http://www.worldtravellers.dk/wordpress/?p=3002

One of the natural sights/highlights - as opposed to the colonial delights in the centre - on the tourist track here in the Cartagena area is the El Totumo Mud Volcano. Loads of tourbusses go every day, but I've become hysterically allergic to these animals these days, so I planned on going by public means yesterday.

But since Janet hasn't seen the volcano herself, and since the private chauffeur cum bodyguard, Ernesto is there anyway, and plainly because she's a lovely person, she suggested we all go together today. No problem with me.

Apart from a police speed radar tracking us down in the middle of nowhere (we weren't even going that fast), the drive to the volcano some 50 km northeast of Cartagena is rather uneventful. I would have been furious at the speed ticket but all I ever saw/heard from the front seats was laughter and shoulder-shrugging.


The next few hours at the mud volcano are weird. Very weird. Next to an otherwise flat(ish) meadowy marshland this 15 m mud cone rises from the shoreline of Ciénaga de Totumo (Totumo Swamp). It's a very exciting sight, and knowing that soon I'll be swimming in the muddy crater of the volcano makes me excited as a dog in a slaughterhouse.


Some different-looking species walking around…


At the end of the slightly rickety staircase there are hordes of tourists splashing around in the mud. When most of them have gone, it's our turn to get messy.


It's hard to describe how the mud feels like. Temperature is luke warm, but what makes the experience weird is the texture and the gravity-defying nature of the mud. According to the local guys here, the "mud vent" goes an amazing 2.300 metres down below the surface of the Earth, but we'll never find out as it is physically impossible to push yourself completely under the mud.


It's hard to describe how the mud feels like. Temperature is luke warm, but what makes the experience weird is the texture and the gravity-defying nature of the mud. According to the local guys here, the "mud vent" goes an amazing 2.300 metres down below the surface of the Earth, but we'll never find out as it is physically impossible to push yourself completely under the mud.


After the mud show some ladies are waiting down by the water's edge to give us a good wash down, pants off and all - agates submerged throughout.


I highly recommend the mud volcano experience to anyone coming this way. We all grab a quick and refreshing beer afterwards, it's the full-package deal, mind you. The price of all this, I never really figured out as - you guessed it - Janet to care of that part. Being a WorldTraveller these days is both great fun and very easy on the wallet.