Rik Ethiopia part 2

Selam

Ethiopia part 2: Lalibela to Moyale

Of we went to continue our travels trough Ethiopia. After a few weeks of cultural and nature exploring in the north, we would venture of to the south to do some more nature but also some tribal exploring.

From Lalibela we took the truck to Debark, a city that was located at the shores of lake Tana. As we arrived in the late afternoon a group of us went out to have some dinner. It was a nice challenge to get the food we've ordered. There were no beers, no pineapple for the Hawaiian pizza, no lasagne and the difference between a small and large pizza was not always notable. After my pizza which was a fasting pizza. Let me enlighten what the fasting in this case means. In Ethiopia they have a national dish which includes ingera (a vinager flavored pancake) and some lentil, bean, potato and pepper mixes on there, this is called a fasting dish so no meat. For my pizza I thought this was a good idea, so I got a pizza crust with all of the above as topping. It was not to bad but it made me feel full, but not the full like "oh, an ice cream could fit in" no it was more a "oh ohw, if I eat anymore I'm going to burst." This feeling kept pretty much going for the night and the following morning. On which we would set out on a boat to one of the islands on lake Tana. I decided to skip this one and stay in bed for a few hours, after one hour of feeling uncomfortable I felt there was only one solution. After I got rid of the pizza I felt better instantly, and fell asleep again. After a couple of hours I woke to get some water for lunch but to tired to drink I went o bed again. To be pleasantly be woken up by Lotte with some fruit salad.

In the evening we watched a movie with Stuart, but I wasn't able to finish the movie because the fruit salad I so much enjoyed wasn't accepted by my belly. Luckily I felt better soon after and the following day I was again able to join the rest to visit the blue Nile falls.

Debra Mark'os was our overnight stop while heading for Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia. In Addis we would say goodbye to Teddy, our guide for northern Ethiopia, and we would say hello to Hanek, our guide for southern Ethiopia. We would also say goodbye to Jane (our travel mom, the one who always cares for you and calls all the youngsters her children), Allan (our travel uncle, you know the one uncle who is always in for a joke and makes your day so much more fun), Alex and his mom Jo (Alex the one who spend his last night in Addis partying and trying to get a Ethiopian girl to where she lived so he could go back to our hotel and his mom who on accident flooded the hotels room because she was trying to repair/fix the annoyingly dripping toiled) and Javier (our Spanish sprayer with some funny facts which are to many to all mention).
We also said hello to Dolly, a friend from Maddy and Dutchy whom both separately met her on her 2 year travel (which she is currently still on ;-) and Veerle the other Dutch and the one to make sure Lotte wasn't the youngest anymore.

Addis has some nice museums we visited on our free days. On the first day we visited the Red Terror Martyr Square Museum, a memorial museum to the terrors that happened during the time that Ethiopia was ruled over by the DERG from 1973 till the early 90s. During this time there were a lot of people terrorized by the DERG, torture is the most gruesome ways and cold blooded killings normal practices for the DERG regime especially against the people who spoke against the regime. This all played while the western world didn't do anything, only "help" by food aid. Luckily there came an end to the regime and an new democratic republic was born. To honor the fallen men and women this museum was build.

Ethiopia was or is a unstable country politically wise, in the weeks we were there there were no problems but the month before there were some riots. And during the Italian rule during the 1930s thousands got killed as a retribution for a failed assassination of an Italian political person. As an tribute the Ethiopians build a big obelisk like structure.

We wanted to go to see Lucy in the national museum but unfortunately there was even power outage which meant we were not allowed to go in. So we went of the see one of the finest museums of Africa, or so it saids in the lonely planet, we on the other hand did not agree to this at all. It was a collection of gathered Ethiopian "stuff" placed in a old nice looking building on the campus grounds of the Addis Abeba university.

As we found out that following evening, we needed to get our East African Visa for Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. This meant we would be heading of first thing in the morning to the Kenyan Embassy. After a quick visa application we went of to the national museum to see Lucy luckily the power was back on so we could go in and it was an amazing museum. With everything well lit and explained. We saw the old bones of our ancestors and with 3,6mln years ago was Lucy the oldest there and probably ever discover. We went out for dinner with the group, which was a bit of a bummer. Ethiopian music and food for and expat price, which was for almost everyone a shock.

The next day we went of south to lake Ziway, where we went to a church on the lake. The church itself was not to exciting but the boot ride was nice we saw some nice birds on the shores and water.

One of the nicest destinations we would visit in Ethiopia was next, the Bale Mountains. Here we would spent a few days, walking around on the plains and the next day we to the Sanetti Plateau. It was really great we say a great deal of new animals we didn't see before Nyalla's, warthogs and Ethiopian wolves. The photos will be amazing when there online, from that moment on I cursed my camera because it didn't work anymore and on the right moments it failed working. Lucky for me Stuart lent me his back up camera, which was welcome treat.

Next big destination and last stop in Ethiopia was the visit of a few tribes of the Omo valley. Here we visited the Hamar, Mersi and the Deniski tribes. We were told they would be pushy to get there pictures taken but all the stories about how bad it would be were a bit exaggerated. Yes the people were in your face but not threatening. The tribe that was the most keen on taking there photo were the Mersi people. This is the tribe with the big plates in they're lips.
We did take some photos to show the differences between the tribes.

After the Omo valley we were of to Kenya where would cross the border in Moyale.