Travels With Maria

ethiopia

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
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Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More

Flying and Flies – Lalibela

We are on the Historical Route, through the ancient capitals of Ethiopia. This is a popular tourist path to visit the country. We're not surprised to see lots of tourists at the sites, hotels and restaurants we're visiting. But what IS surprising is to see the same groups everywhere. There are the two Spaniards whose guide wears a Cuba cap. We've seen them multiple times at different restaurants in different cities. There is the group of Italians which we've been seeing a lot lately. There is the solo guy from Hong Kong who we saw on our second day, then again 5 days and hundreds of miles later. Four women…
More

Legends

After breakfast, our Axum guide, Mesgana, meet us in the hotel lobby. We walked from our hotel, the same route we had taken the night before on a futile search for an ATM. Today was the basket market, with a bunch of vendors sitting under a huge sycamore tree displaying their wares. Baskets in all sizes, woven in straw with wool blended in to make colorful decorations. We left the market and started climbing a long hill. Passing in the other direction were farmers taking their products to the market in the town below. Cows, goats, donkeys carrying bags of produce, the occasional chicken. Many/most of the people, men and…
More

Not Like Other Africans

Ethiopia is unique among African nations in that it has never been colonized by Europeans. The Italians occupied twice and the British invaded, but no one successfully established a colony. Ethiopia has a very strong national identity that they trace back to the Queen of Sheba who they say gave birth to King Solomon's son and brought him back from Israel and established a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. Many other African "nations" are based on European borders that are meaningless to the peoples that live there. They claim that Christianity came here from Egypt in the first century. Probably it was really several hundred years later, but still way earlier…
More

Precipices and People

And on your left: certain death. Malas gained substantial status in our eyes today. He picked us up this morning for a ride to Axum, our next destination. During the ride he was more talkative, and though his English was rough, it was way better than our Amharic. We drove for the first hour out of Simien park down to the town at the bottom of the hill. He gave one of the workers, a very pretty (like most of the people here) young woman, a lift to the town. They were chatting all the way down. Once he dropped her off, he stopped at a restaurant to get breakfast…
More

Simien Mountains

This morning, a new driver picked us up for the next leg of our tour. This guy, appropriately enough, is named Malas ("bad" in Spanish). He smokes cigarettes, which has evidently damaged his olfactory system because he could use a shower. He's a scary driver, though I got more comfortable as I observed him for a while. Unlike Maria. We had a few close calls, but the only time he slammed on the brakes was when a kid threw a rock at the car. Other than that, our only complaint is that he looks at you to talk. Not a big issue because he doesn't speak English. And he got…
More

Ethiopian Emperors

Because of the mosquitos the other night, we started taking malaria pills earlier than we had hoped. The rest of our stay here is at altitudes over 6000 feet, too high for mosquitos. We had hoped to delay until we got to Uganda, but now we need to take them every day until a week after we get home. We spent the day today in Gondar, the third capital of Ethiopia. The first two, Axum and Lalibela are our next two cities. Somewhere along the line, a king established his capital here at Gondar and built a castle in 1638. Gondar is in a valley surrounded by mountains, so evidently…
More

Lake Tana and the Drive to Gondar

Another early morning, this one after a pretty bad night. Our cute little bungalow's bathroom smelled of sewer gas and we were plagued by mosquitos. No mosquito net. Mas and Tardi picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 for a boat trip on Lake Tana. Early on the morning, the lake was like glass. We first went to the Nile outlet where we saw a family of 4 hippos, fishing eagles, pelicans and other birds. Then we headed across the open water to visit an Orthodox monastery. The trip over took an hour. A mist hung over the trees on the shore, while we were in sunshine. It was…
More

Blue Nile Falls

We were up at 5 this morning for a 6am ride to the airport to go to Bahir Dar, an hour's flight north. The flight was smooth and we landed around 8:30. Bahir Dar is the home of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile which flows 900 miles north to Khartoum where it joins the White Nile and flows on through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The longest river in the world*. We are staying near where the river flows out of the lake. After dropping our luggage at the hotel, our guide Mas and driver Tardi took us on a ride, maybe 90 minutes over increasingly rough roads past…
More

Addis Ababa

After 14 hours of flying and 7 hours waiting in Frankfurt (where we rented a small, in-terminal hotel room for 3 hours to sleep), we got to Addis Ababa at 10pm just in time to get in a huge line at immigration. 90 minutes later, we got to the front of the line only to be told that our eVisas were not authorized. It took another hour following guys around to keep our passports in sight when they finally straightened it all out and we were admitted. During this process, we saw another American woman's passport sitting on a desk - no woman in sight, so who knows what happened…
More