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We awoke to brilliant sun, bright blue skies and a temperature of about 15 degrees! Absolutely gorgeous to go sightseeing. We reboarded our bus at the leisurely time of 10 AM and immediately headed 20 miles to the east end of the park that is not commonly visited by tourists. We wanted to see the  “Desert View Watchtower”, designed by Mary Colter as part of her design collection at the Grand Canyon. Indeed there is an 70 ft brick structure, built in 1932,  that was probably used as a watchtower long ago. It is also the highest point in the park -7500 feet of elevation. We were lucky, as often the road is closed after a snowfall but today it was snow covered but open. It took a few miles of travel before the canyon revealed itself to us in all it glory. Wow!  The presence of snow made it all that more dramatic. We lingered for pictures and to absorb the majestic views- all without the presence of crowds! We were the only bus in the parking area. Joe, our driver, said that during high season there might be as many as 50 buses there. Certainly this is reason enough to visit the canyon in the off season.

Over the next few hours we gradually worked our way back to the main tourist area on the south rim, stopping along the way at Grand View( it was!) and other viewpoints for more pictures. As you surely know it is virtually impossible to capture the immensity and grandeur of the canyon with a camera, even by trying to take a panoramic shot. You simply have to be there to take it all in.

We stopped for a quick late lunch  at one of the very few eateries open that day (personal pizza or elk chili) because we wanted to view a Grand Canyon sunset at the main tourist viewpoints at the Bright Angel and El Tavor Lodges. Marvelous! More pictures, along with visits of both historical lodges (and gift shops).

We returned to our respective hotels at the end of the day, marveling at what we saw and experienced. Mother Nature certainly made up for yesterday’s less than stellar weather. It was, indeed, a very Happy New Year and start to 2022!

We awoke to a fresh snowfall of several inches, providing a lovely winter landscape for a normally brown desert scene. We had to be at the local Williams, AZ train station for an 8:30 AM departure of the Grand Canyon Railroad. The rail line was built in 1901 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to transport people to the Grand Canyon. It thrived until the advent of the automobile caused its demise. In 1988 private investors bought the line and assets and made it the success it is today.  Approximately 250,000 people/year ride this train to/from the south rim of Grand Canyon. The rail depot here in Williams was built in 1908 and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. The depot and adjacent hotel was one of the early locations for the a Fred Harvey Hotel & Restaurant chain, with their famous “Harvey Girls” waitresses. There was even a famous 1930 movie (The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland) about them.

I was surprised at how many people boarded the train, but it is the holiday season. We were only riding it one way while most people would be making a round trip, returning late in the day after spending 3-4 hours at the canyon. Our seats were reserved and there was an on-going dialogue provided by a person in our car. In addition, the “sheriff”, dressed in 1800s garb( hilarious as he was really from the Netherlands) , passed through as well as a cowboy singer who entertained us with a few modern day songs.

The gentle falling snowfall provided a magical winter scene for our two plus hour trip. The time passed quickly and we soon reached the south rim of the canyon where our bus met us to begin our exploration of the area. The snow had stopped but unfortunately the area was covered by low lying clouds. We drove to a nearby popular canyon view spot called Mather Point only to be met with clouds. There was no canyon; not even a partial view! It was not a good start to our Grand Canyon adventure!

Not to worry, said our tour director. We will move on to Plan B or Plan C if we have to. But first let’s go have lunch. Because of the holidays many local restaurants were not open and choices were limited and we ended up in another locally owned Mexican restaurant. We did not mind in the least, but we’re again dismayed that the quality of the food was not like “back home”.

The restaurant was located in the small (population 558) town of Tusayan, AZ located about 6 miles from national park. The rest of the town consists of motels, souvenir shops, eateries, and local tour companies. A unique offering was an IMAX theater which shows a marvelous movie about the Grand Canyon. The plan B suggestion was that we would be taken to see the movie, again compliments of the owner.

After that we asked to stop at the local chocolate candy shop for “essentials” followed by a visit to the local gas station to buy powerball lottery tickets (we had several avid buyers on the trip) with a promise that we would equally share our winnings! The last stop was at a local grocery store for those who wanted to pick up some last minute goodies or refreshments for their New Year eve celebration.

It was now time to check in at our hotel. Originally our group was to have stayed at the Yavapai Lodge in the park. Prior to leaving we learned that much of the facility was going to be closed when we were scheduled to be there, so an option was offered to stay at a large, modern motel in Tusayan. Six of the 10 people chose that option, including us. In hindsight we made the right choice, as the Yavapai rooms had previously been used a dormitories and one had to walk to get to the main lodge for food/beverage, whereas our rooms were large and modern and the facilities (including a bowling alley of all things) was nearby.

I had made early (only time available) New Year Eve dinner reservations at the famous El Tovar dining room  in the park but because of our late arrival I had to cancel them and we simply joined our fellow travelers for dinner at our hotel. Because of staff shortages the normal dinner menu was truncated but they offered a special prime rib dinner that night that turned out to be quite good and drinks were a bargain at $8!

No late night reverie for us any more. We need our rest for the touring that is to come, as the weather prediction for January 1 was spectacular- clear, blue skies and moderate (30s) temperatures.

6 AM. Winslow, AZ. It’s dark. We exit the train. We are seemingly the only ones around so we start walking to the fairly famous hotel connected to the train station, called La Posada, where we are to meet our fellow travelers and our tour director, Dino Auger. Sure enough, out of the darkness Dino approaches us and and with a definite French accent, introduces himself and takes our luggage into the hotel where we will have breakfast before boarding our bus for the next leg of the trip. We meet several more travelers and learn that there will only be 10 of us on this trip ( 4 people had to cancel at last minute), a pleasant surprise. Also, the president of Uncommon Journeys, Christopher Kyte, and a colleague were also joining us.

After a leisurely complimentary breakfast we were escorted to a brand new 40 passenger bus (driven by what turned out to be, a marvelous driver, Joe) that would be our transportation for the remainder of the trip.. So in total there were only 14 people on the bus; everyone could have a row (or two) for themselves! Nice. The seats were comfortable with foot rests, and there were power outlets at each seat for our electronics. Surprisingly although there was no on-board wireless we were able to get fairly strong cellular signals most of the time.

Our destination for the day was Williams , AZ which was only 91 miles away but  we would be making a series of stops to see some of the sights as we made our way. The first stop was at the Petrified Forest National Park. During the Triassic Period (225 million years ago) this area was hot, humid and populated with prehistoric rain forests. Trees growing  the area ended up buried in sediment where they soaked up silica from volcanic ash and in time turned into quartz. Those trees, turned into stone,  is what we see today. An amazing sight was seeing what appeared to be perfectly sawn sections of trees that, in reality were not sectioned by sawing, but fractured perfectly over time into the sections now laying in the area.

Adjacent to Petrified Forest is an area called “Painted Desert” consisting of rocks and mesas that look like someone had painted them. Their color actually comes from minerals deposited over time. It does make for some dramatic pictures. It was a bit chilly and windy so our visit was short!

Having the president of Uncommon Journals traveling with us resulted in some unexpected perks like stopping at a local attraction called meteor crater. This crater was formed by a meteor landing here about 50,000 years ago. The actual meteor is estimated to have been about 150 ft in diameter, but its impact created a crater that is almost a mile in diameter and 550 feet deep. Its energy is estimated to have been 150 times greater than an atomic bomb. We watched a video about the crater and viewed the immense hole in the ground. Oh, to have a time machine to go back in time to see what happened when it hit.

Lunch, compliments of the president, was at a local Mexican restaurant. Frankly I was a bit disappointed, having expected it to be excellent because of where we were. Our local Washington Mexican restaurants offer better fare.

We arrived late in the afternoon to our stop for the night in Williams, AZ where tomorrow we will be catching a famous train that takes people to the rim of the Grand Canyon.

It has been so long since I have created a new travel blog that I had trouble logging in to my website to start creating this travelogue to document our recent trip over New Years 2021.

In 2009 we spent New Years Eve in Yellowstone National Park. It was such a magical trip that when I saw an advertisement for a trip that would spend New Years at the Grand Canyon followed by three days at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, even Yvonne was excited about taking such a trip! The trip was put together by a new company (to me) called Uncommon Journeys (www.uncommonjourneys.com) which specializes in somewhat unique trips that includes trains as part of their itinerary. That made the trip even more appealing because we have said we would like to try some train trips in our travels.

The trip originated in Los Angeles where one would catch an overnight Amtrak train to Winslow, Arizona. An alternative option was taking an Amtrak train from Chicago to the Winslow meeting point. As it turned out one of the couples actually did that. We flew from Seattle to LA where we transferred to the LA Union Station to catch the 6 PM train departure. I had a bit of concern regarding air travel delays but it all worked out without any hassles.

Since travel to Winslow was 12 hours in duration there was no question we would not be sitting up in coach seats for the trip. I opted to pay the (huge) premium for a bedroom that included an ensuite bathroom so we would not have to “go down the hall” to use the facilities. Alas, travel on Amtrak still remains pretty archaic. Once the beds were made up (lower & upper) it was almost impossible to move about. Thankfully by the time we finished dinner (so-so, but it was included along with one drink in our fare) it was time to retire so we managed to squeeze by each other and find our sleeping positions. The train was surprisingly rocky but it did not deter me sleeping through the night.

I was somewhat concerned about getting up in time to get off the train in the dark at 6AM in a small Arizona town with a different time zone,  but a $20 tip to our bedroom attendant earned us a personalized wake up call 1 hour before arrival. She even walked us to the proper door for getting off, but you are on your own for handling luggage.

Note to self:  no more overnight train rides on Amtrak! Cheaper and much more comfortable to simply fly.

Ethiopia was an amazing country, especially the visit to the north. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the rock churches in Lalibela and participating in the Timkat Festival. In fact if you ever go to Ethiopia I would urge you to go when the festival is scheduled (late January); it made the trip so much more meaningful and enjoyable. The history of the country and its earlier role in the world is fascinating and I was amazed at how little I knew about the culture and history.

The trip extension to see the tribes in the Omo Valley of southern Ethiopia was a disappointment and I would not suggest it unless you really need to experience it. The driving distances made for long days on the road. The hotels, for the most part, were a big disappointment, as were the visits to the tribes. The latter might be as a result of their recent change to how they would be compensated for picture taking. My tribal visits (except for the Dorze tribe) were nowhere as informative or entertaining as the ones we experienced in Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Was I glad I went? Definitely! Would I go back?  No, it is a one time visit country for me. It was #93 on my “United Nations Visited Countries” list; #111 if I include territories of countries (like the Azores, Aruba, etc). There are other countries I would still like to see.

A parting word:  “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” Unknown contributor

We are headed back to Addis Ababa today, leaving the hotel at 8 AM. To break up the almost five  hour drive (274 km) Chris has planned a couple of stops to see yet some more of Ethiopia. Near the hotel is the local daily fish market and we stopped for a short tour with a local guide. This market is not what I expected. We are on the shores of Lake Awassa and the fish that are for sale are those caught overnight by local fisherman, mostly catfish, Nile Tilapia and Nile perch. A team of 4-5 fishermen go out in rowboats at night, lay out large nylon nets with empty water bottles as floats, and spend the night on the lake. Part of the group handles 1/2 night while the others sleep in a nearby village, then they trade places during the night. The nets are retrieved early in the morning and brought back to shore where the catch is separated from the nets. There is a fish cleaning house nearby where men clean and filet the fish before offering them for sale and/or sending them to a series of nearby outdoor simplistic restaurants where an Ethiopian fish soup or fried fish  are prepared for waiting customers, mostly men. Oh, the other major visitors to the area are pelicans and storks who wander around looking for scraps. There are always young boys throwing fish scraps to the birds in hopes that tourists will give them some local currency (birr). There are also the souvenir hawkers trying to sell products. There are concerns that the lake is being over fished and the government is building a land based fish farming operation here to make sure that it does not happen. The tour was somewhat interesting because of its uniqueness, but after about 20 minutes we were ready to move on.

By 11:30 we stopped for a brief comfort stop and to pre-order lunches. Then it was more driving. I swear we spent almost as much time in the left lane, passing slower moving trucks, local buses and tuk-tuks as we did in the right lane!  I was amazed at how fast we often drove through the smaller villages, often over 40 mph, even though there were people and animals standing on or at the side of the road. Our drivers were certainly skilled at maneuvering the roads and situations they encountered. I am totally surprised there are not more accidents here.

It was a late (2 PM) lunch at a restaurant overlooking a lake that had been created in an extinct volcano crater. Forty five minutes later we were back on the road for the final 1.5-2 hour (depending on traffic) sprint back to Addis Abba. Thankfully the final stretch was mostly on a major, modern toll road freeway. We did see evidence of some major road building going on, compliments of the Chinese, so future driving to the south (eventually all the way to Kenya) will be easier and faster.

We were back to where we started, the fairly decent (hot water, flushing toilets, AC) Best Western hotel in Addis by 5 PM where we said good by to our drivers and thanking them for our safe journey. Our trip covered over 5400 km (3355 miles).  We had time for a quick shower before meeting at 6 PM for a final group dinner. I changed into the clothes I intended to wear on the plane as I had planned to leave later tonight, rather then spending the last night of the scheduled tour in Addis. International flights from here leave around midnight and had I spent the night I would have had to kill the day tomorrow before flying home. In hindsight it was a great decision and many others wished they had done the same. Everyone was ready to go home!

Dinner was at a Mediterranean inspired restaurant owned by a lady of Armenian heritage. Chris had ordered a set menu that included typical starters (hummus, tabouli , falafel, burek), followed by shish-kabobs of fish, chicken and beef. The restaurant had recently added a wood-fired pizza oven where you order pizza by the meter. Chris wanted to try it so he ordered a “meter” of margarita pizza to augment the meal, not that we needed more food. Everyone agreed the food was excellent and the restaurant was a wise choice. To top off the meal, Chris treated us to gelato at the ice cream store next to our hotel. It was a fitting ending to our trip.

By this time it was a bit after 8 PM. I finished packing up my things and returned to the lobby to catch the complimentary 9 PM hotel shuttle to the airport which was only about 10 minutes away. The airport was crowded as I expected, but flying business class allowed me to find the lightly used business class line and I was able to avoid the madness of the airport. There was even a special line at immigration for diplomats and other VIPs (like business class). I was safely seated in the surprisingly busy business class lounge by 10 PM. We boarded our Ethiopian flight to Frankfurt around 11 PM for a scheduled 11:30 PM departure. There was about a 30 minute departure delay but I was not concerned as I had a fairly long layover in Frankfurt.

Once aboard I put on my slippers, told the stewardess that I intended to sleep and wanted no meals so she put a “do not disturb” sticker by my seat. After take-off I put on a sleep mask and drifted off to a fairly decent five hour sleep. We landed in Frankfurt pretty much on time at 5:19 AM, local time. All in all it was a very nice flight and I was rested.

Trivia:  These big jets land at a speed of about 150 mph; good brakes are important!

The business class lounge in Frankfurt was almost empty when I arrived so I decided to take advantage of the nice free showers they offer there. It is amazing what a hot shower does after a long flight.

I boarded the plane to Seattle with a German pretzel I bought at the terminal; I really enjoy them. Our flight left on time; it is slated to be a 10 + hour flight. Lunch was decent; surprisingly the menu was the same as our flight home from our German river cruise last September. I slept a few hours, worked on the narrative part of my blog relying on hand scribbled notes I had taken on the trip, and watched a movie. I had a window seat hoping to get more pictures of the Canadian mountain ranges as I had on previous trips but our entire flight has been with clouds below so no new pictures. Total transit time Addis Ababa to Seattle was about 24 hours including the layover in Frankfurt.

Yvonne had warned me that it had rained in Seattle every day the entire time I was gone so I had packed my raincoat in the outer pocket of my suitcase so it was readily accessible when I landed. Sure enough I needed it but it felt good alter the dry, sunny weather I had experienced the past three weeks. I caught a cab to the Seattle ferry terminal, then walked on the Bainbridge Island ferry where Yvonne picked me up and brought me safely home to Miller Bay. My “Ethiopian adventure” was over.

It is quite cloudy this morning. People at breakfast said we had lightning, wind and rain last night after midnight. I never heard a thing!

We sadly left the Haile Resort Hotel at 8 AM, continuing our journey northward to the town of Hawassa (also referred to as Awassa), our stop for the night, with a stay at another Haile hotel there.

It rained a bit (sometimes fairly hard) soon after we left and we got to see the effects on the local landscape. The earth does not absorb the water efficiently and the normally dry river beds suddenly began to show some water flow. It reminded me of Arizona. The rain did not last long.

We stopped at a hotel around 10 AM for a comfort stop and coffee, along with what seemed liked every other tour company in this part of Ethiopia. It was so busy and their restaurant was so crowded that the staff set up some tables and chairs on the hotel lawn for several of the groups, including ours. Chris used the opportunity to tell us a bit about the Sidama people who live in this part of Ethiopia, which is called the Sidamo region. The Sidama people are part of the Southern Region of Ethiopia and Hawassa is its capital. Three million people live here. They are mostly Protestants and some 15% claim to still be pagans. This region is where 40% of the Ethiopian coffee is grown; agriculture is important. What makes it intriguing is that the area recently had a referendum and voted that they wanted to become a separate new region (#10) of Ethiopia. As such it would cause a major upheaval in the region. It is now being debated by the government.

We broke up the remaining drive by again stopping at a roadside home of a local tribe of some 600 people who grew sugar cane, false bananas and coffee. It was a home of someone our local driver, Tommy, knew from previous trips. Again we were cordially welcomed and soon a crowd of adults and kids gathered around as the local people explained their lives to us.

I forgot to convey a story of how local people advertise food/drink for sale. If there is a stick outside a home with a cup on it, it means the owner has locally made beer for sale. If there is a dish it means food is available for sale. We did not stop at any of the establishments to try them, however.

We were at the Haile hotel in Awassa  by early afternoon. Awassa is a fairly large city, located 170 miles south of Addis Ababa, with a population of 315,000 people. It is also a high elevation city: 5604 feet.

Later that afternoon we were given the opportunity to go on a short  “nature” walk in a nearby Amora Gedel National Park on the shores of Lake Awassa where we would likely see monkeys and other waterbirds who live there. It turned out to be a pretty fascinating walk as we saw dozens of storks who inhabited the area and several species of monkeys, including the beautiful, colorful colobus monkey. The colobus  monkey is so tame it will eat peanuts out of your hand and several of us took advantage of the picture opportunity!

We also walked along the lake shore where there were a series of bars and restaurants (and souvenir stands) where locals gathered for food, drink and conversation.

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Dinner was a buffet at the hotel. Tomorrow we will be back in Addis Ababa and the trip will come to an end.

 

I slept a full 9 hours last night, a record for this trip!  It is cloudy this morning with some fog. It is expected to be a leisurely day as we did the hard work yesterday. Everyone was pleased with these accommodations compared to what we had to endure in Turmi.

Chris has planned a short 9 AM talk at the hotel about the Omo Valley followed by a 9:30 departure to Arba Minch. It is expected to take 2-3 hours max, depending on the morning commuter traffic, i.e. how many animals we encounter on the road!

Omo Vally and Erhiopia Wrap-up

• 500,000 people live in the south
• The dams (3) that are being built will affect life here, as they will force changes in agriculture customs. The tribes need food and water for their animals.
• The dammed rivers flow into a lake (Lake Turkana) shared with Kenya. Problems are expected to arise once the dams are complete.
• Ethiopia is now #2 in population after Nigeria. The population is increasing because people are living longer
• 3% or rural population have access to electricity, 80% of Ethiopians do not live in cities. They need electricity, and that is the reason for the building of dams.
• Some tensions between tribes because of the dams. It is hard to simply move people to new areas, as others are already living there.
• Chinese are here for cotton, Indians are here for sugar cane. There is some gold and potash in country.
• There are about 80 separate tribes in Ethiopia; we visited the Dorze, Mursi, Kara and Hamar tribes.
• “When one door closes another door opens”.  An African proverb.

We took the back road to Arba Minch to allow us to see some new territory. As tour buses rarely take this route we were celebrities and kids vigorously waved as we drove by. We made a roadside stop when we saw some gentlemen packaging some young tree branches with green leaves on them. It turns our they were harvesting “chat” (also known as khat and qat), a leafy stimulant that is chewed. It grows in this area and is legal in this part of the world.  Chat contains the alkaloid cathinone, a stimulant which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite, and euphoria. It is also considered a solution for insomnia. Among communities from the areas where the plant is native, chat chewing has a history as a social custom dating back thousands of years, analogous to the use of coca leaves in South America. It is a perennial crop that grows in this region and is an important source of income for local farmers. Much of it gets exported to neighboring countries where it is also legal. We were offered samples to try but we graciously declined.

We arrived at the Haile Resort in Arba Minch in time to have a late lunch on the outdoor patio and spend a relaxing afternoon/evening at our now favorite hotel of the trip!

Not a pleasant night. Even though there was a mosquito net around my bed small gnats managed to get in and bother me as I tried to work on my blog. I finally gave up at 9:30 and turned out all the lights to avoid the bug onslaught.  Luckily they quit bothering me and I was able to fall asleep.

I awoke in the night to dead quiet and realized they had shut off the power to the hotel so my fan quit working. At 5 AM a local rooster and the electric power kicked back on telling me it was time to get up.

Chris had arranged for a 6 AM breakfast and a pull away time of 7 AM. I am sure everyone will be delighted to move on! We basically will drive an extra two hours today, but will have two hours less of a drive the next day. Everyone agreed it would be worth it.

Breakfast was surprisingly decent given where we are. They had peeled boiled eggs and of all things, crepes which were excellent. I had two with honey.  Their bread was also quite good and many of us made peanut butter and jam sandwiches for our later lunch as we drive back to Konso.

The visit this morning was to a village of the Kara (means “fish”) people, who live near the Omo River. Unfortunately it required a 90 minute ride on dirt roads to reach it. The Kara tribe numbers about 8000 and live in three villages. The one we are visiting has 1500 people living there. They live by fishing and agriculture; they do have cattle but not as many as other tribes. They consider themselves similar to the Hamar tribe but there have been some conflicts between the tribes. The women practice scarification and the men wear white chalk paint in patterns that mimic the guinea hen, common to the area. Men also perform bull jumping as part of the path to manhood. The tribe sometimes has conflicts with the Hamar tribe who also live in the area.

It started to drizzle a bit when we arrived but it was intermittent so it did not impact our visit. The little kids were very interested in us and commonly sought to hold hands with the people in our group. One little guy who couldn’t have been more than 18 months held hands with one of the men the entire time we were at the village. A local guide from the village explained the Kara way of life and arranged for us to take photos of the people living there. They also had implemented the 200 birr for all the pictures you wanted scenario and the villagers seemed more willing to accommodate this new method rather than the old 5 birr per picture. The tribe appears to be a bit more advanced than other tribes we visited in that we saw a few “modern” homes for the richer people and some mechanized farm equipment. We were also surprised to meet villagers who spoke decent English. We spent a total of one hour there, then started the long 90 minute trek back to where we came from. It was a long journey for such a short visit.

The nearest town to our hotel is called Turmi and today was market day for the Hamar tribe. We stopped and another local guide walked us around explaining what people were selling or bartering. This is a small, local market and deals with day to day needs of the people living here. It was much more enjoyable than the large city markets we have seen. We took some select photos (5 birr each) of specific people (no charge for distant pictures of the marketplace) before leaving the area for our two hour drive back to the town of Konso where we will be staying the night at the hotel (Kanta Lodge) we stayed before coming south.  No one complained of the added two hour drive. In reality we would be taking this same drive tomorrow if we stayed a 2nd night at the Kizo Hotel in Turmi, so tomorrow’s journey back northward will simply be two hours shorter. Everyone was thrilled.

 The intermittent rain in the area made some of the road quite slippery (it is mostly clay) so we had to slow down a bit when passing through those wet places. By 1:30 we were back in Jinka where we stopped at a local hotel where we ate our “takeout “ lunches (I ate my peanut butter sandwich) and stretched our legs. Amazingly we had no sooner arrived when local entrepreneurs set up their souvenir shop and enticed us to buy their products. The sales people are mainly elementary and high school kids and they are pretty good at negotiating to maximize their profits. It is a good learning experience for kids so young.

Back on the road at 2:30 for our last leg of the trip, another two hour drive back to the Kanta Lodge in Konso where everyone looked forward to decent rooms and hot showers. Dinner was again ala carte at the hotel and the meals were as good as they were a couple of nights ago.

Our venture into the southern part of the Omo valley has come to an end and we will begin our trip northward back to Addis Ababa.  Tomorrow we have a leisurely 2-3 hour drive back to Arba Minch and the marvelous Haile resort where we had previously spent two nights. Everyone is eager to return to it!

The night was warmer and the room was too warm for my liking. There were screens on the windows but the cross ventilation was minimal. I slept with only a light coverlet. A fan would have been nice. There was mosquito netting over the beds but so far I have not seen any mosquitoes, which is a welcome benefit. This morning it is already 69 degrees with a high of 84 predicted.

This hotel (Kanta Lodge) is beautifully landscaped; there are blooming flowers everywhere, including plumeria of all things!  The rooms are individual round bungalows designed to look like native huts. There is only internet in the restaurant area but it is not bad when it is operating and not too many people are trying to use it at the same time.

The weather says there is an 80% chance of showers today so I unpacked my raincoat to have it handy if needed. It is party cloudy this morning but no near term hint of rain. A little rain might be nice to knock down the persistent presence of dust. We wonder if the people living here suffer from lung diseases as a result of breathing it day in and day out.

Breakfast is again minimal but adequate. Peanut butter seems to make it on all the breakfast menus and it makes a nice change of pace from the normal eggs, vegetable and rice dishes that seem to be on every menu.

We have another short talk by Chris at 8:30 AM with a plan to leave by 9 AM when we head further south to visit other tribes in the region. Our goal today is to visit the Hamar people which has 46,000 members. Their wealth is in the number of cattle they own. This is the group that conducts the bull jumping ceremony as part of a youth’s entry to manhood. It commonly occurs in the autumn so we will not experience it. We will see more body scarification. The “first” wife of a man  wears a metal collar with a special protrusion to indicate her seniority; his other wives wear simple metal collars. These people, both men and women, really are concerned about their hairdos. The women put butter and red ochre clay in their hair to give it an orange sheen. The hairdos are quite elaborate. The men use wooden head rests to keep their hairdos off the ground when sleeping. (There is some confusion whether only married women have the elaborate hairdos).

Our destination for the next two nights will be Turmi, which is not very far from the northern border of Kenya.  We had to retrace our steps almost back to Jinka, using roads we were on yesterday as this part of Ethiopia does not have many roads.

Our caravan made a couple of stops along the way to break up the monotony. We walked across a bridge where we viewed the activity (swimming, washing clothes, washing cars, bathing) occurring on the river below and then an impromptu stop at another home where we simply asked the occupants if we could visit. Again they graciously accepted our intrusion.

Later we stopped at a questionable roadside hotel near Jinka to eat our picnic lunch. Because the food was questionable in this part of the country we brought pre-made sandwiches from our hotel where we stayed last night. Our choices were pretty basic: egg, vegetable, tuna or beef. I was leery of the beef quality and chose the egg sandwich. I had to laugh when opening it as it was simply an egg omelet sandwiched in a bun; there were no condiments on it!  As usual it was huge and I could only eat 1/2. It was awfully bland but the bun was fresh and tasty. I was sorry I had not made a peanut butter sandwich at breakfast as some others did. Of well, maybe dinner will make up for it.

Although the distance from Jinka to Turmi was only 80 km (48 miles) it was estimated it would take at least 2 hours to get there!  Welcome to southern Ethiopia. The reason was because it was 48 miles of a washboard, dirt road. Normal highway speeds were simply out of the question. There were even sections where an alternative roadway had been created parallel to the main road because it offered smoother travel. Sure enough we arrived at about 3 PM to what we had been expecting to be an upscale hotel where we are scheduled to stay for two nights as we explore the area.

Surprise! The supposed “new” Kizo hotel is a dump!  Rooms are spartan and most of us had no hot water. There are no screens on the windows so you dare not open them for ventilation. At least there was a fan in the room and mosquito netting that sort of fit around the bed! Everyone was incensed and threatened to mutiny; so much so that Chris, our tour director, immediately began looking for alternative accommodations at the few nearby hotels in the area. One of our group suggested we accelerate our viewing tomorrow and simply head back to the more civilized accommodations in the Jinka area where we had stayed a few nights ago. There was no way we were going to spend two nights at this hotel. Someone really screwed up by not vetting this hotel before they committed to it.

While this option was being explored we were met at 4:45 PM to go visit a nearby village of the Hamar tribe who occupy this area. We learned there are 100 villages belonging to them, with 100-400 people in each village. We learned that they, too, have implemented the “200 birr, take all the pictures you want” pricing, rather than the older 5 birr per person per photo. We immediately wondered if this system has been more accepted by the villagers than what we encountered yesterday where the women were not happy at all with the new system.

The village was only 10 minutes away from our hotel as a local guide (also a member of the Hamar tribe) led our tour. It again was obvious that many people did not like this new arrangement, but the village elder barked at the dissidents and order was (?) restored. The women and children lined up and sang us a greeting song. We then proceeded to snap photos and attempted to interact with the villagers. The kids were certainly receptive, wanting to see their photographs. Older children attempted to get many of the women in our group to give them articles of clothing they were wearing. The highlight might have been when one of our travelers gave one of the tribal women her pocket mirror. Supposedly they do not have such things here.

We did get to enter one of their homes to see how they lived. They cook inside, have no lighting and sleep on the ground on animal hides. It is pretty primitive.

After an hour we decide we had enough and returned to the hotel where we learned that they have found alternative hotel accommodations for tomorrow night back at the Kanta Lodge near Jinka. We would have to leave at 7 AM in order to still see other tribes and the local, unique market but everyone eagerly agreed to the plan.

Dinner was modest-a buffet with dry cold French fries, chicken that was obvious free range as it was very, very tough, and goat, which was offered for the first time (and wasn’t bad). Cold beer helped make it all palatable!

People retired early with the hopes that tomorrow will bring better times!