From Lovina we spent 14 hours traveling on local busses and a rickity old ferry to the city of Probolinggo on the island of Java. We had planned to go all the way to Bromo but decided to stop where we were and make the trip up the mountain in the morning. The Angot (local minivan) ride was worth doing in the daytime for the scenery alone but given the driver's crazy swerving on the mountain passes, we were also glad it was light outside!

Our first full day at Bromo we walked to the Gunung Bromo lookout - a 12 kilometer return walk with incredibly beautiful views of the mountains and surrounding villages. The terrain was rugged in places and the walk was challenging due to the altitude. (We climbed to over 9000 ft.) The best part of the walk was through the farming community surrounding the "resort" town of Cermoro Lewang. The farms have reclaimed much of the land on the sides of the mountains ・cabbages, onions and corn are sprouting from the earth at 45-degree angles! People were out in the fields picking, weeding and sowing (all by hand) and would always stop their work to shout a friendly, "Hello" with a wave and a big smile when we passed. From our experience so far, Indonesia has some of the friendliest people on earth.

That evening we dined at the poshest place in town・(Okay, Okay・so there weren't all that many choices!) in honor of our friends Melissa and Brian's wedding day! We were even lucky enough to find a beer and toasted to Melissa & Brian with a wish for a lifetime of happiness. Melissa & Brian --We sure wish we could have been in Texas with you to celebrate your big day, but please know that we are thinking of you from afar!

Also during our time at Bromo we completed the volcanic crater walk. Many tourist do this walk starting around 4 in the morning so that they can be at the summit at sunrise, but we just couldn't be asked. Besides, we saw the sunrise over Mt. Sinai in Egypt (February 8, 2004) with a large group of other tourist and although we didn't expect hymns and singing at Mt. Bromo, we weren't anxious to repeat the large group sunrise experience. Instead we rambed up the mountain after breakfast. The walk starts out across the lava plane created by the volcanic explosion and continues on a path up the side of the mountain ending with 250 steps to the top of the crater rim.

You literally walk right up to the top of the active volcano and peer over the side into the crater --that is, if you can breathe. Being an active volcano, there are all sorts of (undoubtedly toxic) gasses spewing from the bowels of the earth. The smell was acrid and sulpherous and it burnt your nose and mouth if the wind was blowing towards you. Our eyes watered and somewhere in the back of our minds we wondered what the heck we were doing so close to something so powerful. (We both doubt this is something you can experinece at Mt. St. Helens!) But it was awesome・we were looking into the crater of an active volcano!! And we wondered・is anyone monitoring this thing? (We didn't see anything that looked like monitoring equipment.)