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.