Kawah Ijen Minner

Kawah Ijen Minner - I tried to improve the scan quality but that's the best I could do, my poor old scanner is not coping with the tasks too well anymore, or I can't cope with PP well enough... So here's one of the miners from Kawah Ijen. They climb up the crater and then down to its acid lake 2-3 times a day, each time carrying back a weight of 70-80 kg of sulfur. And they earn several dollars a day...I saw a tall, muscular Italian guy try to lift the basket, he could hardly do this for several seconds, while the climbers have to cover about 3 km to the weighing point, including a steep and dangerous climb into and out of the crater. I only took a look down the path, and gave up...good thing my travel companion had more courage and got there to take some photos. It was only 10 a.m. and the sun was already very strong, my eyes hurt, but after all, we were actually over the clouds. The blue area in the background is the acid lake I was writing about. I was fascinated with the view of the crater and its torquise lake, but seeing the miners I thanked God I've been spared a life like theirs...
Indonesia
February 3, 2007 5:47am CST
I tried to improve the scan quality but that's the best I could do, my poor old scanner is not coping with the tasks too well anymore, or I can't cope with PP well enough... So here's one of the miners from Kawah Ijen. They climb up the crater and then down to its acid lake 2-3 times a day, each time carrying back a weight of 70-80 kg of sulfur. And they earn several dollars a day...I saw a tall, muscular Italian guy try to lift the basket, he could hardly do this for several seconds, while the climbers have to cover about 3 km to the weighing point, including a steep and dangerous climb into and out of the crater. I only took a look down the path, and gave up...good thing my travel companion had more courage and got there to take some photos. It was only 10 a.m. and the sun was already very strong, my eyes hurt, but after all, we were actually over the clouds. The blue area in the background is the acid lake I was writing about. I was fascinated with the view of the crater and its torquise lake, but seeing the miners I thanked God I've been spared a life like theirs...
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