Ijen and the Acid Lake

It's amazing. I have been back from vacation for 2 months and am still blogging about it. OK enough is enough. I am making it my mission to finish up on Bali ( I haven't even gotten to the monkeys yet ) and get back to talking about China by the end of next week! Hold me to it- OK?


SO, one would think walking three km to get to the top of a volcano would be no big deal. The people at the bottom of the trail told us it would take an hour and a half. WRONG.

The trek took Anais and I three hours. It was not a fun three hours. Surprisingly, I was the one setting the pace. I know, push your jaws back up cause I am sure they just dropped to the floor.


Sorry to call you out Anais, but your skinny ass slowed mine down. Perhaps it was because she didn't eat the butter and chocolate sprinkle sandwich that I did for breakfast. Anyways, after a not-fun hike, we finally arrived at the top of Ijen- an active volcano on the eastern side of the island of Java.

We had to wear masks, sprinkled with perfume, because Ijen is a sulfur volcano. Sulfur stinks- bad. Despite the smell and the hike- the view made the suffering totally worth it.


By the time you get to the top, the water below looks so tempting you just want to jump in it. I would avoid that however, as it is the world's most "highly acidic lake". Of course if you hike all the way up a damn mountain, there really is no point in just looking at what's in the center of a volcano if you can hike down into it. Plus, I really wanted to touch that acidic turquoise water. Who wouldn't?

Plus, there was something else going on down there that I just had to check out- a sulfur mining operation. That's right, people were down there collecting bright yellow chunks of sulfur. When the wind blew the right way, we could seem them even though they looked liked ants.

I knew the hike down would be tough. Anais and I really only packed a bottle of water and perfumed masks. There was no food or first aid kit in our pack (duh us). The rocks were jagged and the trail almost invisible. Still- I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. Hah impending death- I laugh in your face!


I'm glad I didn't die. These men were mining sulfur by hand. I shot a video on my camera to explain the process. You can watch it by clicking here.

And then I also shot this video- just in case you can't get enough. I knew I couldn't. I mean- I was standing in a live volcano!!!


These guys mine this stuff by hand. Once they get enough sulfur to fill up their baskets, they head out of the crater and back up Ijen. Some understood English and we were able to have a conversation about their work.

We were told that their load weighs about 70 kg or about 150 pounds. I believe it as this stuff was heavy. They make the trip down to the pit, out and down the mountain only to go back up again- twice a day. Some were wearing shoes such as flip flops others were walking with just their bare feet.

Because of the weight, several had built up a large hump of muscle on their right shoulder, behind their necks. This is where the weight of the basket sat.

For all this hard work, they earned about 8 U.S. dollars per day. It really puts my job complaints into perspective.

Because the job is so demanding, many take energy boosters. We saw wrappers like this one littering the trail. The guys say they stay on the mountain for a week carrying their loads of sulfur, then go home to their families on the weekend.

I am not sure what they drink as water from the lake is too acidic.

Normal people would think to themselves, "Hmm, most acidic lake in the world- better stay away if I don't want my skin to melt off my bones."

I, however, think: "I can't not touch it. So curious. Must. Go. To. Water." And so I did. I stuck a finger in slowly hoping not to lose some of it. Oddly enough, it did burn, but my skin stayed in tact. It was like touching warm lemon juice. Only the spots on my skin that were slightly cut- burned. In fact, had I not touched the water, I wouldn't have noticed the scrapes incurred from my hike down the rocky cliff.

I can now cross-off "touching an acid lake inside an active volcano" from my bucket list.

I know this will never happen again in my life because the trip back out was pure and utter hell- something I promised myself to never go through again.

Running on little energy and not being able to breath because of all the sulfur smoke- I contemplated a life with the miners at the bottom of the crater. I knew I either had to keep hiking straight up or become their mistress. In moments of weakness, I contemplated the latter.

Nothing quite sums up my hell like this picture. Yes, I am flipping Anais the bird. How would you like it if someone took your picture after an hour on a StairMaster while you couldn't breathe?

We finally managed to get out of the damn volcano (my expletives were much more offensive at the time) but still had a 3 km hike back down. Our legs were shaking so badly that we got the giggles.

Exhaustion and lack of focus = Gretchen doing a face plant into the side of the mountain. Just like the horse-dog story, I was glad Anais was in front of me and didn't see what happened until after the fact.

I made it all the way up a mountain, into and out of a volcano and hadn't tripped once. Now, on the way back down, I step on one measly rock and am a goner. Par for the course I suppose. At least I didn't fall into the molten sulfur or acid lake- right?

Despite my complaints, I am glad and proud that I did this. Not my idea of a vacation, but well worth it.

Up next... monkeys!!!