2020 Ethiopia Boris and Yammy

We took a pleasant boat trip out into lake Tana. We first visited the point where the Blue Nile left the lake. There were a couple of hippos there, posing for pictures.  There were a lot of birds about but this was not a birding trip. Our destination was two ancient monastaries further down the lake. It was a quiet spot enclosed by coffee plantations. The monastaries were circular with thatched roofs. There was a room in the center which was closed to tourists. The outside walls were painted with scenes from the bible. All very interesting and a pleasant quiet place to walk, but far from mind blowing. Now if they had shown us the Ark of the Covenent, which is supposedly hidden somewhere around the lake, it would be a different story. On the way back to the boat we had some traditional coffee to reenergize ourselves.

Blue Nile falls has 1/8 of the volume it used to have. There is a controversial dam that is being filled upstream, which will probably create havoc downstream. Despite all this we enjoyed the short walk to the falls. There is a rock bridge which was constructed in the fourteen hundreds. A woman along the trail was making injera. It's only condiment was a pile of chili spices in the center. It was surprisingly good.

Our big discovery in Addis was a fantastic coffee shop and the Ride app. The ride app provides cheap, reliable rides wherever you want to go in the city. We traveled uptown to a coffee shop called Tomoka  There are no seats just high tables to set your exquisite coffee on. We have become fans of macchiatos. Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee and they also do an elaborate coffee ceremony.  St George's Church in the Piaza area While uptown we also went to a vegetarian buffet at the oldest hotel in Addis.  a traditional meal of injera and lamb stew The rest of our time was devoted to procuring a bus ticket out of town. When we finally found the ticket agent we were faced with an enormous line up. We had to have our tickets translated as they have a different time system and calendar. Time starts at sunrise 0000hr and counts up to 1200hr which is sunset. Then the same thing happens for the night hours. I have no idea how thei...

After about twenty hours we arrived at the airport in Addis Ababa. Things went pretty smoothly. We changed 400 US at the currency exchange and got a mega stack of birr. On to the baggage carousel where the first two bags we saw were ours. Then waved by the extremely long line at customs. Next a taxi to our modest guest house. Which for some reason has no sign advertising it's existence. Thank god for gmaps or we would still be driving around. Down the hill from our guest house is a dump / recycling area and to the side of that a cement brick operation. In the distance some agricultural fields.  It was surprisingly quiet last night. The braying of a burro and the barking of a dog were the only sounds I registered. view from our roof We have spotted a few birds winging by and have had mixed luck identifying them. Our brains feel a little fried and we have been taking it easy today. Our only excursion was to walk eight blocks to get simm cards for our phones. Telecom is a ...