We left our small room in Moni at 4 am and drove up the volcano Kelimutu located right next to the village to watch the sunrise. When we reached the parking area it was still dark and the sky was filled with hundreds of stars. Armed with a flashlight we headed up the remaining part to the top of the mountain which still took us about 30 minutes. It was much colder than we expected in the first place and we had to wait for about 1 hour exposed to the cold wind, so we were happy to see that some locals were already there to sell tea and coffee.

 

Right when the sun was rising, huge clouds started to block the view onto the sky and especially the three famous crater lakes. Nevertheless some minutes later we were finally able to see them. The image shows two of the three lakes right next to each other (one is partially hidden on the right side) while the third one is located behind us. In our case all lakes had similar turquoise colors but on some days they can even be seen in totally different colors reaching from green to red, depending on the ion concentration.

After watching the sunrise and taking some pictures of the lakes we started to feel cold and decided to head downwards to Moni again. But instead of using a car as everyone else we walked through the unbelievable beautiful and large jungle for more than four hours but it was really worth it. Once we were even joined by a monkey which we were able to feed with a banana we had with us. And all the way down we were accompanied by singing birds. Once we made a quick stop to buy some strawberries from a local family and when we gave the mother a little bit more money than needed she was hardly able to believe her luck. Our way guided us further through some small villages with the most lovely people you could ever think of. Although we were walking right through their gardens everyone was greeting and smiling at us, helping us to find the right way down to Moni. Almost at the end of our journey we reached a beautiful waterfall right in the heart of the forest. The old stone bridge was partially destroyed (I’m standing on the longest remaining part of it in the image) but new ones were improvised with bamboo, allowing to cross the river.

After relaxing for about two hours we decided to visit a local hot spring our driver Mateo told us about the evening before. It was situated right in the center of rice fields.

When we arrived the only two tourist just left but with us, three local women and their kids arrived at the hot spring. While we were relaxing by bathing our feet, the the women were washing clothes and taking a bath with the kids. It was inspiring to see how the people in this poor region manage their daily life. And altough it might would have been a problem anywhere else in the world since our presence can be seen as a violation of privacy, the people were very friendly and welcoming.

And so we ended our eventful day by sharing some crackers with the local kids and enjoying the silence at a hot spring right in the center of rice fields, located at the foot of a volcano covered in a endless jungle at the end of the world.