November 1st-2nd The Coffee Report: Full Circle at the ECX.

Everything is traded. The ECX is the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange. From the ECX website, "ECX assures all commodity market players the security they need in the market through providing a secure and reliable End-to-End system for handling, grading, and storing commodities, matching offers and bids for commodity transactions, and a risk-free payment and goods delivery system to settle transactions, while serving all fairly and efficiently."

At the most basic level, the ECX is meant to efficiently receive, process, sell and distribute coffee. In reality, the ECX increases efficiency in transacting coffee internationally while decreasing quality and traceability. The system operates when farmers sell to a mill, the mill sells to the ECX, the traders buy from the ECX, the exporters buy from the traders and the exporters sell to foreign buyers. Many of these positions overlap, so traders are sometimes exporters and more commonly mill operators are exporters. Mill owner-exporters have difficultly ensuring the quality of their exports. When he sells his coffee to the ECX, then wants to export that amount of coffee he will have to rebuy a blind coffee lot from the ECX (not guaranteed or likely to receive their coffee). Here is an example, assume you sell 30 bags of immaculately prepared Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe, to the ECX, to export 30 bags of Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe, you would purchase 30 bags of Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe, then wait to receive any coffee graded Natural G2 Yerga Cheffe. There is a way to receive your coffee, although receiving your coffee is not guaranteed, but requires the use of a back door, hand shake, kick back system.

One of the most controversial functions of the ECX is their blending of traceable coffees into single regional offerings. For example, the ECX will receive all natural Yerga Cheffe, grade them and treat them as one homogenized lot according to grade, then add (if they choose) any coffee from other regions "having Yerga Cheffe flavor." (This system is similar to the US commodity system.) No consideration is given to quality of preparation outside of Natural or Washed. This has lead to numerous complaints regarding excessively high grading of coffees and that the lower brand of specialty grade coffee should actually be graded a grade lower. These complaints from abroad and within Ethiopia are very slowly having an affect on a system, which is a mere 1000 days old.

As a side note, the ECX is an open-cry marketplace where traders shout prices at each other and deals are sealed with a High-5! Seriously!

Photos of Photos

I foolishly forgot the camera cord at home so... For those eagerly waiting, here are a few photos of a photo from the trip (quality & colors do not represent actual photo).

November 1st: Back in Addis & Full of Tips for Traveling Remotely

This trip has been another great learning experience on what to bring when traveling to remote areas. For those interested in traveling to Ethiopia or another very rural area here are a few items you should bring from home:

Hand sanitizer + a bar of soap (you will shake a lot of hands and encounter a lot of things. Soap is never guaranteed)
Wet wipes (think baby wipes, water isn't always guaranteed)
Eye drops (the dust is intense)
Toilet paper (you can't find it anywhere)
Bug spray (think Malaria)
Sunscreen, Chapstick w/UV protection
Sunglasses
Flip flops (used for many reasons: toilet, shower, misc..)
Windproof + warm jacket (it gets cold at night & in the mountains)
Sleeping bag (a small one, the beds are iffy, you will get bites without one)
Headlamp or flashlight preferably LED (power outages occur often & street lights do not exist)
Medication (if you're going rural)
Small phrase book (it is likely English may not be understood)
A Sense of Humor + An Open Mind.

October 31st Happy Halloween

As usual MJ wakes up way too early for most humans and attempts (unsuccessfully) to not wake me, but alas he does. So we start the day again during the pre-dawn walking towards the bus station for breakfast. Its a little ironic we would walk towards the bus station for breakfast when at home we would never think of going to the Greyhound station for breakfast. MJ has the stomach of an alley cat, so we eat a lot of street food which I love too. And we both love their Samoas and shai for breakfast, which are best at the bus stations. Samoas are fried triangular shaped dough, encasing brown lentils, garlic, onion and spices. If you've ever eaten empanadas then you have an idea. Shai is brewed from black tea (usually an Assam or Pekoe) served in 75ml (3oz) cups with about 15g (1/2oz) of sugar sitting on the bottom. It could be mistaken for Moroccan tea if mint was added instead of a medicinal herb which settles your stomach. MJ usually refuses to add sweeteners to his hot drinks but I watch him happily down shai after shai every morning.
Today we spent most of the day driving attempting to reach Addis in one day, with a stop here and there. First stop was to see the spectacular rain forests of coffee beans, second stop, lunch - delish as usual. Third stop was in Awasa to enjoy freshly caught fish and a boat ride. The fish is delish and the boat was awesome. 6 of us pile into a hand crafted wooden boat no longer than 18ft. It is painted with Rastafian colors and the flag is waving proudly in the wind. Water is seeping in through the bottom as we buzz by local fisherman also in handcrafted boats, the only difference being their boats are constructed out of reeds (yes, similar to a weed). The area of Lake Awasa we are headed for is a little more than 6ft deep and there in the distance we see exactly what we were looking for, HIPPOS! The is a family of roughly 40 HIPPOS, real live HIPPOS in front of us. We get no closer than 10ft but it was so worth it. The hippos were curious about us and would disappear and reappear every few minutes. One breached completely out of the water, another yawned and a baby just starred for awhile. We stayed for roughly and hour before venturing back as the hippos began nearing the boat, and for those of you that do not watch the nature channel, hippos are one of the worlds most dangerous animals which meant time to go. On our way back we watched birds take off by running on water and searched for the 30ft long water snake that thankfully we were not able to find. Today was also a sad day... After leaving Awasa we bid our friends goodbye as they have an extra week and will be heading South to Omo Valley. Tears came quickly from both Carolina and I as we parted, it is never easy to say goodbye to those you grow close to. But I raise my glass to the friendship we have created and look forward to seeing them in Germany or on another journey somewhere in the world.

October 30th The Coffee Report: At the Source

Akalelu and Dawit run an impressive business. On our journey to and thru Guji we stopped at two wet processing mills and a dry processing mill. The dry processing mill we visited was a small operation, which is ironic considering that 65%+ of Ethiopia's coffee is dry processed. I was struck immediately by the homogeneity of the first pile of cherries. The cherries looked incredible, just incredible. Dark even color, uniform bean size, nearly identical drying rate, and just so pretty. On a larger second pile, children, coming after Sunday school, were sorting the cherries to make some extra money. I asked the children and the adults (separately) how many days the children worked and both answered that the children only work on the weekend because they are in school Monday thru Friday. When I asked Dawit how many passes would be made on the second pile he told me more than five to ensure the quality. Surprised and slightly dumbfounded I asked why. He said this is the Ardi! After the initial surprise subsided he also told me that this was the Tinkish (the Flying Crop or first crop). Then he told me one last thing that stopped me again, "MJ, this probably won't be Ardi because the quality is very good, but not good enough." Those are very high standards you have Samuel.

Before arriving at the first wet processing mill just outside of Yerga Alem, Mother Nature played her hand and let loose a day long rain which set back harvest by at least a week. This wet processing mill was smallish in size, only able to handle around 30 quanto (100kg per quanto), but was actively processing the first harvest. All of the work at the Mill was done by hand except for the pumping of water, which still made this mill slightly more advanced than some others that use a gravity water system. The beans were laying around in almost every state: ripe red cheeries, smooth cream white silver skinned, moisture filled dull olive green, and nearly dry bright green. Seeing the beans in all these states reminded me of how intricate a process is used so I can brew my morning coffee. At this small mill nearly twenty people will touch the coffee. The farmer delivers the coffee (one), someone receives the coffee (two), it's moved to sorting (three and four), sorted (five and six), moved to pulping (same three and four), pulped (seven), washed (eight-nine-ten), drained to fermentation tanks (eleven), drained from fermentation to drying tank (eleven again), drying tank to mesh transportation screens (twelve and thirteen), spreading across raised drying beds (fourteen thru nineteen), off to storage (twenty to twenty three) and finally on trucks bound for the ECX (twenty four to twenty six). But having said all this the most striking image was of two older men. They were sweeping our "garbage" coffee into piles meant only for domestic consumption. By percentage almost no Ethiopian will drink their countries specialty grade coffee (read this as coffees purchased by high-end coffee houses) and for certain the farmers will never drink their crop. For them it's simple, sell the coffee for money to eat, or drink their dinner, clothes and tools.

The second wet process mill was a major operation and the largest of Akalelu's four mills. This mill could process, as measured by drying capacity, 220-260 quanto or roughly 50,000lbs. at a time. Unfortunately, the rain held the coffee on the trees so the mill was on a skeletal. At this size, the mill would have been a sight to see with 300 to 500 people working. Maybe next time.

Lunch and Ethiopian hospitality would not be deterred by lack of coffee or even by an intense but brief monsoon-like rain. Our hosts set out a table with chairs on the slope above the drying tables, then filled the table with roasted goat, injera and beer. Talking coffee, discussing life and having more than a few laughs we allowed the day to slip into the past. Ethiopian people have a kindness and easiness about them that is infectious and beautiful, and their children laugh and smile constantly filling the space around you with happiness. When finally the past returned to be our future we left for Hagermaram to bed down for the evening.

October 29th: To Guji.

Today we woke slowly, which means I slept till 5 and Tiffany woke at 5:15. We layed around for 20 or so minutes before we both could no longer stand it. Out again for a pre-dawn walk we enjoyed watching the city rub the sleep from its eyes. Dawit and Akulelu are scheduledto pick us up at 11 to begin the journey south to Guji. Until today I thought those two worked in the Sidamo and Yerge Cheffe regions but after a long talk over flaming Tibs I learned that they actually work in the Guji region. Depending on who is asked, the Guji region is sometimes lumped into the greater Sidamo area, but the Sidama and Guji people will tell you that neither lies in the other. To my surprise Dawit tells me that three or four years ago the Sidama and the Guji went to war over a vendetta and grazing rights. The war only stopped when the tribal elders worked out the vendetta and the Ethiopian government helped settle the grazing rights. Just outside Awasa we watch our first "African" sunset. From the road the sun's golden orange and red light slowly faded behind a hill topped with a single tree returning the savanna to darkness. We had seen our the Planet Earth sunset. Entering Awasa the streets are the cleanest we have seen. The city is brand new. Bajajs (motorcycle with cart) in the 100s and much to see. We check into a hotel and make our way to a bar. There are 8 of us on this journey, our Captain aka Big Boss aka Akulelu, our Co-Captain Dawit, two coffee geeks + their companions and our kindred spirits from Germany. We arrive at a a classy establishment and start drinking beers and a few order dinner, in the middle of all this the power goes out in the entire city. Apparently this is normal as no one seems to notice and life carries on. For the faranjis we feel blind. Thankfully Dennis was there, he whipped out his headlamp and wore it like a champ. Less than 20 minutes later the power returned another true experience under our belts!

October 28 To Addis Ababa we go

Grandmas house. She lives in a "compound" which in these areas is quite nice. Its a mud, stick and hay house with two rooms. One is grandmas bed and doubles as a kitchen, the other is a gathering room with built in benches just a few inches off the floor. We get out of bed at 4am naturally, we had been laying on grandma's straw floor with an overstuffed pillow and blankets that smelled like animal and in the outdoors it is impossible to a oid bugs. I foolishly turned on the flashlight and on our blankets there were over 100 fleas and other larger bugs. Not being accustom to this it freaks me out a little. However, the hospitality and generosity did not go unnoticed. We walked from the compound onto the street to watch our final sunrise in northeast and enjoy shai and buna. We attracted quite the crowd wherever we went and this was no different. Shortly thereafter we hit the road and journeyed back to Addis Ababa. Along the way we stopped for a coke in a small village and ended up dancing with children and communicating in broken language. It has been really wonderful connecting with so many people. Bidi was clearly excited to be going home as his driving increased in speed and the tires began squealing around the hairpin turns. I jumped in the front seat and held my stomach as though it ached to hopefully save all of of our lives and it was successful. By this time in our travels Bidi finally warmed up, out of nowhere he pulls over to show us a breathtaking view. Taking this opportunity having been in nature and toileting in a hole, we all took to nature when it called. I have found that no toilets view has been as spectacular as Cliffside at 13,000 feet overlooking the Simien Mountains. The best part of this is the moment we stepped out of the car we were mobbed by around 20 men in there late teens to mid twenties selling oregano and sheep mountain hats and having few areas to hide we found a giant rock that hid you from everyone but not everyone from you. Getting mobbed was not unusual but something about this group of people struck me and I was convinced to buy a hat. Back on the road we find ourselves in Addis Ababa and suddenly, mere moments after entering the city Bidi opens up and begins speaking decent English. We have no idea who this guy is and where he came from. This is clearly not the person we began the trip with and little pieces of all of us hope we have opened him up and shown him how to make a fool of oneself. The four of us stay in one room together, the shower is plugged, the bed is gross, the toilet won't flush and the sink won't drain and they call this the Eden Pension. Tired and a little irritated we all go enjoy a delicious meal fireside. Tomorrow we are being picked up at 11am and heading South.

October 27th The Road to Woldia.

We left Debark and the Simien Mountains today. Sadly we had to say goodbye to our favorite breakfast spot and the very hard working porter and mule drivers who we joined for our morning Ful (ground chickpeas with onions, hot peppers and spices) bread and shai (chai). Getting in the van, not one of us was looking forward to driving back over the road from Debark to Gondor. Imagine taking three and a half hours to drive a distance of 100km, in a van filled with dust bouncing so hard that your neck, back and shoulders lock into place, then realizing you have seven more hours to go. This time thankfully, we cut thru the center of the north on a newly constructed road. This road cuts around a mountain and thru another large canyon that looks as if Bob Ross had painted it. Most of the center section of this road is above 10k feet, which meant that even during the hottest part of the day we wore coats and sweaters when not in the van. We got into this kick of trying to photograph the local houses while speeding down the road. Not that easy when your moving over 120kph. After about an hour of this Dennis quipped that "how crazy would it be if an Ethiopian came to our home and started taking pictures of the houses?" He was right we were doing something totally ridiculous. An hour out of Woldia, our destination for the day, Bidi asked us if we wanted to stay at his grandmother's home instead of a hotel. Ethiopian hospitality. Of course we would Bidi. Dennis had this funny saying he used when telling us about their trek thru Nepal, "do you take the adventure or do you turn back?" So after nearly ten hours on the road, we stopped in Woldia for dinner. Bidi always ate with us but for some reason he bowed out of dinner opting for two macchiatos instead. This did worry me a bit because we had been eating the same foods and if he was getting sick then we surely would get sick. His grandmother's house is just thirty minutes from the restaurant so off we went. Arriving at her home we walk down a very dark path thru the "compound" comprised of five buildings and a small yard. Almost immediately after we arrive Bidi's family started setting the table and pouring the drinks. Not wanting to disrespect their incredible hospitality we forced ourselves to eat a second dinner. Delicious. Tired from a long day of travel our hosts noticed our need for sleep and started preparing our beds. We were shocked when grandma herself began leaving her bed for us. We tried to stop her but our protests fell upon deaf ears. Exhausted and not wanting to be rude we bedded down on the straw floor and in grandmas bed. Unbelievable Ethiopian hospitality again.

October 24th - October 26th: Headed to Bahir Dar, Gondar, Blue Nile Falls and Debark (Simien Mountains)

We bid the guest house goodbye and meet with out driver who appears to be in his early 20's and has no interest in joining us on this journey. We begin with a 2 hour detour to his home in the suburbs of Addis to pick up his bag. When we finally leave the city the landscape is a lot like Eastern Washington, the colors resemble home nearly identically and we reflect on how fortunate we are to live in Washington. The land is cultivated with the mountains in the backdrop. The only real difference being the small bumpy road and the herds of sheep, goat, cows, and/or bulls followed generally by a donkey and Shepard which ranged anywhere from age 6-60. We snake through the mountains in our personal mini bus passing villages, bustling with hard working people. We arrive in Bahir Dar at night and find our way to the Wallia Hotel. It's time to see what $2.25 a night for two people will get us. It is clean and cans of paint litter the courtyard. We are shown the first room, bright blue walls, a bed, a wooden chair, little room to walk, a mosquito net hanging over the bed and the strong smell of paint. We look at another room which is a little larger but has the same smell. We decide take the 1st one. We head out for coffee and a little something to eat at Wude Coffee where we meet our kindred spirits from Germany, Carolina & Dennis. Off to inhale the chemical compounds of paint.

October 25th:
Waking up early and in need of some fresh air we walk the streets of Bahir Dar. Near Lake Tana which is located in the city we are stopped in our tracks. Hundreds of people dressed in white from head to toe are parading the streets, chanting "god is love" in Amharic in a sing song voice and clapping. We have the urge to follow but proceed on not wanting to interrupt. We do however begin to follow the flood of people and lights into the bus terminal. We sit for shai and our first encounter with the Ethiopian "empanada.". As the sun begins to rise we walk to the lake and are swayed to take a boat ride to a 14th century monastery Debre Maryam and to the opening of the Blue Nile river. The ride is enchanting, the sun is rising over the Acia and Banya trees, birds are singing and taking flight. And to top it all off, local islanders in papyrus boats are making their way to the main land to sell wood gathered the previous day. Stepping off the boat a family boards the neighboring boat on their way to school. We walk down a path that resembles a trail and land upon a new-ish building. Confused we make our way inside to see the original structure, older women praying and a monk/care-taker of the building. The kind man takes us to the museum of the property where there are items such as a scripture book, Christian artifacts and paintings over 900 years old. It is hard to imagine the items just sitting in this shed behind glass because we know in America these same items would be in an air sealed case and guarded around the clock. Back to Bahir Dar we go. It's 830am by the time we make it to the dock, run into our driver and hit the road at 930am to make our way to the Blue Nile Falls before picking up our new friends at 11am. The falls are only 32km away, how long could it really take? Well an hour for those wondering... When we reach the trail it's 1030am and the "guides" are saying it takes no less than 1 hour round trip! What? The book says its only 300 meters! We decide to try our version of trekking without a guide and get there in about 10 minutes with the help of a student just interested in practicing his English. The falls are beautiful and there are several. We take a quick look around, snap a few photos and head back to the minibus, we are lake for an important date! Of course we are late but are able to reach Dennis and Carolina's hotel using our drivers cell phone, thank you modern technology! Gondar here we come. We stop for lunch and basically get the rawest deal yet! Over charged after repeatedly requesting a menu, a disgusting toilet and some random person asking for a tip because he felt he escorted us to the restaurant. All around not our favorite town. We get out of there as quickly as possible and find ourselves laughing, chatting and connecting with these two on all levels as we snake up and down the mountain switchbacks and some of the bumpiest roads we have ever experienced. We pass through poor villages lined with mud and stick houses where children play in the mud, very few shoes are to be found, animals sleep indoors for protection and warmth, and it honestly feels like a glimpse into Ethiopian's Dark Ages. We make it to Debark in the late evening and venture to all hotels to negotiate a room price and something that is halfway decent. It seems they are all overpriced, have an intense smell and just don't appear to be very clean. Along our trek to find a decent hotel we meet an Ethiopian gentleman who speaks nearly perfect Queen's English. He is trying to be our guide tomorrow in the Simien Mountains as we kindly refuse he sends us to a hotel just up the street which he describes as "amazing and will blow your mind" (insert British accent). Naturally we are intrigued and make our way there only to find that the scent is intense, the bed appears to be dirty and it's not much less than the best one we've seen. We go back to the first hotel and make a deal, off to bed in hopes of a good nights sleep.

October 26th: Debark to Simien Mountains
MJ and I rise early and see what this little mountain village has to offer. Naturally we find a seat to drink shai and experience Foul (Traditional Ethiopian breakfast), for the time. We sit with the locals and enjoy so much so that we have 3 orders and multiple shais. On the way back to the hotel children run over yelling "you you you" and on both sides children grab my hands and we walk together for a short time. They ask for money, pens or plastic, look at my white skin and straight hair in wonder. Children are so sweet and cute. They beg but more than anything curiosity is the main reason for them gathering around us. MJ and Dennis go to the park office to arrange our enterence fee and discover you need to pay for a guide and a scout for a one day trip into the national park. Carolina and Dennis had originally planned on trekking through the park to camp but it turns out to do so you have to pay for mules, a chef, a scout and a guide, they decided against it so the four of carried on into the park. Within 30 minutes we were in the land of the Gelada Baboons. We run out of the minibus, down the hillside and there they are Ina huge group, I'd say over 100! They were grazing on grass and flowers, babies were playing with one another and adults were grooming. We are within 10 feet of some of them and continuing to move closer ever so slowly. We also happen to stop in a beautiful location for scenery, the cliff face drops off and as far as the eye can see mountain tops raise in the distance. The Gelada Baboons provide a show for us... Sexy times. It's quite human like which is scary. We moto on down the road and go for a hike in the direction of Cheech Village. The views are amazing, pictures can provide a few glimpses but unless you are there it is difficult to describe. Along the way at 4400 meters we run into a baboon family. There is one male and he has 10 wives and so many children you can not count. We sit and get less than 5 feet from the male, it's quite intense but beautiful. Sexy times happen again but this time when the male finished he charged MJ as he was now a threat to his family. We all jump and the scout with his rifle just laughs at us. Apparently it was just a warning but warning enough for us that we should continue on. We climb up and down the hillside until we reach a cascading waterfall from the sheer cliff face, this is the perfect place for lunch. We also have a few visitors. Eagles are soaring and large billed ravens stalk us in hopes of a few bites to eat. Our trek is complete, we start for the car. Biddie our driver is not to be found. Another driver has to go tell him to pick us up. We walk along the road and suddenly Biddie shows, sweet! He gets out of the car and as Dennis describes it our driver is the "naked lady boy.". He has no shirt on, his pants are unbuttoned and unzipped, and to top it off he is wearing huge female sunglasses. It was obvious from the beginning he didn't know how to drive the minibus but back to Debark he gets us stuck on a hill... A truckload of people are approaching us from the front and there are several land cruisers behind us. A Frenchman approaches the car and says the weight is the reason we can't get up the hill so we are instructed to leave the vehicle, living in a snow area we know weight is what helps, we just need more. We give it a try and nothing happens so we pile back into the car along with several locals and with the help of a few others pushing we make it out. Back to Debark for a nights rest.

October 22nd The Coffee Report: The First Cupping.

While sitting in his office, our friend and excellent host, Dawit asked if he could setup a cupping. I jumped at the chance. He said a few words in Amharic to one of his employees and she left for the lab. When we entered the lab we were greeted by the familiar sights of all cupping rooms: grinder, hot water tower, cups, trays and sample roaster. What I wasn't expecting to see was her in the middle of roasting two barrels of coffee. I asked her what she was roasting and she pointed to a sample bag with a G2 Sidamo (exchange grade) inside. To pass the time while she finished, we inquired about each others sample roasting protocols. Their sample roasts last about 5-6 minutes as opposed to our 9-12 minutes. Almost no airflow was added during the roast and no gas changes are made. They usually stop at the Italian roast level (or darker), and occasionally they stop at French. For us in Seattle that would be considered too dark a roast level for a sample, but they have good reason for roasting this dark. Almost all domestically consumed Ethiopian coffee is below standard grade or off grade coffee. All higher grade coffees are shipped overseas to Europe, Far East Asia and the United States where they fetch a higher price. So to offset the poor quality of their coffee they tend to roast it very dark (at least by Western standards). This customary roast style is even applied to higher grade export coffee although this is slowly changing to lighter roast levels. After she dropped the G2 Sidamo she let me inspect them before grinding. Barrel one was an Italian roast: moderately oily, smooth surface, brown-black skin. Barrel two was somewhere between French and Italian roast: slightly oily, one or two surface wrinkles, dark brown color. Both had the obligatory quakers. By strict SCAA definition, the prevalence of quakers in coffees preclude it from being specialty coffee grade. Ironic since Ethiopian coffee is prized by many coffee professionals. Smelling the grinds I could easily detect quakers in two of the ten cups with the rest ranging from fruity chocolate to bland coffee. I wasn't expecting dynamic cups considering the coffee had no rest. I was curious about how they would handle the degassing such fresh coffee for the brew, so she showed me their trick. They only fill the cups half full for two minutes then top them off to finish the brewing. Smelling the half full cups proved nearly pointless, so much CO2 was coming off none of the five of us could smell anything. Around the four minute mark the crust began to offer its fragrance. At first the chocolate, milky sweet chocolate followed by hints of berries and floral orange. Breaking the crust was less helpful in unlocking this Sidamo than I had hoped. I'm guessing that when the crust broke another cache of CO2 burst free masking the other fragrances.
On the first pass, chocolate and quakers (in two cups). The second pass, more chocolate, moderate acidity surfaced and hints of berries. The third pass, more of the same but with no berries. We offered to help clean up but Ethiopian hospitality refused to even let us take our spoons to the sink. Grateful and happy we left for the Piazza in Addis.

October 23rd

The land is quite rustic... Starting in Addis Ababa we wake a 4am to see all star runners and future athletes training in Meskel Square on a tiered stadium facing a main thoroughfare. We then make our way through the fruit and vegetable market which you have to squeeze your way through the hustle and bustle. The market has the scent of fermenting vegetable, the ground is muddy and there is a consistent drone of bargaining in the background. It is nearly time to meet with Dawit for lunch. We have our first meeting with Indian food in Ethiopia and might I say it is quite nice followed by a coffee ceremony at his house. Here is the coffee report:

October 23 The Coffee Report: The Coffee Ceremony.

Today we have what I hope is our first of many coffee ceremonies. The Coffee Ceremony is traditionally used when preparing coffee for guests, friends and loved ones. The process used during the ceremony is long and elaborate and unfortunately in today's Ethiopia is being replaced by faster less elaborate methods. The ceremony has so many parts to it keeping track of them all is a skill onto its own. First is the selection of green beans, yes green beans. The green beans are then set on a flatten out wok shaped metal disk, which sits on a rectangular charcoal fire box. Think of the box as a cousin to the Argentinean parilla but without the grill. Our coffee preparer used a metal tool with a small 6cm L-shaped end to continually stir the beans around the hot metal disk. In about 6-7 minutes the first audible pops could be heard followed in about a minute by a second set. After 8-9 minutes of roasting the coffee was set aside and the first of two pot was set on the fire. While we waited for the metal pot to boil, the coffee had cooled enough to be put into the mortar and postal for grinding. Thunk, thunk, thunk until she had ground the coffee to the right consistency then carefully she pours the grounds into the clay pot for brewing. The clay pot's shape harkens back thousands of years and looks identical to the water urns of Egypt, but with a stopper top. The water is ready and she quickly pours it into the clay pot and replaces the stopper. For a minutes or two the pot sits on a special stand next to the fire, but is then placed back on the fire to finish brewing. Next to the fire and pots is a another rectangle box but this one holds the beautiful cups and saucers. She tinkers with arrangement until she finds the pattern she deems appropriate and pours us our first coffee. We were told that Ethiopians drink three cups because one is considered unlucky, two is for friends, and three is for yourself. After the third cup it is also customary to give a blessing to or for anything you choose. All-in-all the ceremony lasted a little over an hour.

Making our way back to the guest house we meet with the owner to discuss our plans North which Ethiopian Hospitality Saves the Day!
When we planned our time in Ethiopia we wanted to spend some time in the North. The North is home to the country's most important antiquities and trekking mountains.
Lalibella: rock hewn maze of subterranean Christian churches
Gonder: the royal castles
Lake Tana: centuries old monasteries at the source of the Blue Nile
Simien Mountains: Gelada baboons, Ethiopian Wolf
Aksum: professed resting place of the Arc of the Covenant.
During the initial planning our Ethiopia contact estimated that a driver and car for five days of driving i n the north would cost roughly $100-$150 USD total. Cheap right? That's what we thought too, but who am I to argue with an informed person. Today we're finalizing our plans for the north and find one little snag. The price of our excursion has gone from $100-$150 to $1200-$1300, and to make matters worse Aksum and the Simien Mountains are no longer possible because five days is too short a time to accomplish all our trip. When we're told this our jaws drop and ours hearts sink. That's 10x more than we were expecting with two less destinations. We take some time to discuss our options and finally come to the conclusion that we are going to stay in the north-west and see The Blue Nile, Bahir Dar, Gonder & Simien Mountains and of course try to see Lalibella if possible. Back to the office we go. With the managers help, later we learned he is a friend of Samuel, we made a few phone calls and arranged a personal driver and car. We emded up payimg more thsn we expected but considerably less than $1300. I have to be honest and say it seemed as if the hotel owner called in a favor or two for us. Without this kindness and generousity our northern plans would have been scuttled.