After a short ascend (around 1 hour) we got our first glimpse on the crater lake of Kawah Ijen.



Kawah Ijen contains an acid lake covering the crater mouth. The "water" is hot. Bathing is not really advisable. But people use the water to heal certain skin deceases. Most probably the acid removes infected skin parts. The smoke came from the sulfur well very near to the "beach".
It can happen that the lake releases huge amounts of volcanic gases. This transforms the crater into a huge death trap. Such accidents killed dozens of sulfur miners in the past.