Where is Ron?
Ethiopia: January-March 2006
Ron, windblown in Malta, February 2005
Bahar Dar to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (via Dangla, Finote Selam, Debre Markos)
5-8 March 2006
12 March 2006
Afton, Virginia, USARon is now back in Addis Ababa preparing for the next phase of his trip, travel to Eritrea.
Yesterday, in addition to the reports below, he sent me 30 (!) photos, which I have now processed and posted on the Web page. He had a lot of trouble sending photos from Gondar and Bahar Dar, so there are 11 new photos in the Gondar section, and one additional photo (of a 17th century stone bridge the Portuguese built over the Blue Nile) at the very end of the Bahar Dar photos. Then there are some wonderful photos of his bike trip from Bahar Dar to Debre Markos, via Dangla and Finote Selam. Great shots of people! See the two links below. From Debre Markos he took the bus back to Addis Ababa.
Here in Virginia we've had almost a week of spectacular warm spring weather, daytime temperatures of 70-80F (~21-27C), and many things are starting to leaf out and blossom. Today I cultivated the section of our garden where I will plant the early vegetable seeds (spinach, several kinds of lettuce, peas). The seeds I ordered are scheduled to arrive tomorrow and I want to be ready!
Love to all,
Ellen
To see photos from the ride from Bahar Dar to Dangla, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos from the ride from Dangla to Finote Selam, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of the Blue Nile River Gorge, between Debre Markos and Addis Ababa, click on the thumbnail at the left.
On the bike again: Bahar Dar to Debre Markos
To see other photos of the bus ride between Debre Markos and Addis Ababa, click on the thumbnail at the left.
11 March 2006
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaHello, my dear,
After returning to Bahar Dar after visiting Gondar, I finally got it together to continue my bicycle trip back to Addis Ababa.
I took the long route to Debre Markos, to the west of the Choke Mountains, because it was paved, even if it was 80 K longer. The first day was more difficult and it must have been gradually up most of the day to Dangla, where I spent the night. The second day took me to Finote Selam, and I got a short ride up to the top of the mountain before Bure from a guy from Israel who was working on mobile phone towers and this gave me a lot of downhill for the day, which I enjoyed a lot.
In one small town not on my map, on day one, a guy took me back to the beginning of the village where there was a complex of churches. He maintained that the site had held a church older than the one at Axum, but it was "disappeared" by the Moslems. Then later another group of Moslems built a mosque on the site and then later this was also "disappeared." Now an Ethiopian who went to America is personally building a new church on the site and paying for the construction himself [see the Dangla photos from the link above]. There are several other small churches on the site.
I have enjoyed bicycling in the Ethiopian highlands, but am now finding the experiences similar to those I have experienced before. While each small town is different, they are beginning to have more similarities than differences from a traveler's point of view, and I will try to describe a composite experience. First when I arrive on my bike I am greeted by a group of children, more boys than girls, who run into the road to run beside me yelling "You You You" and adding various words such as "money money" or "pen" or "bread". If there are too many of them or they are getting too close or starting to touch the moving bicycle, I either stop quickly or loop back, either action tends to scatter them and send them running away, to return to the chase as soon as I start or reverse the loop again.
Most small towns have several buildings with hotel signs that may or may not be hotels. The best will have an ok room with various plumbing problems and maybe running water. There will be lots of small shops and restaurants and bars. Most of the town will look similar, with sprawl growing out both ends along the highway. Side roads will not be paved and usually are not lighted even if the town has lights along the main road.
By the time I reach the center and stop I have gathered a crowd. Sometimes I will just stop and slowly look at each person in the circle around me. I may smile, nod, say hello, hi, but a silence will descend on the group. Either I pick one person or one person is more aggressive than the others and dominates the conversation. People want to know "where you go?" but I think they are asking "where are you from?" If I pick one person to speak to, they often become my protector and keep the small children from overwhelming me. I will ask what the best hotel in town is, and after getting various answers, try to pick what I think they are saying is the best, and then I proceed to find it.
At dusk, my favorite time of day, many people are walking on the street, like me, enjoying the cool time of day and talking to each other. Outside of town, in both directions are people returning to their rural homes carrying various bundles, water jugs, firewood, etc. But there are also young people heading into town for the evening.
When it gets dark, the appearance of the town is very different. The bars and restaurants turn up the music, turn on the lights, and become quite colorful with "Christmas type lights", colored cloth material hanging on walls and doorways reflecting the light and adding color to the night. The dirt and poverty is less apparent. Many of the bars and restaurants appear empty to me. Some I assume are more like brothels with various women sitting around while most of the guys are drinking beer or their local honey wine. In the bigger towns there may be a bar that specializes in what is referred to as "Ethiopian Culture Music" as I have described before, but in the smaller towns I don't see these very often. There are small music shops selling music tapes and cds and these shops provide much of the music you hear on the street. The restaurants are serving a limited range of local food.
As I walk up the street various people will walk along with me asking where am I from, where am I going, can they help me, introducing themselves, asking for my name. Others wanting money, help, food. I can't possibly answer all of them. Some I ignore, some I just say hi to, some I just smile at. Sometimes I stop and look into one of the restaurants, bars, stores, and often people will welcome me and invite me to sit. Most often I just smile, say hi, look around and then leave.
In Finote Selam a guy who explained he was an English teacher in Debra Markos, and another younger guy who was one of his students, walked along with me. His English was pretty good and I liked his personality, so we continued for a while. I explained that I was having trouble finding boiled eggs (which I wanted for travel food the next day) and he explained that the people were fasting and not eating animal products, including eggs for the next few days, and that was why I was having trouble getting boiled eggs (and why I was also having trouble getting anything else to eat). We found one shop (out of say 8) that had three eggs which we bought and then went to a restaurant they knew, where the lady there agreed to boil them for me.
Debra Markos was a larger town and I found the Tourist Hotel full, so I stayed at the Shebel Hotel which was a fairly modern hotel and gas station. I spend an interesting afternoon wandering around the central market area in town and then continued on towards a mosque I could see. There was a group of French also staying at the hotel and I joined them for dinner and conversation until bedtime. They offered to take me and my bike with them in their bus to Addis Ababa but their driver wouldn't agree because of insurance reasons (so he said). I was going to use the local bus service as my sag vehicle and it was scheduled to leave at 6 AM, not my favorite time of day.
Next I will write about my bus ride from Debra Markos to Addis Ababa.
Love and miss you,
Ron
Sag wagon ride from Debre Markos to Addis Ababa
10-11 March 2006 [Ellen combined two reports]
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaHello My Dear,
OK, I admit that I am not up to the Nile River Gorge (or down for that matter). And looking at it from the bus, I think I made the right decision. The winding road down to the Gorge and back up the other side was dirt and rock and piles of construction debris. And it was a long way down and up.
I did manage to get on the bus early and get my choice of seat. However, the first seat next to the driver had a window I could not open and the second had no window that would open. So I moved behind the driver two seats where I could get the window to slide open. Later the guy who got the front seat managed to force open the window. So goes my logic.
I took lots of pictures from the bus but you may not get to see them until I return. I was surprised at how well they turned out. It was a long, all day, bumpy, dusty, hot ride, and there were many times when I wished I were on the bike instead.
Now back in Addis working on a plan for the rest of the trip.
Thursday [9 March] I checked with the American Embassy to be sure that I could return to Ethiopia after visiting Eritrea, and looked for other general advice. While waiting I met a couple of interesting bible school teachers who had just come from Djibouti and were working and living in Kenya. They were advising me to go through Nairobi because Djibouti was so uninteresting and expensive and it took a couple of days to get their visa in Djibouti. But I have decided to stick with the original plan, but with a couple of modern changes (airplanes instead of buses). I talked to a guy who traveled by bus from Asmara to Djibouti and it took days, was not interesting, lots of time just waiting on transportation, and food and facilities were... about what I expected.
By the time I arrived at the Djibouti Embassy on Thursday, they were closed for the day, so I returned yesterday morning to be told that I had to have a paper from my Embassy to get a visa, but then the lady agreed to let me call our embassy and get them to fax it, but in trying to get the number, she just changed her position and let me apply. I requested a three day transit visa, filled out the form, supplied one picture and $30 and at 3:00 it was to be ready.
To finish out the morning I visited the National Museum to see the remains of "Lucy", perhaps our ancient Great Aunt. It was interesting to see the bones spread out and a reconstructed skeleton of her assembled, somewhat over three feet high. I must say that seeing Lucy in person was more impressive than reading about her.
At the museum I learned more about teeth and what the teeth tell you about the creature that used them, such as diet and environment. And some of the art was interesting.
On the way up the street to find the Ethnological Museum, which the book says was closed for lunch, I discovered this Internet Cafe and stopped for a Papaya Juice and to look for your messages. Yesterday evening all the Internet Cafes were not connected. There must have been some major interruption in the service. This one seems much faster and the icon says they are connected at 100 Mbps. So maybe I will return this evening with my camera and map and send some pictures and a report of the bike trip.
Shortly, after lunch, I will return downhill to the Hilton and confirm my flight on Kenya Airlines to Djibouti for next Tuesday, March 14. After the Hilton I must return back to the Djibouti Embassy to pick up my passport and visa. All of these trips are long and involve a couple of mini-vans. But as I learn about the connecting points I find it much easier and faster to get to places.
Final plan: Tuesday 14 March I fly by Kenya Air to Djibouti Town, then get a visa from the Eritrean Embassy and an airline ticket to Asmara. Coming back I will take the train from Djibouti to Dire Dawa so I can visit Harar. Then my plan is to fly back to Addis from Dire Dawa. This plan allows some flexibility for some of the things I have not been able to figure out yet but will in the next couple of days, such as the train schedule and how to get a visa when taking the train, and the schedule of flights from Dire Dawa to Addis. [Note from Ellen: see this Mapquest map for an overview of where Ron is going. Asmara is where the red star is in Eritrea, and Harer and Dira Dawa are between Addis Ababa and Djibouti.]
The plan feels right and open the way I prefer. So wish me luck.
I will continue to send some pictures when I get a chance. And a report or two along the way. Wish you were traveling with me.
Love and miss you,
Ron
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Last updated: 26 March 2006
