A Brazilian tourist who fell down a cliff hiking an active Indonesian volcano was found dead on Tuesday following a perilous four-day search hampered by rough terrain and adverse weather.
Juliana Marins, 26, a dancer and publicist from Niterói, a city across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, slipped during a group trek near the crater of Mount Rinjani, Indonesia’s second-highest volcano, on the island of Lombok.
Marins had been hiking with five other foreign tourists and a local guide on Saturday morning when she lost her footing and plunged down a cliffside, reportedly falling about 600m. The fall happened at around 6.30am local time on a trail ringing the volcano’s dramatic crater rim.
She survived the initial fall and was reportedly seen moving and calling for help, but successive rescue efforts were thwarted by fog, shifting sands and steep, unstable terrain.
A fellow hiker later told Brazilian TV the terrain was extremely slippery and visibility was poor at the time, the BBC reported.
Her body was finally located by rescue workers using a thermal drone on Tuesday, resting near the crater wall. She was declared dead at the scene.
Marins had been on a backpacking trip across Asia since February, visiting the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand before arriving in Indonesia. Her posts on social media captured her love of dance as well as travel.
In her last post on Instagram, she shared pictures from her trip in Indonesia. “Never try never fly,” she captioned the post published on 11 June. The post has since received 198,000 likes.
Her disappearance had quickly become headline news in Brazil.
An Instagram account set up by her family to share updates about the rescue amassed over 1.6 million followers. Millions of people back home held onto hope, posting messages of support and prayers as Indonesian officials scrambled to reach her in the treacherous volcanic landscape.
After her death was confirmed on Tuesday, her family posted: “Today, the rescue team managed to reach the place where Juliana Marins was. With great sadness, we inform you that she didn’t survive. We remain very grateful for all the prayers, messages of affection and support that we have received.”
Mount Rinjani, standing 3,726m tall, is renowned for its breathtaking views and attracts thousands of hikers annually.
Drone footage, reportedly captured shortly after Marins had fallen down, showed her alive. Thermal drone footage and mobile phone videos showed her moving at the base of the cliff, sitting upright in the grey volcanic soil. Her cries for help were reportedly heard by other hikers and rescue teams.
But when responders descended some 300m to her suspected location, she was no longer visible. Fog had rolled in, and the thermal drone failed to detect her presence. The soft, unstable sand where she had landed complicated efforts to reach her with ropes.
By Monday, she had reportedly slipped further down the ravine, from 150m on Saturday to about 600m.
As the rescue work continued, tensions mounted between Brazilian and Indonesian authorities. At one point, the Brazilian embassy in Jakarta even accused Indonesian officials of falsely claiming Marins had been rescued and was getting food and water, when in reality she was still missing.
The Indonesian government did not immediately respond to the allegation.
Marins’ sister, Mariana, expressed frustration to the local press: “She spent the night alone, missing, and now they no longer have visual contact with her because she is sliding down the cliff. At first, they tried to reach her with a rope that was shorter than necessary and couldn’t.”
By Tuesday, the search had resumed with renewed effort and rescuers finally reached Marins after descending 600m down the mountain’s dangerous cliffside.
“One of the rescuers managed to reach the victim at the depth of 600m,” Mohammad Syafii, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency was quoted as saying by CBS News. “Upon checking, there were no signs of life. Three rescuers got closer to the victim and confirmed she had died.”
Her body was recovered and carried by foot to the Sembalun basecamp. It was due to be transported to a police hospital on Wednesday, depending on weather conditions.
Brazil’s foreign ministry called the incident a “tragedy” and confirmed that its embassy in Indonesia had worked closely with local authorities throughout the operation.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva posted on X: “Our diplomatic and consular services in Indonesia will continue to provide full support to her family at this time of great pain.”
Indonesian forestry minister Raja Juli Antoni announced the immediate closure of all hiking routes on Mount Rinjani out of respect for Marins and to facilitate the evacuation.
Mount Rinjani, though a magnet for thrill-seeking tourists, has been the site of multiple tragedies in recent years. In 2022, a Portuguese hiker died after falling from a cliff near the summit. And just weeks before the fatal accident involving Marins, a Malaysian climber lost his life on the same mountain.
In 2018, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Lombok, stranding hundreds of trekkers on the mountain and killing at least 17 people across the island.
