By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
I’ts 03.26 AM and the darkness surrounding me is so intense I can almost touch it with my bare hands. I’m standing alone at our meeting point, and as the cold light from my torch sweeps over the scale land filled with ashes I’m starting to wonder what I have gotten myself into. There it is again! The deep, rumbling sound followed by the explosion in the distance and the light vibration under my feet. When I first arrived to the little guesthouse yesterday I thought it was terrifying, but as the hours went by without electricity, without lights and no one to talk to I found myself feeling fond of it. It became comforting, soothing even. I see another torch breaking through the darkness and a young man with sleepy eyes is approaching. ”Is it only me who’s going up today?” I ask. ”Yes miss, no one else is crazy enough to wake up this early” he says and smiles kindly. We jump into the jeep and begin to drive up the bumpy, steep, muddy road. He tells me in broken English that I shouldn’t be scared, what I’m about to see is the most spectacular show mother nature will ever put on for us humans. I felt the excitement rising in my chest, after all these years I was finally about to see the inside on an active volcano. The car stops, and as the headlight goes out the thick darkness is surrounding us again. The rumbling sound is louder and the vibrations is a lot stronger this close. As we begin the steep walk up, the black sky goes deep orange for a few seconds before it disappears again. I’m not in a fit condition and my breath is heavy, yet I have never felt the urge to climb so fast in my life. When we finally reach the top I hold my guides hand tight as he leads me on the porous edge of the crater. Fascinated I’m looking down on the small, deep orange holes. They got a warm, bright light shining out of them and I can’t look away. I always thought the inside of a volcano would be a big lake of lava, not little holes. Up here the sound is so intense I think I will loose my hearing, the vibration so strong it goes through my entire body and for the first time I can see the inside properly. If the volcano doesn’t kill me, I think my adrenaline will. My guide squeezes my arm and looks at me with excitement. ”Now!” He says. I’m turning my head back and suddenly I’m staring the explosion right in the eye. Like thousands of fireflies flying tight together they reach for the sky, and then sprinkling down towards their hole again. It makes every single chemical firework I’ve seen look pathetic. The heat on my face is expected, yet a strange contrast to the cold morning air. As enchanted I stare at the little hole who just performed something so beautiful and all I want to do is sit here and watch this, over and over again. A few minutes later I’m more prepared for the second one, and yet as amazed as for the first one. I must have lost track of time, as I suddenly realize that the thick darkness is gone and the sun is modestly making an appearance. The explosions are still as breathtaking, but they seem less harmful in sunlight. Now I can see the color of the black ashes I’m sitting on, the steepness of the crater and the kind eyes of my guide. I think he can sense my fascination and says ”I told you, didn’t I?” Back down in my bungalow I enjoy the daylight, and read my book with the rumbling noice every few minutes in the background. I ecstatically tell the guesthouse owner about it and he listens patiently even though he has seen it himself probably a thousand times. 03.28AM, and through the darkness I see the torch approaching. My guide gives out a warm laugh when he sees me and with his broken English says ”I knew you would come back”.