Soaking in it ... tourists laze in the volcanic mud.

Soaking in it ... tourists laze in the volcanic mud. Photo: Krzysztof Dydynski/Lonely Planet

After a dip in volcano mud, Shaney Hudson feels a little less over the hill.

I'M STANDING on the rim of an active volcano and I'm about to jump in. It's the sort of absurd situation you expect to see in a Looney Tunes cartoon showdown between the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

Or the sort of activity an extreme daredevil takes on. It's not the sort of thing you're supposed to sign up to do in real life. However, just an hour's drive from the historic port city of Cartagena in Colombia, I'm doing just that. Volcan de Lodo el Totumo is part of a chain of more than 50 volcanoes along the Caribbean Coast between Colombia and Venezuela.

Next to a mangrove-filled swamp, the 15-metre volcano has become a popular attraction for day-trippers, giving birth to a new kind of attraction: volcano dipping. While swimming in a volcano sounds extreme, it's actually more of a spa treatment.

The crater is filled with rich volcanic mud, the type you'd normally hand over a few hundred dollars to stew in at an expensive health resort. Here in northern Colombia, the locals will happily let you bathe in the mud for the equivalent of a few dollars.

The most extreme part of volcano dipping is negotiating the rickety stairs built against the volcanic cone to get to the crater's rim, which is reinforced with wooden planks. It looks as though someone has installed a wooden-framed swimming pool in the top of a giant ant hill, filled it with mud and crammed as in as many tourists as possible.

With a wrinkled nose and indignant little shimmy, I plonk into an empty space in the crater, splattering the people around me with mud. It's surprisingly buoyant and I develop a new-found compassion for worms as I try to wiggle deeper.

Once I settle, I'm quite content being stuck in the mud. Comfortably warm and with the consistency of thick cake batter, the mud is the colour of ash and is flecked with sediment. For anyone who sat in the dirt making mud pies as a child, it's the ultimate flashback. I sculpt my hair into a Marge Simpson-style up-'do, the girl next to me builds a mud castle on her boyfriend's head and there are more than a few mud-horned devils masquerading in the mire.

One by one, visitors enter the crater a little unsure of themselves and later emerge as playful mud monsters, covered head to toe in the muck. It's icky, sure, but it's good fun. Although reports of Lodo el Totumo's existence date to the 1800s, no one really knows just how old the volcano is. According to local myth,

Totumo was home to evil spirits who caused an eruption and filled the crater with red-hot lava. The spirit's naughty influence caused the local village to be consumed by sin. In retaliation, the local priest poured holy water into the crater, turning the lava into mud and drowning the devils in their lair.

A more scientific reason for mud volcanoes is due to the build-up of decaying organic matter underground. After frothing and fermenting with the heat of the Earth's core, pressure builds and a muddy mix bubbles to the surface. A crust then forms, which slowly grows into a volcanic cone as the mud continues to be pushed to the surface.

The therapeutic effects of such mud have yet to be proven but that hasn't stopped a unique cottage industry growing around the volcano. There are men who will massage you, women who will wash you (and your swimmers) while you shiver naked in the nearby swamp and, if you're feeling trustworthy, you can hand your camera to a bunch of local kids who will take blurry pictures of you in the crater.

Like any good commercial spa, volcano vendors offer the "medicinal" mud in reasonably priced take-home packs. Scooped fresh from the volcano of a morning is the 600-millilitre Gatorade bottle. Those wanting value for money can bargain hard for the two-litre Coca-Cola value pack.

The packaging lacks the trimmings offered at the beauty counter in David Jones but the price is right. And the verdict on the beauty benefits of volcano dipping? For the next few days, I'm blowing mud from my nose, scraping it from my ears and wiping it from places a lady shouldn't mention.

I wake up with muddy sleep pitted in the corners of my eyes and a lingering aroma of egg follows me wherever I go. But my hair is silky smooth and my skin glows; my complexion is clear and my face is wrinkle-free. And the mud gave me perhaps the best therapeutic benefit of all: it put a smile on my face.

Touring there: Day trips to Volcan de Lodo el Totumo can be arranged through local hotels and guesthouses in Cartagena and cost from $US35 ($39) for return transfers, entry and lunch at a nearby beach.

The volcano is about 16 kilometres north of Cartagena.

Staying there : Cartegena has everything from five-star to hostel stays go to hotelexcellence.com and check "Colombia" and "Cartagena".

Further information : The best time to visit Colombia is from December to March.

Source: The Sun-Herald