Indonesia 2010

Saturday16October

5 AM. Here we are at the foot of the Kawah Ijen volcano.
This will remain my best memory of this trip, not for the volcano, although very beautiful, but for those called the "sulfur carriers" (pencari in Indonesian), also named "sulfur miners" or even "sulfur convicts".

Convict is undoubtedly the most accurate word. Within the crater itself, where the most acidic lake in the world remains, men extract blocks of sulfur, results of the crystallization of the mineral contained in the fumaroles escaping from the volcano. In addition to the fumes that attack their lungs, they carry an average of 80 kilos on their shoulders for 2 km, and all this on the crater's flank. To give an idea, it took me 1h30 to cover the easy part, and not without difficulty... And of course, I only had my camera to carry.....

The starting point of the ascent

"Selamat Datang", welcome in Indonesian

The understanding is quite cordial between tourists and miners. It allows them to have a less boring day. With each ascent to the crater, new encounters, new faces. Some improvise themselves as guides, and with luck, if there is remuneration, they might avoid one more round trip with sulfur on their back.
This is what Imam will do, in a yellow t-shirt in the photo, who will take us under his wing and accompany us to the top!

Halfway, miners can take a break in these sheds to weigh their load.

The opportunity for us to test the weight of the baskets... Personally, I couldn't lift them a single millimeter...

The two loads weigh on average 80 kilos... Imam will demonstrate to us that it is indeed possible to lift them... Despite an apparent ease, these balancing baskets dig into their shoulders and truly bruise them. Imam will show us his impressive scars left by years of carrying.

To convince yourself, I invite you to go see this photo of Imam, taken in May 2009 by Life magazine:
www.life.com

Panorama on the Gunung Raung volcano located about twenty kilometers west of Kawah Ijen.

Discussion with Imam and a tourist coming from Bali. And yes, it's not just westerners who take vacations!

And between two conversations, what isn't my surprise to learn that Imam is on Facebook! In a flash, I ask him to write his address on my phone! In exchange I promise to send him some photos!

In the background, the Rante volcano (gunung Ranti) 4 km southwest.

The summit approaches, the vegetation changes abruptly.

And here we are at the very top of the crater. Clouds of acid gas arrive straight from the bottom of the crater according to the whim of the wind. Imam strongly advises us to protect our mouths with cloth to avoid breathing these fumes too much.

Imam refuses to let us go down to the bottom of the crater where miners extract sulfur. Too dangerous... He will therefore take us even higher on the other side of the crater from where we can see the "solfatara" (the place where sulfur comes out).

No special protection for the miners. Only scarves and simple rubber boots...

Imam and Imam's basket.

Continuing the walk, we skirt the edge of the crater and can start to see the lake as a whole as well as the solfatara right on its edge.

Imam is full of surprises. On the last slope, he starts a song typical of the region. I follow him, camera in hand, up to the magnificent landscape that will be revealed to us!

Zoom on the solfatara:
It is here, stuck between the acid lake and the fumaroles just as dangerous, that with crowbars, miners get the sulfur blocks out. Every moment spent here decreases their health a little more. This risk-taking is motivated by the salary they will earn. They are paid per kilo and if the quantity brought back is sufficient, they will be able to get better remuneration than if they had stayed in the valley. And above all, this salary will allow them to better support their family...

Imam fully enjoys this good time spent away from the sulfur. One senses an artistic streak in him. Besides being an excellent singer, he will take pleasure in taking photos of the volcano with our cameras. One senses that he loves this volcano, that he finds it beautiful. And he loves sharing it with us.

And here are all 7 of us! It's this same photo that I subsequently sent to Imam that you can find on his blog! Hey yes, because besides being a singer, photo taker and facebooker, he also has his own blog! He actually recounts in a few lines this morning spent with us! You can also learn much more about him!
imamijen.wordpress.com

While I ask them to stand back to back forming a circle, I rotate around them and we suddenly plunge into the 4th dimension. No doubt, a rift in space-time due to the acid atmosphere of Kawah Ijen... 

That's all well and good, but we have to leave and go all the way back!

In the crater, men bring up sulfur by a perilous and dangerous steep path.
Hard to believe that such conditions exist in the 21st century... And yet, it is right there before our eyes...

And there, we leave behind us, Imam and the sulfur carriers. Memorable day. Thank you Imam!  

We hit the road again (very stony. We will have to get out to lighten the van...) to reach the East coast and the ferry that will take us to the island of Bali.

On the road, we make a small stop in a coffee plantation

Coffee flowers and beans