Slide tackling in the mud is probably one of the top 5 reasons I play soccer. I love the way the mud slides along your body and drags you across the field. The feeling of getting the ball from your opponent in that manner is quite a great feeling. Another way I have enjoyed being covered in mud is when I visited the Dead Sea in Israel and then walked in super mineralized water that forced me to stay afloat. Most recently though, I visited Volcan Del Totumo about 2 hours outside of Cartagena and immersed myself in a mud bath from a volcano.

Not going through an organized tour and receiving conflicting information from people at the bus station, a group of us ended up taking 3 buses and walked another 45 minutes to get to the Volcan. The weather was sweltering, the buses were cramped, our lack of Spanish proved to be of problems, but it was well, well worth it.

Contrary to the most recent Lonely Plant guidebook, South American on a Shoestring, the entrance fee was 5,000 pesos (about $2.50), not $1,500 pesos (about $.50). The volcano is set upon a set of about 30 steps with a view of a gorgeous lake in the background. Once reaching the top of the steps there are people to hold your belongings and take pictures, as you do not want to touch anything once you get near the mud.

Once removing your clothes, you step down a couple of steps into a mud bath and people start telling you how good the mud is supposed to be for your skin. It’s about a 5ft by 5ft bath filled with grey, grey mud and people to help you in and make you feel relaxed and give you massages. You submerse your whole body except for your face in the mud and then put mud with your hands on your face. The experience is unreal. It is very hard to move in the mud and you can’t stand. You either lean against a wall or literally sit in the mud, not on anything, just kind of float in a sitting position.

After you have had your fair share of the mud, you get out of the bath and walk down another set of steps to the lake to remove the mud from your body. Women follow you in with buckets to rid yourself of the heavy mud. I felt like I was in a retirement home and having someone bathe me. They are pretty aggressive in terms of taking off your clothes as well to make sure everything is clean and wait until you tell them you are ready to get out.

After everything is all said and done, everyone wants a tip. You will need to tip the guy who held your stuff/took pictures (I tipped him the most because he took about 30 great photos), the guys who massaged you and the women who cleaned you. I don’t think you need to have any or all of these services, but it is pretty much implied.

Even though you are in the mud for a short period of time, it was well worth the experience. How many times can you say you took a mud bath in a volcano? If you are not on a tight budget, I would recommend going through an organized tour group to get to and from the mud bath as its not the easiest trek on your own without your own car.