Jenny, Ash, and I decide on a rustic Spa day at a phenomena of which there are 700 in the world but few this large.  Via taxi about 45 minutes into the Colombian countryside towards Barranquilla is El Volcan del Totumo, a large mud volcano of geo-excreted liquids and gases. Hot water mixes with mud and organic matter beneath the Earth crust, then deposits. . Temperatures are much cooler than igneous volcanos and the gas bubbling up is methane or helium mixes.   

Looks gross, feel great experience. Its an odd village setup. Turn off the highway and stalls/stands spring up with vendors lounging in the sun.. babies & dogs running around. Like a village beneath a big gray colored 80 ft ant-hill as their temple.

UGH !! I left the battery charging in the hotel to the small Fuji water proof camera. Worse, as I then take my Sony Bloggie mini-cam out of its case, its touchscreen buttons format the entire hard drive on its own. I just lost our entire vacation to date!  This will be a challenge to record. 

 A rickety staircase coated in the gray mud-matter climbs to top. We buy our 5000 peso tickets and a group of young men escort us to the top where we have a view of the countryside, a large lake, and a grueling , churning, bubbling pit of BLECH !!    Ash goes in first, helped by a pleasant gentleman. These guys aren't flirty, intimidating or pushy, in fact, we felt they were very careful and safety conscious. Guidebooks talk about them "massaging" but its mostly rubbing mud on you and squeezing your calves/feet. I ask them to find Shakira to massage me, and one jokingly tells me he'll get her and be back. One-by-one we back down the ladder, lay down, and are pushed around until we get the feel of the weightlessness and buoyancy.  The guys tell us the geothermic sources originates 200 meters deep and, in theory...someone could sink all the way down. 

  Am surprised that a young local takes my Sony Bloggie and figures out how to focus, zoom and record on/off...then also how to snap shots.   We get pictures + video !

The mud smells neutral-fresh w/ slight mineral note. Very clean. It's creamy and fluid/oozey. Taste bland as we dip our faces and then wipe out of eyes/nose/mouth.   We have a blast bouncing up & down , sitting on the big gas bubbles, and then finally climb out to scrap off and wash in the adjoining lake.  

Local ladies with buckets go to work scrubbing the girls, modestly removing their tops underwater. I do a running dive past 2 of them and splashdown to shake out my own suit deeper. They seem concerned....and I swim back. Allow them a few dumps of bucket water on my head and run get the girls change of clothes.   They ask for 5000 peso per person ( a day's wage for many Colombianos) and then I pay my photographer 30000 pesos to split with his guys.   Squeaky clean and I even brought Q-Tips for our ears. We dry off and head back after buying a bottle of the therapeutic mud for 2000 pesos.      What luxury !!

KEY: Our own Taxi for $90 round trip enabled us to get there and back early in the morning.
Not as hot at 9 a.m and no bus-loads of tourists to wait for shared space in the mud volcano. We had a private tour then saw many buses on the road returning.