MT. BROMO

MAY 21, 2024

Today, we woke up at 2:00am for a 2:30am departure for Mt. Bromo.

Mt. Bromo is a pretty spectacular place, and there are a lot of tourists who want to take part in the sunrise viewing at the top. Tourists anywhere are annoying. We all have stories to share of that one tourist or group of tourists who………(fill in the blank). And certainly we know Americans are at the top of the annoying tourist stories. However, I have to say that what I found most annoying about all the tourists here is the number of them who smoke. Who still smokes? Don’t they know it’s horrible for you?

I digress.

To take tourists to the top to view the sunrise, jeeps are hired. Once you get to as far as you can go by jeep and that all depends on what time you were able to get out the door because the earlier you leave the closer to the top you can park. Once the sun rises and all the tourists have gotten their selfies with the volcano in the background you may be walking a mile or two down unless you wish to wait until it’s your jeeps turn to move.

After you park at the top, you wait at ‘roadside’ cafes for the right time to go to the viewing area. Here you drink delicious Indonesian coffee and eat fried bananas while you inhale second hand smoke at 4:00am. After sunset and tiring of the cigarette smoke, we walked down past the line of jeeps lined up along the roadway to get to where we could meet our driver again who took us into the crater. There we parked and walked across the ‘sand sea’ to stairs to take us up to another crater. Here, I bought some dried flowers. Locals buy these flowers to throw into the volcano ans ann offering, tourists often buy them to take home. I bought an arrangement and threw them in the volcano for Walker.

Some facts about Mt. Bromo:

Mt. Bromo sits inside the massive Tengger caldera (volcanic crater with a diameter approximately 10km), surrounded by the Laut Pasir (sea of sand) of fine volcanic sand. It is 2,329 meters above sea level and last erupted in 2016. The name Bromo is said to derive from Brama (Brahma), a Hindu God. Until now, Mt. Bromo is still considered a holy place for Hindus, making it a location for the annual Yadnya Kasada or Kasodo ceremony. People around Mount Bromo will celebrate the Kasodo festivals annually by presenting offerings like vegetables, chickens and money dedicated to the Gods and thrown into the crater of Mount Bromo as an entity of gratitude to the Almighty.

SOURCE: https://authentic-indonesia.com/activities/the-bromo-volcano/

There are ~300 volcanoes in Indonesia, ~129 of them are active.