The previous night we had booked ourselves in for a tour to
the largest mud volcano in Colombia. The
tour costs us COP$30,000 each. This
includes pick up from the hostel, transport to and from the mud volcano which
is about an hour out of town and entry into the mud volcano. You don’t need to book the tour group, you
can get out there and do everything yourself, but it seems too much of a hassle
and would only cost COP$5,000 less to do it this way. Also it would be a full day travelling to and
from the volcano and with the tour, we would be back in the city at about
1.30pm so it was a no brainer really. We
get picked up from the hostel at 8.30am, exactly the time that was organised!
Very un-South American like. However, we
were the first to be picked up, we then spend the next hour driving around
Cartagena picking up other tourists. In
saying this, it was a good opportunity to see the city, including the new area
of town, which I had wanted to have a look at.
After driving through, I realised there was nothing to see, it was best
viewed from a distance. We left
Cartagena at 9.30am bound for the mud volcano, which is called Volcan de Lodo
El Totumo. It is located on the bank of
a very shallow lagoon, which would come in very handy later. The volcano is the largest mud volcano in
Colombia, but it is only a 15 metre high mound that looks like a miniature volcano,
but instead of lava it spews mud forced out by the pressure of gases emitted by
decaying organic matter underground. The
mud contains minerals acclaimed for their therapeutic properties.
We arrived at the volcano about 10.30am, got told to undress
(to our togs), gave our cameras to a guy to take photos which cost COP$3,000
per camera (definitely worth it) and walked to the top of the volcano. We climbed to the top by specially built
stairs, and then waited about five minutes until we could enter the mud, which
was luke warm and very comfortable. When
we got in the mud we were made to lie down, and we were covered head to toe by
guys who were giving everyone a massage.
I thought this was part of the package but it wasn’t, it cost another
COP$3,000 per person and the massage was for about five minutes, definitely
worth it, although Ann didn’t really enjoy it as she didn’t feel comfortable
lying in the mud as you didn’t have too much control, it was very hard to keep
your balance, there was no bottom to stand on!
After our massages we spent another 45 minutes just relaxing in the mud,
it was great! At first there were not too many people in the volcano, but as
time went on more people arrived, probably another tourist bus, and suddenly we
were all packed into the volcano like sardines.
After a bit of chaos with a couple of overweight gentlemen losing their
balance and kicking mud in people’s eyes, we decided to get out, we had had a
great time in the mud and we didn’t want to taint our experience by having mud
in our eyes. 45 minutes was a good
amount of time. We then got the rub down
by a fella waiting for people to exit the mud, and then made our way down to
the lagoon to clean ourselves. This was
a mission in itself because mud was everywhere, and I mean everywhere! After we
cleansed ourselves, we made our way back into town, on the way dropping people
off who opted for the lunch option which was an additional cost.
We both had a shower when we got back to the hostel, got
ourselves feeling clean and went for a walk to Castillo de San Felipe de
Barajas. Several forts were built at key
points outside the walls of old town to protect the city from pirates, but this
huge stone fortress is by far the greatest.
Construction began in 1639 but was not completed for another 150
years. We explore this fortress from top
to bottom, including the tunnels which go underground, we didn’t know when they
were going to end! These tunnels are
very complex and were designed very cleverly as they were built to facilitate
the supply and evacuation of the fort.
The design also amplified sound to make the approach of enemies more
apparent.
We then made our way back to the inner walled city. This was very quiet as it was a Sunday
afternoon and also we later found out that the Colombian national football team
was playing Peru that afternoon aswell in a World Cup qualification match (won
1-0 by Colombia, the locals were all glued to the screen, and people were
sitting in the streets outside pubs watching the game). While in old town we had a look at Las
Bovedas, 23 dungeons built in the defensive walls at the end of the 18th
century destined for military purposes.
Today the dungeons are used as tourist shops so we had a look at all of
these. Then it was supermarket time to
pick up dinner and head back to the hostel to cook up a storm!
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