A 26-year-old tourist tumbled into an active volcano in Indonesia after she was “abandoned” by a local hiking guide, her sister told Brazilian TV station Fantástico.
Brazilian citizen Juliana Marins slipped and fell down a cliff Saturday morning from a trail that overlooks Mount Rinjani’s famous crater lake. She descended deep into the volcano, but drone footage confirms she miraculously survived the more than 1,000-foot slide.
Gunung Rinjani National Park said in a statement Monday that Marins has been “successfully monitored using a drone in a position stuck on a rock cliff at a depth of 500 meters and visually motionless.” That is equivalent to 1,600 feet, but reports say Marin has slipped farther into the volcano since her initial fall on Saturday.
Marins’ condition remains unclear on day three of her being in the volcano, but the BBC reports rescuers heard screams for help on Saturday. A massive rescue mission is underway, but attempts to reach her by helicopter were called off due to poor weather, and the park said subsequent rescue attempts by hikers were thwarted because of “extreme terrain and dynamic weather,” including “thick fog conditions.”
“For safety, the rescue team was pulled back to a safe position,” the park added.
Marins’ family is requesting assistance.
“A whole day and they advanced only 250 meters below, there were 350 meters left to reach Juliana, and they retreated,” her family said of rescue efforts in a statement on Instagram. “Once again! Another day! We need help, we need the rescue to reach Juliana urgently!”
The most recent statement from the family, shared Monday morning, said that “two well-experienced mountaineers from the area are headed to the scene of Juliana’s crash.” It added that “there is good backup with specialized equipment to accompany crews” on site.
Marins plunged into the volcano around 6:30 a.m. local time Saturday. Her sister, Marianna, told Fantástico that Marins “got very tired” during her hike and asked her guide “to stop for a while.” Ultimately, Marianna said the guide decided to continue without Marins.
“They continued on, and the guide didn’t stay with her,” Marianna said.
A friend of Marins said in a video statement that the hiker’s loved ones, including her parents, learned she was missing from social media. She alleged that Indonesian officials have provided conflicting updates about Marins’ status, including a false claim that she had been reached and provided with food and water.
“We’re living in a nightmare here,” the friend said.
Marianna said her sister was making the trek with a small group of five hikers and a single guide. She said her sister spent an hour resting alone before her tragic slip at sunrise.
“She didn’t know where to go,” Marianna said. “She didn’t know what to do. When the guide came back because he saw that she was taking too long, he saw that she had fallen down there.”
Marins posted photos from Indonesia to Instagram last week, showing her hiking, scuba diving, playing cards, and doing yoga in the Pacific island chain. She also shared a photo of herself with a large hiking backpack.
Other recent posts documented her travels to Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. Her friend said in a video statement that she had saved up for a backpacking trip across Asia.
Marins is from Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro, where she works as a publicist, the U.S. Sun reports. Her Instagram shows she is also a pole dancer.
The Brazilian embassy in Jakarta is facilitating contact between the family and the company responsible for the tour, according to Brazil TV. The embassy did not respond to a request for information from the Daily Beast.
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