Bandung & Weekend Trip to Cipanas

Some of the ETA crew, being as lively as they are, decided to go on a hike our first weekend in Bandung. We went to a nearby town called Cipanas, which means hot springs, and rented a hotel that had bathrooms reminiscent of Roman bathhouses into which they channeled the mineral water from the volcanic hot springs. In the evening we ate some wonderful Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice) and Gado Gado (a dish with spicy peanut sauce) at a few little food vendors lining the main street running through town. The town was actually quite small and the people were extremely friendly and we made small talk with a few people in broken English and Bahasa. We also met a local tour guide, Babi, within the first few minutes that we arrived in town (a group of 28 Americans usually attracts such things). About half of the crew including myself struck up a deal with Babi to take us to the stratovolcano Pampandayan the following morning and the other half stuck to the original plan of climbing the more local volcano, Gunter. Then a few ETAs watched a badmitton game and  went to the public hot springs to chat with people while the others and I headed back to the hotel and lived the Roman bathhouse life to the fullest, cramming several people into each tub and just chatting for a while. The next day we split into two groups; half to Gunter and half to Pampandayan. We traveled via a series of vans and as the first picture illustrates, the trip was extremely scenic and beautiful. We were surrounded in farmland (mainly rice) with mountains in the distance and various shops and houses dotting the sides of the roads (Picture 1). When we arrived at the road that would lead us to the BASE of the mountain, Babi warned us that is was about a three hour hike to even get there, then possibly another three hours up the Volcano. Of course we did not heed this warning and started on our way. The walk was beautiful and the people were incredibly friendly. When the local children caught sight of so many foreigners they ran out of their houses yelling "Hello! Hello! How are you?!" The trend seemed to be that the children knew or were learning more English than the older members of the community and as the picture below illustrates, they were pretty happy to be able to practice with native speakers.

After a while of hiking and sweating profusely, a friendly woman with very good English asked us where we were going. When we said up to the Volcano she responded with "Excuse me, can I ask.....WHY?" She warned us that we had a way to go and we told her Babi was meeting us there. About 5 minutes later the same woman came riding up the narrow road on the back of her husband's motorbike to inform us that Babi and her son were coming with a truck to give us a ride. We were very thankful to pack 16 people into a black mini-truck, not unlike the one my dad owns, and cruise up to the base of Pampandayan (see picture below).

The Pampadayan Volcano was righteous. According to our guide, it last erupted in 2002 and no one was killed but the entire village below was destroyed. The group walked along the area where the pyroclastic flow and mudslides went through. The rocks left behind have a composition similar to pumice and make the terrain look like Mars instead of anything on Earth. The picture below is of the fumaroles encrusted in sulfur (yellow) along the Volcano. Fumaroles are openings in the Earth's crust that emit steam and gas, in the form of sulfur dioxide in this case, and most of the water boils off before it reaches the surface but they are still quite hot. I put my hand over one a little too closely to figure that out.

We all put our bandanas or shirts over our mouths because not only does sulfur dioxide smell like eggs but it burns the throat when inhaled.

The water running off of the Volcano in streams contained a lot of iron and some streams were colored based on the composition of chemicals they contained. The ones we saw were dark blue and milky white. 

At the acme of our hike we reached a small crater lake and took a swim. The water was super cold but felt amazing after the hike that took a couple of hours.

On the hike back down we could see the damage of the 2002 eruption in the scalded trees and barren landscape, although some small plants with thick cuticles and various ferns were already starting to flourish.

I have hiked volcanoes before in Ecuador but never one quite like the Pamandayan in Indonesia. Treading across a path of destruction that is both formidable and at the same time incredibly beautiful is a humble reminder of how insignificant and trivial our lives can become at the mercy of our earth's natural processes.