5/8/19
We drove to Arba Minch (name means 40 springs). On the way we stopped at a traditional Dorze village, which sits atop mountains. We toured the village, which included watching (and joining in) some traditional dancing and touring their really cool bamboo huts (in the shape of an elephant, though elephants have been hunted to extinction locally). We also watched a woman use the false-banana plant to make bread straight from the trunk. She used a wooden tool to get the meat from the trunk, then it ferments underground for greater than 3 months, then it's pounded and shaped, and then cooked over a fire. Quite the process! This species of plant is called a false banana because it looks like a banana tree, but it produces no bananas. After the bread had been cooked over the fire, we ate the fresh bread with fresh honey and very spicy chili sauce. They also gave us a shot of some very potent home-brewed alcohol. (To help you dance better and to keep warm at night in the mountains).
We were invited into one of the elephant-shaped bamboo huts where we learned more about the culture. Three things women need to be in order to attract a mate: 1. Good cook 2. Good weaver 3. good with the hips (dancing and ....) Three things men need to be in order to attract a mate 1. Good at farming 2. Good at weaving 3. Good with the hips (dancing and ...)
On the steep dirt road down to Arba Minch (with good views of muddy Lake Abaya and blue Lake Chamo), young local kids would do splits in the middle of the road, handsprings, headstands, and dance with the hips. It was pretty funny and entertaining. And since the road had lots of switchbacks, they would run down to the next switchback to meet the truck again.
When we arrived to Arba Minch, we walked around a bit looking for food, but it was hard to find any, and also the power was out. Thus, we had to eat at the fancy Emerald Resort, which was nice.
5/9/19
Norbert, Katya, Elisha, and I went on a hike with Bayoo into Nechisar National Park. At the gate, we picked up an armed scout. It was a really great hike (~6 miles) through the forest. So quiet, peaceful, and shaded. We saw hornbills, a fish eagle, vervet monkeys, baboons, and such cute black and white colobus monkeys. There were such beautiful big trees too. We eventually arrived to the spring (Where Arba Minch gets its name) and went for a very refreshing swim in the pool and also did some jumping off of some trees with the locals there. At the swimming hole, we were surrounded by monkeys and baboons...very Jungle Book like. On our hike in with the scout, we caught a guy smuggling wood out of the national park that he had chopped. The scout scolded him and took his ax.
We had lunch in a shaded restaurant with local food (tibs), beers, and mango juice. On our way home from lunch, as it was very hot, the 4 of us shared a tuk-tuk. Apparently having that many people in a tuk-tuk must be illegal because our driver saw a police traffic stop ahead, and he made Norbert get out and take another tuk-tuk for 200 meters until we were past the police, then Norbert rejoined us.
We spent the afternoon hanging out and doing laundry. In the evening we had a goodbye happy hour and dinnter at the Emerald Lodge as Bayoo, Katay, Kris, and Alex would be leaving the trip here. The lodge has tremendous views over the forest and the 2 lakes as it is built on a cliff. Some of the dragoman passengers brought wine for all of us to share. After dinner we had a fire together.
5/10/19
Elisha and I helped with some truck cleaning in the morning, then walked to the fancy Haile Resort where we paid $3 for access to the pool and spa all day. It too has a great view, so we spent the day poolside, reading and swimming. We had sunset dinner at the nice Emerald Lodge viewpoint.
5/11/19
Everyone had a rough night because of mosquitos. Also, a lot of the dragoman travelers got bed bugs. Elisha and I too got a few bed bug bites, but Maggie had it absolutely terrible. Her whole body covered! Today we drove to Konso, through lush rift valley scenery and lots of cute grass/mud huts.
At Konso, we took a tour of a Konso Tribe village. It was really cool. It was a group of traditional huts within a rock wall. And there were also cute little huts for for goats and chickens. The rock wall surrounding the village was over 1000 village. We learned about their traditions, customs, and how they govern. They are animists and very tribal. Boys 12 and over have to sleep all together in a special hut to prevent pre-marital sex. Moms are in charge, and to symbolize this there is a pot on top of every hut. A hut with a pot (meaning no mom), is untidy, lost, and no good.
Konso is the first tribe in and the gateway to the famous Omo valley. The Omo valley is an area where the tribes are still relatively unchanged and not so affected by modern culture. It is here where there are tribes that have people fully tattooed, tribes with people who burn patterns onto their bodies, and tribes with bones in their ears and huge discs in their lips, and most of these tribes are fully naked except for small loincloths. We didn't visit any of those tribes because Dragoman tries to follow responsible tourisms, both environmentally and with people. The tribe with the discs in their lips, traditionally, once a year would do this thing called the bull run. Women would--I'm told voluntarily--ride on bulls and get whipped by the men. But when they found out that the tourists found this interesting, they started charging for this and doing this ceremony bi-weekly or more instead of every year. Dragoman (and myself) agree that this is painfully exploiting the women, so their tours don't go there. I would have liked to see some of these unique tribes, but not go to and pay for those sorts of things.
From Konso we traveled to a town, Yabello, on the way to the border. Yabello was pretty wild! It's not a place tourists ever stop. It's just a truck type stop on the way to the border. In Yabello, people rarely have seen white people, so they were even more interested in us than normal, and actually some of them were quite scared of us. We all found a place with really cheap beer, and we sat down and watched some of the crazies of the town. There was a weird guy with his shirt off that was the only person who spoke some English, but he kept talking over and over about Nelson Mandela. Then there was another guy fake talking into a fake cell phone, and then just dancing around. He eventually built a sand castle thing in the sand of the road. Quite a crowd came to look at it, then he started drinking from the nasty puddle water in the road!
When Elisha and I went to buy some samosas for the group, some sweet looking old lady was with us, but then she got crazy and even started slapping us, so we tried to job away from her. The owner of the bar we were at had a tough time keeping her away from the bar. Our group was highly entertained and laughing a lot.
In the evening, we somehow managed to find a place to eat. They had 1 item on the menu, but it was super delicious goat tibs served in a clay pot on top of a little charcoal stove thing.
5/12/19
Drove to Moyale, the border with Kenya. Along the way was beautiful acacia woodland, dotted with traditional round, thatched roof huts, and lots of tall, point red termite mounds. The border crossing was pretty straight forward. We walked a bit around the town of Moyale. At the hotel, we ordered lunch, which turned into dinner because we had to wait over 2 hours for them to start cooking b/c of it being ramadan.
We drove to Arba Minch (name means 40 springs). On the way we stopped at a traditional Dorze village, which sits atop mountains. We toured the village, which included watching (and joining in) some traditional dancing and touring their really cool bamboo huts (in the shape of an elephant, though elephants have been hunted to extinction locally). We also watched a woman use the false-banana plant to make bread straight from the trunk. She used a wooden tool to get the meat from the trunk, then it ferments underground for greater than 3 months, then it's pounded and shaped, and then cooked over a fire. Quite the process! This species of plant is called a false banana because it looks like a banana tree, but it produces no bananas. After the bread had been cooked over the fire, we ate the fresh bread with fresh honey and very spicy chili sauce. They also gave us a shot of some very potent home-brewed alcohol. (To help you dance better and to keep warm at night in the mountains).
We were invited into one of the elephant-shaped bamboo huts where we learned more about the culture. Three things women need to be in order to attract a mate: 1. Good cook 2. Good weaver 3. good with the hips (dancing and ....) Three things men need to be in order to attract a mate 1. Good at farming 2. Good at weaving 3. Good with the hips (dancing and ...)
On the steep dirt road down to Arba Minch (with good views of muddy Lake Abaya and blue Lake Chamo), young local kids would do splits in the middle of the road, handsprings, headstands, and dance with the hips. It was pretty funny and entertaining. And since the road had lots of switchbacks, they would run down to the next switchback to meet the truck again.
When we arrived to Arba Minch, we walked around a bit looking for food, but it was hard to find any, and also the power was out. Thus, we had to eat at the fancy Emerald Resort, which was nice.
5/9/19
Norbert, Katya, Elisha, and I went on a hike with Bayoo into Nechisar National Park. At the gate, we picked up an armed scout. It was a really great hike (~6 miles) through the forest. So quiet, peaceful, and shaded. We saw hornbills, a fish eagle, vervet monkeys, baboons, and such cute black and white colobus monkeys. There were such beautiful big trees too. We eventually arrived to the spring (Where Arba Minch gets its name) and went for a very refreshing swim in the pool and also did some jumping off of some trees with the locals there. At the swimming hole, we were surrounded by monkeys and baboons...very Jungle Book like. On our hike in with the scout, we caught a guy smuggling wood out of the national park that he had chopped. The scout scolded him and took his ax.
We had lunch in a shaded restaurant with local food (tibs), beers, and mango juice. On our way home from lunch, as it was very hot, the 4 of us shared a tuk-tuk. Apparently having that many people in a tuk-tuk must be illegal because our driver saw a police traffic stop ahead, and he made Norbert get out and take another tuk-tuk for 200 meters until we were past the police, then Norbert rejoined us.
We spent the afternoon hanging out and doing laundry. In the evening we had a goodbye happy hour and dinnter at the Emerald Lodge as Bayoo, Katay, Kris, and Alex would be leaving the trip here. The lodge has tremendous views over the forest and the 2 lakes as it is built on a cliff. Some of the dragoman passengers brought wine for all of us to share. After dinner we had a fire together.
5/10/19
Elisha and I helped with some truck cleaning in the morning, then walked to the fancy Haile Resort where we paid $3 for access to the pool and spa all day. It too has a great view, so we spent the day poolside, reading and swimming. We had sunset dinner at the nice Emerald Lodge viewpoint.
5/11/19
Everyone had a rough night because of mosquitos. Also, a lot of the dragoman travelers got bed bugs. Elisha and I too got a few bed bug bites, but Maggie had it absolutely terrible. Her whole body covered! Today we drove to Konso, through lush rift valley scenery and lots of cute grass/mud huts.
At Konso, we took a tour of a Konso Tribe village. It was really cool. It was a group of traditional huts within a rock wall. And there were also cute little huts for for goats and chickens. The rock wall surrounding the village was over 1000 village. We learned about their traditions, customs, and how they govern. They are animists and very tribal. Boys 12 and over have to sleep all together in a special hut to prevent pre-marital sex. Moms are in charge, and to symbolize this there is a pot on top of every hut. A hut with a pot (meaning no mom), is untidy, lost, and no good.
Konso is the first tribe in and the gateway to the famous Omo valley. The Omo valley is an area where the tribes are still relatively unchanged and not so affected by modern culture. It is here where there are tribes that have people fully tattooed, tribes with people who burn patterns onto their bodies, and tribes with bones in their ears and huge discs in their lips, and most of these tribes are fully naked except for small loincloths. We didn't visit any of those tribes because Dragoman tries to follow responsible tourisms, both environmentally and with people. The tribe with the discs in their lips, traditionally, once a year would do this thing called the bull run. Women would--I'm told voluntarily--ride on bulls and get whipped by the men. But when they found out that the tourists found this interesting, they started charging for this and doing this ceremony bi-weekly or more instead of every year. Dragoman (and myself) agree that this is painfully exploiting the women, so their tours don't go there. I would have liked to see some of these unique tribes, but not go to and pay for those sorts of things.
From Konso we traveled to a town, Yabello, on the way to the border. Yabello was pretty wild! It's not a place tourists ever stop. It's just a truck type stop on the way to the border. In Yabello, people rarely have seen white people, so they were even more interested in us than normal, and actually some of them were quite scared of us. We all found a place with really cheap beer, and we sat down and watched some of the crazies of the town. There was a weird guy with his shirt off that was the only person who spoke some English, but he kept talking over and over about Nelson Mandela. Then there was another guy fake talking into a fake cell phone, and then just dancing around. He eventually built a sand castle thing in the sand of the road. Quite a crowd came to look at it, then he started drinking from the nasty puddle water in the road!
When Elisha and I went to buy some samosas for the group, some sweet looking old lady was with us, but then she got crazy and even started slapping us, so we tried to job away from her. The owner of the bar we were at had a tough time keeping her away from the bar. Our group was highly entertained and laughing a lot.
In the evening, we somehow managed to find a place to eat. They had 1 item on the menu, but it was super delicious goat tibs served in a clay pot on top of a little charcoal stove thing.
5/12/19
Drove to Moyale, the border with Kenya. Along the way was beautiful acacia woodland, dotted with traditional round, thatched roof huts, and lots of tall, point red termite mounds. The border crossing was pretty straight forward. We walked a bit around the town of Moyale. At the hotel, we ordered lunch, which turned into dinner because we had to wait over 2 hours for them to start cooking b/c of it being ramadan.
No comments:
Post a Comment