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.