Return to the greatest coffee shop in the world, according to me, Tomoca Coffee.
Fragrant grasses on the floor of one of dozens of silver & gold jewelry shops in the Piazza because of a holiday.
Vegetable market.
Islamic meat market.
Corn on the cob, which was tougher than the cow corn which my Grandparents grew in Lincoln, Illinois. After a couple of attempted bites, I gave it to a very happy young street girl.
Look at the scaffolding.
South Africans training in Addis because of the high elevation.
The morning Daily trek down Entoto Mountain with wood and straw to sell in Addis. We saw the return in the afternoon of hundreds of donkeys going back up the mountain, this time with nothing on their backs.
Our guide for the day, outside of Addis, was Solomon. Solomon is the brother of a young woman we met in Boulder, CO, the evening before our trip. Dan, Sam, Ompa, John & I went out to the Ethiopian restaurant in Boulder and met Abasha. We talked and she asked if we had a guide. We had kind of arranged the same guide we used six years ago, but decided to spend one of the days with Solomon, because of the connection. Solomon is Eliah's age, 24, and a Rastafarian. Check out his new hat which he got at a raggae concert last week...he showed me the pictures! I sure wish we would have been here for that! Solomon is a happy and friendly guy. He wanted to be in all the pictures! His English was pretty good, and he liked Americans because "they're more adventurous than Europeans."
An Abo, or church. These dotted the coutryside.
An interesting hobble.
Donkeys are used for everything. Some of the loads looked gigantic, probably were abusive. They carried bags of stuff, wood, grass, and heavy rocks.
Every herder, many young boys, used a Gerafe, which is like a whip, but it's the sound which moves the animals. It sounded like a gun shot from a really big cap gun. When it was in the canyon areas, it echoed loudly. The kids used them as toys to play and there were contests using them too.
The church of Debre Libanos. This is the center of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The current church is the 3rd one built in the area, because the others were detroyed. It was built in the 1950s by Haile Selassie.
The day we went was a special holiday with big crowds everywhere.
Inside were beautiful stained glass windows.
Being the adventurous Americans :) we trekked up to the cave of Tekle Haymanot. It was slippery, muddy, steep and wet. It's the rainy season in Ethiopia. I had on crocks, not prepared at all for a hike.
I wanted a picture at the gate, and of course Solomon thought this meant with him in the picture! He slung the guard's AK 47 around his shoulder for theatrics. The guy next to John was our driver, and he helped me hike up the slippery trail.
In the cave at the top are containers of Holy Water. The water is dripping from the ceiling. Solomon told us the Holy Water was very important and had great powers, including healing. As we hiked down, we heard a guy screaming repeatedly. Solomon said the Holy Water was driving the devil out of the guy. People visited for many different reasons.
Solomon and I stood on the spot which Tekle Haymanot stood on one leg and prayed for seven years. He subsisted on one seed per year, fed to him by a bird.
Luckily, the guard with the AK 47 let me use his cane on the trek.
Leaving the church, the drive is gorgeous looking down into the Jemma Valley. It reminded us of the Anasazi people of the Grand Canyon. There were no roads with villages on all levels of the cliff bands.
The Jemma River flows into the Blue Nile which flows into the Nile.
The Portuguese Bridge is an attraction in the area. Depending on which source you want to believe,It was either built at the end of the 19th century or during the 16th century and either by the Portuguese or by Ras Darge.
Baboons living near the bridge in the Gelada Cave.
Coke in Amharic, the language of Ethiopia.
Long haired baboons in the area. We watched a young herder chase them away from his goats, throwing rocks at them. They are very different from all the baboons in East Africa.
Injera with raw beef, a favorite of Solomon. Chile paste on the side.
For us, the beef was cooked, fat and all. We dug in, forgetting that fat wasn't healthy for the moment! The restaurant was in Debra Tshega and also had delicious coffee. Some other men eating at the restaurant thought we should try the local "vodka". It's a traditional maize drink called Araki which we tried, poured out of a recycled jar. It kind of tasted like a smooth vodka with a sourish after taste. The boys filled an empty water bottle with Araki to take back to friends in Addis.
It's the rainy season and all of the herders have umbrellas. I thought it would be great to have a picture of this scene, so asked if we could stop at one of the next herders which who was fairly close to the road. I imagined the scene out in the valley with the donkeys, goats, small horses and cows and the herders with big umbrellas in the rain. So, Solomon stops at the next herder, jumps out to go get him, and brings him to the van so I can take a picture from the window. Hilarious.
Traditional home.
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