Kelimutu — Local services in Flores

Get up early and get a ride to the entrance near the top. Must walk a ways to reach the summit. But it's worth the magical sunrise. Absolutely stunning crater lakes of different colors. Amazing watching the blanket of clouds come rushing in soon after the sunrise. Bring a light jacket it was chilly. At the top there are local vendors selling cup-o-noodles, coffee, tea & snacks. Also hand weaved blankets and scarves. Be sure to get one or two or three at the top or on your way walking back down the mountain because these were the best deals aside from actually going to their village, which is another must. Don't wait to get cloth at the airport because they are twice as much. I love mine. We decided to do the 3 hour hike down the mountain. Very important to take a picture of the large wooden map. Anyways it was a great hike down steep narrow animal & farming trails stopping at small villages for coffee & bananas, for a small fee. I ended up taking off my shoes and walking barefoot most of the way down. Was much more comfortable for me. Mostly trails and some roads. It started pouring warm tropical rains. Rainy season. Not prepared. Trails got slick. I fell a couple times. Oh well. We were soaked. When we encountered a villager we always asked for them to point us in the right direction to the town of Moni. I think we took a wrong turn at some point becsuse it was taking forever. It was getting to a point where we didn't think we were ever going to make it out, about 2 hours before sunset and my friend was having knee problems. So we 4 decided that the next village we came across we'd ask if they could give us a ride down. After awhile treking down muddy trails and roads turned into rivers with fallen trees blocking we stumbled uopn a village. farm animals and all. The village had one motorcycle amongst them all. Lol! They were so kind to save us. first person down was my knee problem friend. Along the way they hailed other villages with motorcycles to come save us 3, driving down steep narrow muddy rivited roads all the way back to our homestay. We were way off trek. What an experience! Would I do it...

Really good experience. Possible to enter for free, just need to be a little smart... not because I don't like to pay but because it is ridiculous the surcharge... 5000 for local x30 for tourists... so I've got my way to fix it. Really kind the guy selling coffe on the top of the view point, Fred. He wakes up every day at 3am to prepare his little section and sell cheap coffe and more. He sleeps outside on a garden close to the carpark owned by his family, he feels very very cold every night but his life is what it is... he "likes" it... His family is olso making food down to the carpark market so go and say hi to them, very kind as well! Please support them they give you more than what they have just becouse they are so kind. PLEASE support them, he is never waiting standing and pushing you to buy something , he spends most opockets.f the time cleaning and collecting rubbish leaved by duck head tourists - FOR FREE - he doesn't work for or with the tickets company, wich is disgusting. They don't have even 0,5% of the entry ticket going in...

We woke up at 4 AM and rode our motorbike in freezing coldness for about 45 minutes from downtown Moni to get there. The trail to the peak where you can observe all three lakes is very clear. All you need is flashlight, and in our case, we just used our cellphone. The idea is to catch the glorious sunrise which we did not get that morning. Understandable because we came at the closing end of the rainy season. It's still worth doing for the greater wow moment in seeing the lakes slowly unravel before your eyes. In pitch darkness, you have no idea about the scale of the place, but then you gradually realize the sheer magnitude of the crater lakes. As the birds start chirping in the background, you are presented with a real life cinematic experience that will long last in...