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The Trip South
We just got from our trip on Sunday. Wow, it was quite an experience. We took just about every form of transportation possible in Ethiopia and navigated the entire way ourselves, which I am impressed with. We left at 5am on Wednesday morning and caught a minibus south to Awasa with the intention of getting off early close to Lake Langano. After about 3 hours in the minibus the let us out in the middle of the road and pointed down this dusty road. So we grabbed our stuff and headed down the road on foot to Langano. All around us were cacti and sorbets (grass huts). We had only been walking a few seconds when children from the village began following us. We quickly realized that they did not speak Amharic so they must have spoke some kind of Oromo dialect. Ethiopia has like 80 something languages, crazy. After about an hour we started to see the Lake, which is huge and brown. It is called the world’s largest cup of tea. It sounds gross, but it is actually quite beautiful, and very safe to swim in. We got settled in our bungalow and took pictures of ourselves trapped in mosquito netting on our beds. Malaria is not a risk in Addis, but is where we were traveling. We took all our malaria meds and spray as not to contract. The beach was great; we were the only ones there. Alan learned to net fish with some boys and they let him ride around in their boat with him. I tried to swim out as far as I could in the lake, but I kept getting scared of crocodiles and coming back. Palm trees were growing right in the water and the rocks at the bottom of the lake were light like pumice stones. We walked a ways down and found many Ethiopians swimming around. We recognized a bunch of kids as some of the boys that were following us down the road. We spent a long day on the beach and needless to say I got the worst sunburn of my life.
The next day we left our bungalow and headed down the dirt road. We were able to flag down a truck and catch a ride to the main road. From there we, with the help of half the village, flagged down a full minibus and had a very uncomfortable ride to Wando Genet. Actually, the bus dropped us about 20km. from Wando Genet and we had to catch this crazy three-wheeled motercycle/golfcart up to Wando Genet. That was an awesome ride. We saw a lot of people carrying huge bundles of wood on their backs and they tried to run and catch up with the buggies, waving to us. The people in this area are from the Sidamo tribe and speak another language. When we got to our hotel, we were impressed with the surrounding gardens and beautiful view of the mountains, however, our rooms were foul. Whatever, we headed down to the hot springs area. The hot springs area was ok, the natural spring water is funneled into cement pools that are not too attractive but, again, the surroundings were nice. My sunburn hurt too much to spend a lot of time in the hot pools, but I did enjoy seeing the most adults trying to learn how to swim in the pools. It was hilarious. I made a few Ethiopian friends and talked a long time with an older couple from Dubai who were very interesting. The best part of Wando Genet was the hills surrounding it. We took a tour of the mountains and walked around in what seemed to be Jurassic Park. It was beautiful. We saw baboons, which are apparently very aggressive and will attack, especially if they see a lone woman. The men we walked with showed us the source of the hot springs. It was so hot, we could not even touch it. They showed us this famous little hot springs waterfall that King Menelik used to shower in, very cool. When we came back to our rooms, there were colobus monkeys hanging right in the tree in front of our rooms. They are black and white with large, bushy tails. We took about a hundred pictures. Our hotel had a little restaurant and sitting outside that night, we saw hundreds of vervet monkeys that ran up to us and tried to steal our food. It was awesome. We eventually had to move inside because it was too much work trying to eat, take pictures, and guard our food all at once. Wando genet wasn’t my favorite place we visited, but it was definitely worth going to just to see all of those monkeys.
The next day we began a long journey to Dodola so we could start our horse trek in Bale Mountain National Park. We left Wando Genet via horse drawn buggie. It got a flat tire and we had to walk down to the main road. We caught a big bus and cramed ourselves in for the 4-hour ride to Shashemane, then Dodola. The big buses here always smell like a mixture of sheep innards and dirty baby wipes, very pleasant. We got to Dodola really late because we had the slowest bus driver ever, and the road to Dodola is unpaved. We were not sure if they would let us start our horse trek that day, but we got to the Bale Mountain trekking office, and they let us get right in there. We met our guide, Yosef, and went into town to buy our food for the mountain trek. This was really fun. It reminding me of the Oregon Trail game when you buy your sacks of grain from the merchant. This horse trek thing was my idea originally. I had been trying to convince Nicole to go travel south with me instead of traveling the historical circuit north. She grew up riding horses and I knew that this part of the trip would seal the deal. Anyways, I hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but I kind of don’t like horses. Whatever, I got up there and we got going. A guide helped me lead my horse and even ran along side when he trotted and galloped.
Making our way up through the mountains was amazing. I thought I really was on another planet or at least on the set of Lord of the Rings. I can’t even explain how beautiful it is there. We got to our camp and I was pleased to find it a spacious area at the top of a hill with a gorgeous view. That night, we had a bon fire in the main hut and got to know our guide Yosef very well. He is around our age and we all got along great. He told us all about the different tribe areas in Ethiopia and the conflict between them. He also told us about the government’s role in this conflict. I learned how oppressive the Ethiopian government is. Yosef has been trying for an American visa for many years. He showed us his recent acceptance into the lottery diversity visa drawing, a long shot. He told us a lot about the things the government has done to keep people in poverty and pit religions and tribes against each other. He says he wants to get to America because he wants to be free. It made me glad that I waited at the US Embassy for hours last week to vote.
My favorite part of the trip was that night, trying to cook together and making nasty stuck together pasta. We all talked around a big bon fire in the middle of the main hut. Our camp was at the top of this hill and all around I could see so many stars and even galaxies.
The horse trekking was a new experience for me. Both Nicole and Alan both knew how to ride horses and were giving me s*** the whole time. I would often yell from way behind, “Sorry I didn’t grow up in Salem, sorry I am not from a farm!” My ass was the most sore and I think I pulled every muscle in my back. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and we were able to see amazing things. The children that live up in the mountains are so cute and amazing with herds of animals. Several times we would see a boy as young as 7 or 8 riding on a donkey and herding a large herd of several dozen bulls, goats, and cows.
The second day, Yosef took us on a hike up this hillside that is about 10,000 feet. I have never struggled to breathe harder. It wasn’t until we reached the top that he told me what high altitude we were at; I really thought I had asthma. Up on the hillside, we snuck around with Yosef quietly and we were able to see baboons. I saw the tail end of a warthog but Alan saw the whole thing and claimed “It is exactly like Pumba, no different”.
The trip was incredible and I have to say that I am very impressed that we were able to pull it off with all the crazy transportation. We made a good friend, Yosef, our guide in Bale and are keeping in touch with him. I am glad we decided to travel south instead of north (where most people go) because we were able to see the more rural areas, the different tribes, and gorgeous scenery.
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