Oct 9, 2009
Cartagena, Colombia
Elevation 2m
I went out to Volcan de Lodo el Totumo today with some friends. At first I was recluctant to go, but then curosity, a slight bit of bordem and a lot of why the hell not got the better of me and so off I went. The first sentence in the Lonley Planet guid says ¨No, its no the world´s largest termite mound.¨ Well….having reading that, my first sight of this ¨volcano¨made my burst out laughing. It really does look like the world´s largest termite mound.
Its about 15m tall and the opening on top its about 8 feet by 15 feet and it is fill with mud the consistency of pudding or clotted cream (take your pick of thick dairy based substance). You climb down a few steps and a local guys indicates that you lay down in the mud on your back. As you float on top of this incredibly dense mud, he cover you with it and then pushes you to the side so that you can wait in line to be massaged by another local guy. There is a bit of assembly line quality to what is happening in this tiny mud pit. You get massages for about 5 minutes by the guy then he pushes you again off to another side to make room for more incomings.
As I ¨wallow¨in mud in this giant terminte mound, I can´t help but be reminded of the children´s book, Ïn the Night Kitchen¨ by Murice Sendak and the part of the boy falling into milk or cake batter or something. Only difference being that I am in mud and I don´t think there is a chance that I would get baked into a cake. What is the most bizzard is that you can stand up in the mud. It is so dense that although you are kinda standing on ¨nothing¨ you are afloat and not sinking.
If you are ever curious about what would be like to float in a tub of clotted cream, come to Cartagena and visit Volcan de Lodo el Totumo.
*Picture to come
