Gunung Bromo

Whew, this is a lot of writing.

SO Gunung means mountain. Gunung Bromo is a CRAZY AWESOME VOLCANO. Part of a series of crazy awesome volcanoes within a larger crater. Don't feel like detailing it all here, but man was it awesome. I stayed on the edge of the crater and went for early morning walks. I saw the whole sunrise business and found another crater where I spelt my name out on the crater floor in big volcanic rocks. Ooodles of fun times.

Could have ridden in jeeps or on horses but chose my feet as usual. Crazy. The farmers up there are hard working, of course, even clever (I thought because I wouldn't have thought of it) to plant their crop rows on angles so they never had to walk straight up the crater wall. The weather up there was great. At night you copuld see the lightning flashes of the storms moving around the crater's edge, but we were high enough to avoid most of them. And watching various mists and clouds roll in. So much fun!

The pictures will tell it all I'm sure (because I sure did take a lot). The frustrating thing with places like that is every point in the day with the changning light I'm always wondering, should I take another one now???? I should get a digital and for my sanity I think I will have to before my next trip. Take 400 pics then loook at them and edit them down. AWESOME!

On my way up the hill I made the silly error of opening my bag in the dark van and my sunglasses must have fallen out then. Possessions are fleeting and they really should have been lost or broken before now, but it's still frusttrating. It happened when the bus driver was trying to convince me I would enjoy staying in a hotel 2km down from the crater rim. I stuck to my guns and was driven up without too much hassle, but the glasses, oh the tragedy!