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Undoubtedly one of the most important things that a travel \u00a0can give is the accumulation of experiences, feelings and knowledge. On our trip to Indonesia we wanted to know and see a unique site that some of you may have seen in some documentaries. It is the work of miners who collected rocks of sulfur in the crater of the volcano Kawah Ijen.<\/p>\n
![\"IJEN-ANDREU](\"http:\/\/travelandreams.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IJEN-ANDREU-74-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>One of the miners\u00a0going up\u00a0from the bottom of the crater<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Kawah Ijen volcano is located in the region of Bayuwangi in the east of the island of Java in Indonesia. In the crater there is a lake of acid turquoise, about one km wide. Just beside the lake fumes vapor from inside the earth are channeled by pipes that condense and precipitate as liquid sulfur and the sulfur forming rocks that change color as they are cooled and subsequently charge the miners break and transport.<\/p>\n View\u00a0of the lake in the crater<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n A visit to the volcano and the climb to the top is a must if you are traveling to Java, the views are indescribable of the turquoise lake from the summit, but the trip has other aspects more important than the purely visual. The shore of the lake is the place where there are rocks sulfur extraction by a good group of miners.<\/p>\n Miners carrying sulfur rocks<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n From the base of the crater lake beside the miners transport, depending on the strength of each, between 75 and 100 kgs. rock sulfur into wicker baskets that load directly above the shoulders. Once loaded with this weight go up to the summit of the volcano by a distance of 700 mts saving a drop of almost 300 mts., Once they have reached the top three kilometers downstream to download the rocks.<\/p>\n Miner arriving to the summit of the volcano<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n I can assure you it’s the hardest job I’ve seen with my own eyes, the suffering of seeing them climb above the boulders without hardly marked path left me a sweet-sour taste after having enjoyed views so\u00a0precious.<\/p>\n The hardest part of the way to the summit<\/p><\/div>\n Badly dressed and even more poorly paid they even make a stop half way, where\u00a0they call cantina, there is\u00a0an item for mesuring the weigh of baskets (it’s a rudimentary system) and they get a certificate with the weight, later it could change the money earned. Each trip they earns\u00a0between 60,000 and 80,000 rupees (between 4 and 6 euros) dependent kgs. transported, some miners make two trips a day.<\/p>\n Some visitors resting<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Miners working next to the shore of the lake<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n If the job is tough in itself, you can imagine these men working with toxic fumes and gases a part of the inclement weather (rain, stifling heat, …) according to that times of the year. The acid crater lake of Ijen volcano is known as the most acid around the world due to the amount of sulfuric acid that is concentrated.<\/p>\n For this trip we leave the hotel very early in our case when we had gathered agreed with our guide was 4.00 in the morning. The ride to the parking where the walk begin took approximately one hour and a half because, although the distance in kms. is not very large, state of the roads forces do it fairly slow. When we arrived in the parking the light of day began to be present, after the required warnings we start walking uphill above. From the car park to the summit of the volcano in the distance are three kms. approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes or two hours, because the rise is still considerable hard,\u00a0the road presents no problem because it is good state, unless it rains in the season made impassable.<\/p>\n Sahari<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Throughout the climb we shared the road with two miners who began their working day, they were Madi and Sahari, which were counting us different stories and they\u00a0were taking photographs and also showing the best lookouts. Like all the people of Indonesia that we met were both very nice and cheerful. They knew that when we got to the top and they continued their journey to the bottom of the crater we would give them a tip and we did it, because it\u00a0is a very important complement of their miserable salary.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>