Ethiopia General Tips by SirRichard

Favorite Thing: In spite of a (wrong) general impression, Ethiopia is not a dry endless desert. All the north part of the country is mountanious, green and beautiful. Some parts, as the Simien Mountains, make an ideal scenary for trekking and hiking.


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Favorite Thing: Yes, though Nile sounds like Egypt and Sudan, the river has 2 main branches that join in Khartum to make the 'Great Nile'. The major branch, White Nile, starts in Lake Victoria ("discovered" by Speke, 1863) and the minor one, starts in Lake Tana, in Ethiopia.
Since XVIIIth Century it was believed that the main source of the Nile was Ethiopia, as the other branch was unexplored. Sir Richard F. Burton and Speke searched the true sources of the Nile starting in Zanzibar and heading west till they arrived to Lake Victoria. There's a great movie about that ('The mountains of the Moon').


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Favorite Thing: Art lovers have a good reason to visit Ethiopia. In every little church or monastery you will find these amazing examples of religious art, scenes from the Bible, saints and local legends. It is not only something of the past, new churches have their own paintings, though I personally prefer those with a few centuries on it.


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Favorite Thing: Time in Ethiopia is totally different. And I mean:
- HOURS: Ethiopia follows a different time system, they start the day when the sun rises, so our 6am is their midnight, our 7am is their 1am and so on. Be careful when you ask for a schedule... and make sure you have aither occidental or ethiopian time. For instance, ALL the buses in ALL the country leave at 6am, just when the sun rises, so they make the most of daylight...
- YEARS: As they follow a different calendar, they live now (2006) in 1998, still in the 20th century, and their year starts in our September.
- MONTHS: The Ethiopian year has 13 months. Thus the touristic slogan "13 months of sunshine"- Though I can swear I had only 30% of days of sunshine when I was there in rainy season!!


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Favorite Thing: In the same house I mean...
I experienced it when I was at Debre Damo monastery, near Axum. You can stay overnight here, and will be hosted by one of the monks. None of them speak english at all, so is better to come with a local guide from Axum or Adigrat, he will act as interpreter.
Monks live in rather spartan huts, with dusty grounds and just a bed and some chairs. They have very few belongings and they keep all of them in holes in the walls that act as wardrobes. Some houses have their own dwell, from where thay take "drinkable" water (from the rains) and make baptism ceremonies.
When I arrived, "my" monk offered us injhera and local beer as welcome and we chated about how their life was up there. He had even travelled to Israel in a sort of exchange with israeli orthodox monks of Jerusalem. When he say my backpack and sleeping bag he said: "I even have a sleeping bag", he went to the other room and brought a potatoes sack that he uses as "matress" when he goes abroad sleeping on the floor... that's ascetism!
I slept on the wooden bed that you can see in the background in the pic. He put some goat skins on top and that made a surprisingly comfortable matress. When he turned off the oil candle, the silence and obscurity was total. I woke up for "biological necessities" in the middle of the night (hard task if you don't have a torch light) and the sky was the starriest I had ever seen!


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Favorite Thing: Ethiopians are usually tall and thin. You can find some that are very beautiful, specially women in the south, near Somalia.
Most are friendly and many people approach to you in the streets, though 80% are after some tip after guiding you here or there, or showing you his cousin shop.
Most young people speak english, though sometimes very basic.


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