El Totumo mud volcano
A crater filled with warm mud where you float without sinking.
Duration
4 hrs – 6 hrs
Difficulty
●●○○○
Best time
Morning departure
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
El Totumo is a mud volcano: a cone some fifteen metres high whose crater holds grey mud pushed up by gases from below. It is dense enough that you cannot sink — you float on the surface effortlessly, and turning over is hard work.
Men from the village massage bathers in the crater and others wash visitors in the neighbouring pond; both expect a tip, and it is better to know that before climbing the ladder.
Getting there
An hour's drive north-east of Cartagena on the Barranquilla road. Organised trips with transport from the old town.
What the price covers
entry charged; massage, rinsing and minding your camera are each paid separately on site
What to bring
- Swimsuit
- Board
Rules on site
Massage, washing, minding your things and photos are all separately charged services, in cash and small notes: budget for them, as nobody warns you. The mud stains light swimwear permanently.
Other places in Cartagena
- The walled cityEleven kilometres of ramparts around streets of wooden balconies and bougainvillea.
- GetsemaníThe old working quarter outside the walls, its murals and its square full of musicians in the evening.
- Castillo San Felipe de BarajasThe largest Spanish fortress in the Americas, with its network of tunnels.
- Rosario IslandsA coral archipelago an hour away by boat, clear water and white beaches.