Joe's World Backpacking Trip Stories and pics from my travels.

The internet is incredibly slow here, so I'm going to have to bunch together a couple different places at a time. And for now, no chance for pics. Sorry.  I spent my first few days in Addis Ababa figuring out how transportation works here.  A two day dusty, bumpy bus ride brought me to Bahir Dar, a village on the southern tip of Lake Tana.  Lake Tana is known for it's Orthodox Christian island monasteries that date to the 16th century.  My highlight from Lake Tana is the 2 day ferry from the southern village Bahir Dar, to the northern village Gorgora.  It was spectacular.  No other white people, we stopped at about 4 different villages on the two day ride up north.  Some island villages and some coastal.  This is the poorest country I've ever been to, but seeing these villages was very special.  People live in mud huts with thatched roofs.  Dirt paths, free roaming livestock and no water for showers.  I loved visiting these villages because they haven't been impacted by tourism, and everyone there was very friendly.  My highlight was the night I spent in Gorgora.  Me and an Ethiopian friend I made, Addis went to a hut that a woman lived in, in the village.  She prepared us the local dish Injera, with vegatables and bean sauce on a bread type thing I can't really describe.  We ate in an open air mud hut with livestock occasionally wandering in as she performed a "Coffee Ceremony."  Coffee is originally from Ethiopia so it has a strong cultural and social significance.  She started by washing the raw coffee beans by hand.  Then she cooked them in a pan over a wood fire.  Then she crushed them in some wooden thing before pouring them directly into the hot water and serving it to us.  Wow, great coffee.  All this cost about a buck and a half for the both of us.  After this awesome home prepared meal we went back to the "hotel" which was nothing more than a bigger mud hut with individual rooms.  When I got there the girl who worked there asked if I wanted some Papaya juice.  I said sure not really knowing what to expect.  I kid came and climbed one of the papaya trees in the yard knocked a couple down and the girl spent twenty minutes scooping and pulping the papaya by hand before giving it to me in a bowl.  Despite how poor and how difficult it is to travel in, this country is very special.  I might spend a little more time here than planned.