Mt. Bromo

After a short 2 hours of sleep our alarms rang at 4am.  We strapped on our headlamps, put on our jackets, and met up with our Swiss friends.  We were Mount Bromo bound.  We knew the general direction but not the exact path, we just kept walking with some hope that we would miraculously end up on top of the volcano.  As we stepped onto the sand we entered complete darkness. 

I remember it being so foggy that we could only see inches in front of us. We stayed together not knowing if there were any drop-offs or cliffs and just kept onward into the darkness.  Thankfully a heaven sent local came out of no where with his dirt bike and led us the right direction.  As we approached the base of the volcano the sun was slowly approaching it's rise.  The sulfur was getting stronger at each step we took; and once we finally caught our breath and looked out towards the sunrise we realized we were sitting on top of the clouds. It was such a magical moment.  One of those moments that really hits you with a strong realization of where you are in life and what you've been blessed with.  Definitely a moment that I will remember forever.

Mount Bromo was directly behind us with only a few feet until its crater's descent.  I tried not to think of everything so logically because otherwise I would of probably had a panic attack. We were standing on the top of an active volcano with only a few feet to walk without falling in, now that is something I definitely didn't think I would be doing.  After an hour, our lungs began to burn and sting from breathing in all the sulfur so we decided to start heading back.  I'm so glad we made the effort to make a stop at Mt. Bromo, even though the 11+ bus ride to get there was the worst experience, we thought it was all worth it. This was the beginning to the craziest 3 days of our traveling with no sleep...