English Corner

Ijen Crater dan Pesonanya

Senin, 7 Februari 2022, 17:35 WIB

Dibaca 924

On the top of ijen crater

Irawaty Thahir

Penulis

As a woman, it is challenging to travel through Indonesia with a backpack on your shoulders, the money you have saved for months, courage and self-confidence, and friendship is the key to a successful trip. I also proved this when several times I tried exotic places in Indonesia. in 2014 after opening lonely planet I found a piece of paradise in Banyuwangi, finally in 2015 I had the opportunity to see how the steep, winding, climbing route. climbs with the sulfur miners. Well, that is my greatest gratitude so far, meeting, sharing stories with new faces that I met from hiking at the top of Ijen crater.

ijen volcano located on the border banyuwangi and bondowoso of east java. wellknown by its BLUE FIRE, acidic crater lake and labour intensive sulfur mining. that time hike with mostly foreign people. we were so glad to meet each other, and i was hosted by my fellow friends from jember. they travel from jember to banyuwangi to company me to see the blue fire. we hiked in the middle of the night around 2am, they told me, blue fire is best to see at the dawn. and yes.... its extraordinary things i have seen so far in my whole life. ijen crater is an active volcano mountain. it is unpredictable, dan dangerous. watch your step and focused is the key of hiking this place.

you may only see in photos, thousand man put their lives in danger everyday mining the toxic sulphur from inside ijen crater. they dont have a choice. thats the only way the can earn money fro their families. do children go to scholl???? nope. they need to help their families. to buy rice and daily needs. this stories torn me into pieces. and am grateful in the same time. we survive because we fight the live. we risk. surpsingly they dont have a better equipment and protection from the toxic sulphur, and back problem is the main things. the shoulder become lower-and lower with a crack on it. sadly some people dont reach 40 years of age due to health and lung damage after smoking gas of the sulphur.

they carried 50-80 kilo gram on their basket and travel back up. a lot of struggle on their shoulder. most of the miner make two or three trips per day. can you imagine carried 50 kilogram on their basket, and hike fro two or three hours????

i stop asking question after listen to their stories. i cried and my friend told me to go up and take some pictures of the blue fire, the scenery is best in the dawn. around 5 in the morning until 7. drank coffee and make a notes of the trips, i decided to go down and make my self believe, all the people in the world struggle everyday with their own pain. the stories may be different but i hope the grateful will always the same. aaamiiin