This Battered Suitcase
  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Around the Web
    • Contact
  • Start Here
  • Destinations
    • Africa
      • Botswana
      • Egypt
      • Kenya
      • Morocco
      • Namibia
      • Rwanda
      • South Africa
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Zambia
    • Asia
      • Bhutan
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Israel
      • Japan
      • Laos
      • Macau
      • Malaysia
      • Mongolia
      • Myanmar
      • Nepal
      • The Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Sri Lanka
      • South Korea
      • Thailand
      • UAE
      • Vietnam
    • Europe
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Bulgaria
      • Croatia
      • Cyprus
      • Czechia
      • Denmark
      • England
      • Estonia
      • Finland
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Hungary
      • Iceland
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Latvia
      • Liechtenstein
      • Lithuania
      • Luxembourg
      • Malta
      • Monaco
      • Netherlands
      • Northern Ireland
      • Norway
      • Poland
      • Portugal
      • Romania
      • Russia
      • San Marino
      • Scotland
      • Slovakia
      • Slovenia
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • Turkey
      • Vatican City
      • Wales
    • North America
      • Antigua and Barbuda
      • Barbados
      • Belize
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Cuba
      • Dominican Republic
      • Grenada
      • Guatemala
      • Honduras
      • Jamaica
      • Nicaragua
      • Mexico
      • Panama
      • St. Kitt’s and Nevis
      • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
      • USA
    • Oceania
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Bolivia
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
      • Uruguay
  • Topics
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Lifestyle
    • Opinions
    • Romance
    • Stories
    • Travel
    • Writing and Blogging
  • Work With Me

This Battered Suitcase

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Around the Web
    • Contact
  • Start Here
  • Destinations
    • Africa
      • Botswana
      • Egypt
      • Kenya
      • Morocco
      • Namibia
      • Rwanda
      • South Africa
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Zambia
    • Asia
      • Bhutan
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Israel
      • Japan
      • Laos
      • Macau
      • Malaysia
      • Mongolia
      • Myanmar
      • Nepal
      • The Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Sri Lanka
      • South Korea
      • Thailand
      • UAE
      • Vietnam
    • Europe
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Bulgaria
      • Croatia
      • Cyprus
      • Czechia
      • Denmark
      • England
      • Estonia
      • Finland
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Hungary
      • Iceland
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • Latvia
      • Liechtenstein
      • Lithuania
      • Luxembourg
      • Malta
      • Monaco
      • Netherlands
      • Northern Ireland
      • Norway
      • Poland
      • Portugal
      • Romania
      • Russia
      • San Marino
      • Scotland
      • Slovakia
      • Slovenia
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • Turkey
      • Vatican City
      • Wales
    • North America
      • Antigua and Barbuda
      • Barbados
      • Belize
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Cuba
      • Dominican Republic
      • Grenada
      • Guatemala
      • Honduras
      • Jamaica
      • Nicaragua
      • Mexico
      • Panama
      • St. Kitt’s and Nevis
      • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
      • USA
    • Oceania
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Bolivia
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
      • Uruguay
  • Topics
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Lifestyle
    • Opinions
    • Romance
    • Stories
    • Travel
    • Writing and Blogging
  • Work With Me
Travel

Mud Baths of Colombia

written by Brenna Holeman August 2, 2012

Mud Baths of Colombia 6 Mud Baths of Colombia 5 Mud Baths of Colombia 4 Mud Baths of Colombia 3 Mud Baths of Colombia 2 Mud Baths of Colombia 1

Kerri and I have been in Cartagena for nearly five days now, after sailing into the harbour on Sunday. The sailing trip – from Panama to Colombia – was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done, and it merits many of its own posts (which will come eventually). Today, however, is about the craziness that occurred yesterday, just outside this little Caribbean colonial town.

The city is hot, very hot. Situated on the sea, it is a beautiful place filled with strange fruit and massive fortresses and colourful buildings. The people are full of music, the sky full of sun. Attempting to break up the week we’re spending here, we decided to head to the beach Playa Blanca for some always-needed, always-wanted swimming. By late Tuesday night, however, we had heard a few mixed reviews about the tours going there. “What about a mud volcano tour?” I asked Kerri. As with most things we encounter on our travels together, it took us about 30 seconds to agree that, yes, we should indeed cover our bodies with volcanic mud.

The tour on Wednesday morning had a frustrating start – we had to drive around the city to pick up what seemed like dozens of Colombian families (in actuality there were probably only about 20 people on our bus). After an hour’s drive, we reached the “volcano”…a giant mud hill on the bank of a river. I turned to Kerri, slightly perplexed. Turns out this was not the last time our faces would meet in utter confusion.

We climbed the 30-odd steps or so, equipped with only our cameras and our bikinis. Upon reaching the top, we stared, bug-eyed – the mud bath was a writhing, slithering mass of bodies, and much smaller than I thought it would be. We were helped into the pit and literally had to slide around; with zero control of our bodies and with no bottom to stand on, you were at the complete mercy of the bobbing people around you. “Is that your foot???” we asked each other (and more than once, I might add).

It was bizarre, so bizarre. We laughed and laughed, turning to each other constantly to squeal and squirm and to help each other right our out-of-control limbs. We opted out of the massages being offered, choosing to pour mud on our own heads and shoulders instead. By the end, only my eyes and mouth were devoid of the thick, gray sludge. We climbed out slowly, our bodies heavier and feet slippery, and we snapped a thousand photos of our ridiculous selves with the GoPro.

After descending the volcano, we walked to the nearby river to wash off; there, even though we insisted that we were fit to wash ourselves, Colombian women surrounded us and doused us vigorously with water. Faster than lightning, they had removed our bikinis and were scrubbing our bodies in full view of any other mud-covered human (though everyone seemed to respect the no-looking rule). Minutes later, we staggered to the riverbank, our skin clean and moderately softer, our eyes wide in amusement, our mouths agape in slight shock.

“What… just… happened?” Kerri asked me.

>I turned to look at her, and, before I could utter a reply, we both burst into hysterical laughter.

Tours to the mud volcano can be arranged through your accomodation (in our case, Mamallena’s hostel) and should cost about 30,000 pesos (approximately $15). This tour included a stop at a nearby beach, though we opted out of lunch, which would have added another 10,000 pesos to the tab.

*Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!*

ColombiaFun With CamerasSouth America
12 comments
1
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Brenna Holeman

Brenna Holeman has travelled to over 100 countries in the past 15 years, many of them solo. She's a big fan of whisky and window seats.

previous post
Locas Bocas
next post
A Love Letter to Cartagena

You may also like

Happy In Myanmar

January 18, 2012

Bergamo in the Rain

November 13, 2015

Tips For Feeling Fashionable While You Travel

March 24, 2012

The Colours Of San Juan del Sur

July 16, 2012

Best of London: London Cru

March 19, 2014

She’s A Rainbow

April 6, 2012

Around the World: Coffee

July 31, 2013

Volcano Boarding in León, Nicaragua

January 21, 2014

Mediterranean Dreams

July 20, 2010

Making Friends In Bhaktapur

September 13, 2011

12 comments

Katie @ Domestiphobia.net August 3, 2012 - 12:16 am

INCREDIBLE! And creepy. And INCREDIBLE!

Reply
Tom August 3, 2012 - 5:55 am

Well at least everyone respected the no-looking rule!

This sounds absolutely bizarre yet wonderfully fun at the same time. I’ll consider it when I’m in Colombia next year 🙂

Reply
Christine loves to Travel August 3, 2012 - 2:41 pm

It is the weirdest feeling not being able to touch the ground/bottom. It really freaked me out at first.

Reply
[Ali] To Be Continued... August 3, 2012 - 7:29 pm

This looks SO much fun! I may have to do this myself when I get down to Colombia 🙂 xx

Reply
Rika August 3, 2012 - 9:35 pm

Wow – crazy! Looks fun but not sure how I’d feel about not being able to touch the bottom. You guys got some great shots with that GoPro camera!

Reply
liveletlive August 3, 2012 - 10:05 pm

lol what an experience!

Reply
This Battered Suitcase August 4, 2012 - 4:09 am

Thank you for all of your comments! It certainly was a crazy (but fun) day…

Reply
This Battered Suitcase August 4, 2012 - 4:10 am

p.s. Tom and Ali, you should TOTALLY do it when you’re in Colombia!

Reply
Shannon Hope March 5, 2013 - 1:29 pm

I’m currently staying across the street from Mamallena at the Media Luna (yuck) as they didn’t have availablity at short notice, but we are doing the mud volcano tour in 2 days and I could not be more excited thanks to your post and other hilarious reviews of this activity! can’t wait 🙂

Reply
This Battered Suitcase March 7, 2013 - 3:44 am

Ahhh! Have fun! It’s such a bizarre experience…

Reply
joe February 17, 2016 - 12:51 am

Did anyone go completely under the mud?

Reply
Brenna Holeman February 17, 2016 - 10:58 am

Not that I remember!

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Me

About Me

Hi, I'm Brenna

My name is Brenna Holeman and I drink a lot of whisky. No, wait. That’s not how I want to start. After travelling to more than 100 countries over the past 15 years, many of them solo, I tend to write about travel a lot, but I write about other things, too: getting dumped, buying way too much jewellery, and yeah, OK, whisky (none of those things are related, I swear). You’ll find a mix of advice, opinion pieces, and stories on this blog, but either way, I hope to make you want to read more. And up next? I'm about to become a single mom to a beautiful baby boy, the biggest solo adventure I've ever been on. For more about me and what you'll find on This Battered Suitcase, click here .

Keep in touch

facebook
instagram
twitter
pinterest
youtube

Newsletter

Subscribe to get the latest updates from This Battered Suitcase!

Archives

INSPIRATION

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - Jack Kerouac

About Brenna

This Battered Suitcase is not only about the where and the how of travel, it's about the who and the why.

Originally from Canada, all I've ever wanted to do is travel. After eleven years of solo travel and over 90 countries, I'm currently living in London and fulfilling my other dream of becoming a writer. If I'm not travelling, I'm writing about it, either for my blog, my job, or my book. I firmly believe there is adventure everywhere, so long as you keep your eyes (and your mind, and your heart) open. Join me as I continue to look for these adventures. Hopefully you'll find your own, too.

For more, click here.

WHERE AM I?

Last stops: Manitoba, Canada

Currently: Manitoba, Canada

Up Next: Manitoba, Canada (are you sensing a theme?)

Archives

Want local knowledge about Manitoba?

AFFILIATE POLICY

Please note that some links on This Battered Suitcase are affiliates (at no extra cost to you); I only recommend products I use and love. This Battered Suitcase is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

INSPIRATION

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - Jack Kerouac

Currently in

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA

Last Stops: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Up Next:  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

(AKA: STAY HOME)

Disclosures

This Battered Suitcase is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.com. For the full disclosure/privacy policy, please click here.

Popular Posts

  • 1

    On Ghosting (and what to do if it happens to you)

    August 8, 2016
  • 2

    What to Wear in Canada in Winter

    February 28, 2018
  • 3

    What to Wear in India

    December 15, 2014
  • 4

    Giraffe Manor: Is It Worth The Cost?

    November 22, 2017
Promotion Image

The Last time I saw you

Promotion Image

What to wear

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube

@2018 - All Rights Reserved


Back To Top
 

Loading Comments...