sunrise in the mountains

so, up we were at 3:15am and ready to take an hour long jeep ride up the mountain to see the sunrise. when we got there, we realized we left the camera in the room, so we rented a digital one and then had the pics burned on a cd (which is why they've uploaded so quickly!). the sunrise was awesome. it was a bit cloudy, but still worth the trip. we were amazed at how many people were there, as cemoro lawang seemed somewhat deserted. the jeep then took us down to bromo and we opted to stay on the ground rather than go with the throngs of people up those stairs again. we enjoyed people/jeep/donkey watching.

upon return to the hotel we had breakfast with the dutch man that rode the minibus from probolingo to cemoro lawang with us. he had been traveling for about 2 months already and gave us some good insight into thailand. we then rested up in our room (nice little power nap), before packing up and heading out.

we met up with our motorbike guides and hopped on the back. i rode with my backpack strapped to my back, and joe's bag was in front of his driver. we made our way down that very steep rode and across the sandy sea (as they call it) and were completely amazed by the sights. sheer beauty. amazing changes in scenery. it was breath-taking and jaw dropping. we made our way up into the mountains on the other side of bromo and through several villages. we stopped and trekked down to a beautiful waterfall. we saw the farming change from chive and greens, to palms (we think for palm sugar) back to rice. words completely fail to describe how awesome it was. i will work on that though!