A Trip to Awasa
ETHIOPIA | Tuesday, 19 October 2010 | Views [589]
Our dear friend, Addis agreed to drive us to Awasa on
Saturday, so we rented a car and left at 6:00 am as dawn was breaking. Awasa is about four & a half hours away
from Addis on a good highway; however this highway has more obstacles you can
imagine. The driver has to be very alert and can never take his eyes away from
the road, as he has to drive around all the people on the road and crossing the
road, donkeys, dogs, cattle, goats, camel herders, other drivers passing and
passing big trucks, horse drawn carts, people stepping out into the road trying
to sell charcoal, knives, machetes.
There are so many big trucks on this road hauling all types of items
across country. Ethiopians call these trucks Al Qaeda because they kill so many
people from having accidents. Lots of
great scenery on the way. We saw many
people in the fields harvesting tef (which they use to make injera). They do it
all by hand cutting it with small machetes. They then make huge piles, which
look like the round hay bales you see in Indiana. It looks totally
backbreaking. As we were driving in
Awasa, we saw monkeys and huge birds (Marabou Storks). We went to the lake and decided to
take a boat ride to see if we could spot the hippos. And we did! We actually
were able to get pretty close and we even heard them grunting. It was a nice
and relaxing boat ride. It was very beautiful to be out on the water. After another 4 ½ hours drive back, Addis
took us to a German Beer Garden, it was packed.
They had these huge three-liter glass cylinders that people ordered and
drank from the whole evening. We decided that we didn’t want to have a huge
headache in the morning, so we ordered glasses instead. Beckie & Newton, & Addis shared a
liter and I had a small one. We even had
some bratwurst & sauerkraut. It was a great day seeing a different part of
the country and traveling through all the little towns.
