Mud Magic: Inside Trinidad’s bubbling landscape

Natasha Said­wan

Pro­duc­tion Ed­i­tor

natasha.said­wan@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad is home to more than 20 mud vol­ca­noes, with the vast ma­jor­i­ty oc­cu­py­ing the south­ern re­gion of the is­land. While the ex­act num­ber varies, what is cer­tain is that these ge­o­log­i­cal fea­tures hold im­mense sci­en­tif­ic, ed­u­ca­tion­al, eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al, and recre­ation­al im­por­tance.

Ac­cord­ing to The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) Seis­mic Re­search Cen­tre, mud vol­ca­noes are not ac­tu­al­ly “re­al” vol­ca­noes at all. They are ac­tu­al­ly vents or frac­tures cre­at­ed by nat­ur­al gas es­cap­ing from deep un­der­ground. As the gas slow­ly push­es its way to the sur­face, it brings along wa­ter, salts, and oil, even­tu­al­ly build­ing up mounds of mud.

The First Peo­ples orig­i­nal­ly called them “guaico,” mean­ing mud-stream.

We re­fer to them as a “bouffe” (French for swelling), “morne,” or “yard.”

Oc­ca­sion­al­ly, these sites can erupt vi­o­lent­ly, throw­ing rocks and de­bris hun­dreds of feet in­to the air—as has hap­pened at the Brick­field mud vol­cano in Tabaquite, Dev­il’s Wood­yard in New Grant, and the fa­mous Pi­paro site.

Our mud vol­ca­noes vary in struc­ture.

At the Dig­i­ty Mud Vol­cano in Debe, the mud is dry, which caus­es it to stack in­to a clas­sic, con­i­cal vol­cano shape. Mean­while, at Lagon Bouffe and Erin Bouffe, wide, lake-like pools ex­ist, en­cour­ag­ing ac­tive geo-tourism through­out the year.

In­ter­est­ing­ly, while the south-west­ern penin­su­la of Trinidad is lit­tered with these fea­tures, there are no es­tab­lished mud vol­ca­noes in To­ba­go.

To­day, let’s ex­plore six of the is­land’s more pop­u­lar mud sites.

Lagon Bouffe

Tucked deep in­side the Guayagua­yare for­est is Lagon Bouffe.

Lo­cat­ed along Ed­ward Trace, via Moru­ga—and al­so ac­ces­si­ble on­ly 19 min­utes from the Guayagu­yare Sea Wall via Ma­yaro—this is one of our most strik­ing sites with one of the largest tas­sik (that clear­ing that sur­rounds a mud vol­cano).

De­spite the con­di­tions, it is home to di­verse flo­ra and fau­na. An­i­mals live in the shal­low mud and wa­ter slur­ry: one can see small gup­pies, birds such as herons, deer and, if you’re lucky, even spec­ta­cled caimans.

The dri­ve is bet­ter suit­ed to 4×4 ve­hi­cles and vans, rough and un­du­lat­ing in most ar­eas, and for the avid ad­ven­tur­er, there is a near­by wa­ter­fall and the pic­tureque Pi­lote Riv­er in close prox­im­i­ty.

Pi­paro Mud Vol­cano

This mud vol­cano car­ries a vi­o­lent his­to­ry.

In Feb­ru­ary 1997, it erupt­ed, spew­ing mud and de­bris 200 feet in­to the air and cov­er­ing an area of 2.5 square kilo­me­tres. More than 300 peo­ple were evac­u­at­ed, 31 fam­i­lies were dis­placed, ex­ten­sive dam­age was done to prop­er­ties and ve­hi­cles, and pets and live­stock were killed.

Then, in De­cem­ber 2025, gas­es and large chunks of mud be­gan spew­ing out of the vol­cano’s vent, caus­ing earth move­ment that dam­aged near­by hous­es, dis­rupt­ed wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply to some res­i­dents and col­lapsed sec­tions of some sur­round­ing roads.

Mon­i­tored by The UWI Seis­mic Re­search Cen­tre for ac­tiv­i­ty, this mud vol­cano re­mains a cau­tion­ary tale about po­ten­tial haz­ards.

Dev­il’s Wood­yard

Lo­cat­ed in Hin­dus­tan in New Grant—ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15 min­utes by car from Princes Town—this is one of the more pop­u­lar his­tor­i­cal sites.

Ac­cord­ing to folk­lore, “The vol­canic site got its name af­ter its first erup­tion in 1852, which shook the en­tire vil­lage and felled the tall trees and fright­ened the Amerindi­an vil­lagers. Vil­lagers at the time be­lieved that the dev­il had come from be­neath the earth to fell the woods.”

Des­ig­nat­ed as a nat­ur­al land­mark, there are sev­er­al vents that pe­ri­od­i­cal­ly eject warm mud, gas­es, and oc­ca­sion­al­ly fos­sil ma­te­r­i­al. The most re­cent erup­tion was record­ed in Feb­ru­ary 2018, when mud was eject­ed to a height of 16 feet and the flow cov­ered an area of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2.7 acres.

The site is eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble by road, with a short un­paved path that leads to the main vol­canic vent area.

Dig­i­ty

This is lo­cat­ed at Dig­i­ty Vil­lage, Mon­key Town and can be ac­cessed eas­i­ly via Lal­be­har­ry Trace, Pe­nal or off the Pic­ton Es­tate Road. The vol­cano stands out dra­mat­i­cal­ly against the sur­round­ing agri­cul­tur­al lands as its cone is around 20 feet high, mak­ing it one of the largest in Trinidad.

Ge­ol­o­gists es­ti­mate the clay here to be over 11 mil­lion years old.

This is a fam­i­ly-friend­ly place as there are sev­er­al sheds and fa­cil­i­ties for group ac­tiv­i­ties.

L’Eau Michel

Mud Vol­cano

Al­so known as the Bun­see Trace mud vol­cano due to its lo­ca­tion in Pe­nal, near the coastal area of Ce­dros, this site of­fers a unique hands-on ex­pe­ri­ence for vis­i­tors, al­low­ing them to soak in its cool, ther­a­peu­tic mud, slide down the mud­dy slopes, and float in the pools.

Al­so called Lam­oshell, the site is ac­ces­si­ble via a dirt and grav­el road that pass­es through agri­cul­tur­al lands and teak forests.

From the start of Bun­see Trace, the hike to the crater takes ap­prox­i­mate­ly 20–30 min­utes through teak trees, ser­e­nad­ed by the sounds of howler mon­keys.

The clos­est rinse off is at L’Eau Michel Beach, al­so called Lam­oshell Beach, which is a 45 to 60-minute hike to­wards the south­ern coast.

The Bun­see Trace Mud Vol­cano is tru­ly a hid­den gem for ad­ven­ture seek­ers, of­fer­ing a com­bi­na­tion of nat­ur­al beau­ty, pro­vid­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for pic­nick­ing and hik­ing, mud bathing, and ac­cess to Trinidad’s south­ern coastal land­scapes.

Erin Bouffe Mud Vol­cano/ Los Iros Vol­cano Park

The sea­side vil­lage of Los Iros is home of the Erin Bouffe Mud Vol­cano, per­fect for any­one want­i­ng ad­ven­ture with­out a dif­fi­cult trek, as the mud vol­cano is a slow 10-minute walk away from your park­ing area.

Though the site lacks any in­fra­struc­ture, the ac­ces­si­bilty of Los Iros Vol­canic Park en­cour­ages fam­i­ly ad­ven­ture.

There is one large pool and sev­er­al small­er ones which have been mul­ti­ply­ing over the years. The mag­ic is the mud as its den­si­ty al­lows you to float to the sur­face. To top it all off, there’s a mud slide that takes you down the hill from the crater, just be pre­pared to walk back up!

A con­ve­nient rinse off is on­ly a 10 min­utes walk, a short dri­ve away, as the Los Iros beach is par­al­lel to the mud vol­cano road.

L’En­vieusse mud vol­ca­noes

Mud vol­ca­noes in Trinidad are not on­ly ge­o­log­i­cal phe­nom­e­na but al­so play a role in our spir­i­tu­al and cul­tur­al her­itage.

The Bal­ka De­vi Mud Vol­cano, part of the L’En­vieusse clus­ter, sit­u­at­ed near the Gal­fa coast­line in the vil­lage of Bonasse, Ce­dros, is one ex­am­ple.

Here, the Moth­er Bal­ka or Bal­ka De­vi is revered and wor­shipped as a god­dess by Hin­dus. There is a per­ma­nent mandir on site and each year it brings Hin­dus for a Bal­ka De­vi Fes­ti­val and pil­grim­age. Devo­tees be­lieve that Bal­ka De­vi Pu­ja seeks to re­store equi­lib­ri­um in the in­ner earth so that peo­ple can be pro­tect­ed from the vi­o­lent ef­fects of earth­quakes, vol­canic erup­tions, tsunamis, and fires. This site is open to vis­i­tors via book­ings.

Al­so on site is a mu­se­um with old im­mi­ga­tion doc­u­ments and items from our past.

The wider Ce­dros re­gion con­tains sev­er­al small­er mud vol­ca­noes, in­clud­ing those at Co­lum­bia Es­tate and San Quintin Es­tate.

For the ad­ven­tur­ers, tucked away there al­so WWII bunkers and the Gal­fa Mys­tery Tombs be­long­ing to for­mer plan­ta­tion own­ers which are over-200-year-old.

Some help­ful tips:

Avoid ven­tur­ing too far in­to the mud ponds. The dense mud can make move­ment dif­fi­cult

Since it’s the rainy sea­son, a quick weath­er check be­fore you head out is a must as wet trails can get in­cred­i­bly slip­pery and tricky for ve­hi­cles.

Bring suf­fi­cient wa­ter and snacks, and plan for a hike of 1–2 km just in case your car can’t make it all the way.

Al­ways re­spect the en­vi­ron­ment, car­ry out all trash and please avoid dam­ag­ing lo­cal flo­ra and fau­na.

Some of Trinidad’s mud vol­ca­noes are sit­u­at­ed at:

Pi­paro

Dig­i­ty, Debe

L’Eau Miche

New Grant, Princes Town

Lagon Bouffe, Guayagua­yare

Anglais Point

Erin

Chatam

Co­lum­bia Es­tate

Fullar­ton

Ce­dros

Gal­fa

Tabaquite