Spices, tea and volcanos. Java is full of amazing things. Very different in many ways from Bali. People everywhere, but at least we are not tripping over tourists with every step. In fact, our first hotel was eerily empty; just one other pair of travelers there. We can't figure ou whether the tourism business is down (didn't seem so in Bali) or if we are just off the beaten path. Could be a bit of both. We had a great tour of a spice plantation. Vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, coffee, coconut and a dairy. All at one place. If there is water, the land is used intensely. Even where it seems impossible to farm, on the slopes of the mountinas leading up to Bromo, we saw miles upon miles of neatly tended, practically vertical, fields of vegetables. Also toured a tea plantation and factory. Three very gracious women gave us the tour with a great sense of pride, reminding me of what I found so agreeable among the people here many years ago. Yesterday, we saw the sunrise over Mount Bromo. Still an active volcano puffing away, along with its neighbor Mount Semer. We first took a jeep up a vertiginous road to a high observation post to see all of the peaks puffing away in the pink sunrise, then went down to the base of Mt. Bromo,s cone and hiked up to its rim where we could look down to the bubbling sulfurous liquids below. There was a full eruption two years ago with dusty lava residue remaining everywhere. We are in Malang today, driving to Solo, then will spend several days in Jogjakarta. Steve