcano is essentially bottomless, thus I can stand upright, sit or lie – the buoyancy keeps my shoulders and head above the mud. Paul enters and a guide immediately starts giving him a massage while he lies on his back. All I hear from him is, “Ohh, ahh, this guy is good!” (he tips the masseuse $2.50 – quite a deal for a half hour mud massage). We paint each other’s faces and Paul’s head, so that we are completely covered except for our eyes, mouth and my hair (I figure that trying to get mud out of my rat’s nest would take forever). After taking some pictures, Connor decides that he wants to join the fun and plunges in. We marvel at the creaminess of the mud and strange floating sensation. We all agree that this is the weirdest, coolest thing that we have done on this trip. Calistoga mud baths don’t even compare!
After our rejuvenating mud bath, we gingerly climb down the steep stairs, still covered in mud, and walk down a path to a lagoon. Ladies offer to assist us with bathing, but after our lesson learned that nothing is free, we decline. I ask if the lagoon has crocodiles, to which they reply, “No, no! They are far away on the other side of the lagoon.” Hmmm. The water is murky, but we have no other option, so we bathe there and help each other rinse off the mud. For the rest of the day, we laugh when we spot a speck of mud on each other.
Comments from the boys:
Quinn – “Awesome! It was so cool that you could almost swim in mud.”
Conno – “Very unexpected. A lot different than I thought.”
Paul – “Suspended in cool mud – too cool.”
Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!
Tags: Columbia
hwy1alltheway
the mudbath sounds so cool!!! Much love to you guys!! Lisa & Michael xoxox
I miss you terribly!
He’res to mud in your eye. Salud!