Coveñas y Tolú

About 3 days after I got back from San Andrés, I headed out once again for another trip within Colombia. This time it would be my last major trip before I go back home to Canada in February. Over the 1st weekend in January I travelled to the caribbean coast with Leo, where we stayed in Coveñas and Tolú. This is a big tourist spot for Colombians to vacation because it´s cheap and has a really hot climate.

I was definitely really nervous about our trip to the coast, because we were going by bus.... and if you remember my trip to Bogotá ... you can understand my nervousness. Thankfully, the bus ride was quite pleasant and took the 10 hours it was suppose to. :)

We were staying in a hotel for the weekend that was located right on the beach. Our first day there (Saturday morning), we had to sit and wait around for a bit before our rooms were ready, but then we ate some breakfast and spent the day at the beach. It obviously wasnt anything spectacular like San Andrés, but it was still a beach, with warm water, and beautiful sunshine. Good enough! (Ps. after San Andrés, I think ive become a beach/water snob).




In the night we headed to Tolú, a small town about 15 km from Coveñas to walk around, eat some dinner, and do a traditional bici-taxi tour (a bicycle taxi, which is the main method of transportation in Tolú).


However the best part of the trip was on Sunday when we headed to the mud volcano!! Leo and I almost went to the mud volcano while we were in Cartagena, but it ended up being farther from the city than we initially thought so we never went. But luckily we had the opportunity to visit one in Coveñas!!! It was probably the grossest yet most fun thing Ive ever done. Basically it´s a giant pit of mud, and you bath in it. It has supposed health benefits for your skin etc, but we did it just for fun. Walking into the mud initially was so gross, the feeling between your toes, and as the mud climbs up your body was... interesting to say the least. Check out this pic, to summarize how it felt:



Once we were fully in the mud it was great. I now know how a pig feels on a hot summer day and why they lay in mud, it keeps your body really cool! Though youre in a semi-liquid, it was incredibly hard to move around in the pit. You couldnt exactly swim, you had to pull yourself through the pit by a rope.





After spending about 45 min - an hour in the pit, we were COVERED from head to toe in mud. And how, might you ask, do you get all the mud off your body? You head to the showering station where Costeñan women bath you under a shower apparatus, they do a good job too. After showering for about 10 min you are clean again, and boy does it feel good to be clean.

Here´s a before and after picture of me and leo:




After the mud volcano, we spent the rest of the day at the beach soaking up as much sun as we could before we headed back to Medellín. It was a short visit to the coast, but good none-the-less. I was able to still maintain my tan I had from San Andrés, relax in the caribbean sea, and bath in a mud volcano. Definitely a successsful weekend.