So some cool things have happened since the last post. To start nick and I found out that it was a two to three day bus ride from Aksum to Lalibella, and if we took the buses then we would have no time to see lalibella and would just have to skip it. On top of this we were tired of riding on long painful, hot sweaty buses and so we oppted for the plane flight. It was so expensive! it was 123 USD for a 40 min flight. The reason for the price is that the only airline that flies in Ethiopia is Ethiopian Air, which is owned by the government and so they can charge what ever they want. This is a big problem for poor travelers like nick and I, however we sucked it up and baught the flight. This whole problem could be easly solved with an un-socialized transit system, and a free market. then there would be competition, and prices would be driven down, and Nick and Casey could travel for less and the world would be a better place!

So we went to Lalibella and had an awesome time! the churches there are amazing! they are caved out of rock, not built out of rock but carved into the ground out of a freakn huge rock... so sweet. and there are these tunnel/trench corridor type things that connect a bunhc of them together, one of which was completely enclosed and so it was pitch black inside, luckly Casey had his trusty head lamp, and after inching down the creepy tunnel they both saw bats and in unison made a nice 180 degree turn and headed back out. not that we are scared of bats, we just dont like rabbies (thousands of people a year die from rabbies from bat bites in africa each year). we spent a few days there checking out the churches, and talking with the local preists. then we were off to Dessie.

Dessie is a town that is in the middle of now where and really there is no reason to go there unless you are passing through. Which we were. But the cool thing about Dessie is that we were getting a free place to stay, there was a Peace corps guy who was posted on couch surfer (A web site where you find people who let you sleep on their couch) and so we contacted him and he said come on by. Funny thing is that when we met up with him he said there was another person that had contacted him and would be stoping by as well, it turned out to be a girl that we had been hanging out with 5 days or so earlier up in Aksum. Always fun to see familar faces.

The next mornign the three of us were up at 4am and off to the bus station where she headed to Lalibella and we were headed east. Now there are no buses to Djibouti from ethiopai from the route that we were taking, and so we took a bus as far as we could whihc was a city on a main high way and from there we were able to hitch a ride with some nice truck trivers headed to Djibouti! SWEET! We did have to pay them about 200 Birr apiece which is about 18 USD not bad seeing as we were with them for about 19 hours of transit. When we hit some trafic jam nick pulled out his gitar and entertained our drivers and some of thier friends with some good American rock songs, they loved it. And then after 22hours of traveling we finnaly made it to Djibouti (Ja-booty for those that dont know how that is pronounced, cause i didnt) at about 2 in the morning. beaten, tired and hot (it is so freakn hot here! Humid too!) we found a place to stay and got a good nights sleep for the first time in a few nights. and that brings us up to today. Tomorrow both of us are off to Somalia, that will be an adventure!

Ethiopia

So Erin flew home to California and Nick and I continued on to
Ethiopia. We spent the first three days of the second leg of our
adventure in the capital city of Addis Ababa. There we took car of
changing currency and getting the many visas that we would need over
the coming month: Djibouti, Somaliland, a multiple entry to
Ethiopia(which we were told we could get at the airport and then we
were informed that we could only get it at Embassies) getting pictures
taken to use with the visas and it goes on...
Our accommodations were interesting...about what one would expect to
receive when paying the equivalent of 5 dollars a night in a capital
city in Eastern Africa. We then continued to Bahir Dar by bus for 9
1/2 hours and stayed the night at a much cleaner place, and got a good
solid meal for about 2 dollars...sweet! The next morning we woke up at
4:30 again to catch the second leg of out bus trip to Gondar. Here
there are some sweet medieval (both Nick and I can't seem to recall
how to spell that word) Castles and Baths. The bath that we saw today
is about 150+ yards long by 25 yards...with a small 3 story house in
the middle, soooo picture a giant swimming pool made out of cobble
stone with a small castle in the middle...yeah I take one of those.
Sounds pretty awesome huh??? 'Cause it was! Then we went to a church
called the Berhan Salasee Church. It was a small one room church with
walls made of stone on the out side and mud and grass on the inside.
It was built about 375 years ago. Covering the walls and ceiling of
the church were paintings from the same time of scenes from the Bible.
Then there was an old priest there who explained all of the images to
us that we couldn't decipher. After we left the church we decided to
take a walk back into town as apposed to taking another taxi (which is
a three wheeled motorcycle with a canopy). During our pleasant stroll
we see a few kids playing foosball off to the side of the road and so
we stop to watch, and then invite us to play...Nick and I lost 4 to 5.
But we defiantly played foosball with a bunch of kids in some random
village in Ethiopia, so I will take that as a win.
Oh i forgot to something cool that we did in Addis besides hang out in
embassies. So many, if not all, of you have heard of the religion of
Rasta Farian (spelling??). A famous Rasta singer being Bob Marley.
Most people equate Rasta Farian with Jamaica, but it's true roots stem
from Ethiopia. An emperor named Emperor Salasee invited all of the
Jamaicans back to Ethiopia, many came. In honor of this they named
themselves after him, his name before he was emperor was Rasta Farian,
or roughly translated to English, the King of Lions, or something to
that degree. So his tomb is located in a church called the Trinity
Cathedral in Addis Ababa. So Nick and I went to go check it out. Since
they don't get many tourists out this way one of the men that worked
at the Cathedral gave us a private tour and showed us the tombs of
both Salasee and his wife, and a lot of other cool things that were
the cathedral and on the grounds. Their tombs were made from granite
taken from Aksum where the Arc of the Covenant supposedly is and where
we will be tomorrow. Defiantly the highlight of Addis.
Welp time to go take another power nap, we have to get up at 4:00ish
tomorrow again to take a 12 hour bus ride to Aksum

So this blog was suppose to be posted 2 days ago, but Ethiopia has the
worst power grid ever. The power shut off four times just trying to
send some emails and post this. I had saved it on a flash drive that
belonged to the lady that owned the internet café the we were at, so I
asked her to email it to me, and thankfully she did.

So we woke up at 4 in the morning and got on our bus, the bus station
doesn’t open until 5:00am so we were waiting there for a few minutes,
and then this guy opened the gate and let us in early. Seems like a
nice thing except that there was a huge crowd of people waiting out
side the gate, and only the two white kids when in early….it was
really embarrassing! but the did charge us a “service fee” so I guess
it goes both ways. We spent the next 15 hours on the bus going down
steep mountain roads where the wheels were 5 ft or so from the edge
with no guard rail at many spots the dropped away 500 to 1000 foot
drops. It was an adventure. There was a guy on the bus with us that
kept asking if we were ok when we would look out the window at the
steep cliffs. We assured him that we were fine. after getting to Shire
and then took a mini bus to Aksum. On the way to Aksum I saw the most
active lightning and thunder storm I have ever seen. The sky was
constantly lit up with lightning, it was really cool. Our mini bus
driver tried to out run the storm but it was faster than our little
bus packed with people and luggage. The storm turned the rocky dirt
road in to a rocky mud slide, but we made it eventually. When we got
to our hotel, ate some dinner (all we had eaten that day was a little
bread, some cookies and a hand full of roasted grains, we were
starved) and then crashed out.
Today we went and saw some cool obelisks from the 3rd or 4th
century, and then we went to the Chapel where the Arc of the Covenant
is supposedly kept. It was pretty cool and we got a sweet tour, but
they wouldn’t let us go in the chapel and take a peek…lame. We got to
see some other nifty things like a 1,000 year old bible that they
still use in some of their meetings, our guide asked if we wanted a
picture of us holding it (he wasn’t kidding either) we were a bit to
nervous at what might happen if we were to drop it so we declined, but
it was cool to see anyways.

this was suppose to have been posted a long time ago but Ethiopia has the worst power grid of almost and country and so the power and internet shut off every 5 minuts it seems, but since i had typed up this whole thing and saved it on a computer that shut off, the very kind lady that owned the store agreed to email it to me when the power came on. YAY what a nice person.

Ode to the dhow...the authentic way to reach Zanzibar. Authentic my eye! We'd only recommend this avenue of transport to those whom we view in extreme disfavor. Whilst, staying at Peponi (our little slice of heaven where one can obtain a quality meal of surf and turf for roughly $7 USD and the hot water runs nearly limitless in the shower) we met a lovely Dutch couple who had arranged to hire the local fishermen to take them to Zanzibar in his sturdy, motorized dhow. Initially, we were disheartened to hear that it wouldn't be as truly a unique and authentic experience as we had hoped - we really wanted to sail to the island on a proper dhow. However, upon hearing that the estimated travel time may range from 8 -36 hours on the 25 ft vessel we figured the motorized option sounds down right awesome as it touted arrival within 6 hours. A word of advice to ye worldly travelers out there: check the weather before you get into a "boat" - or what appears to be two parts of a tree strapped together that is to carry you and all your possessions several hours across the ocean. About an hour into the venture Nick started to look a bit green and had the opportunity to meet with his breakfast for a second time as he gazed longingly into the waters of Davy Jones Locker... We chuckled at his expense and chalked it up to a few too many beers the eve before. As the sky darkened and the clouds closed in Casey made a rush for the side of the boat so he too could "toss his cookies." Once his task was complete Casey returned to our group all smiles with a face full of saltwater. Next was Harold, our Dutch friend. And so the rotation continued, Nick, Casey, Harold, Nick, Casey, Harold... Erin was so consumed by the lack of life jackets and the Gilligan's Island theme song that was relentlessly playing in her head that the violent tossing of the ship did nothing to the contents of the food in her stomach. The fear of no option for escape and no land in site plagued her every thought. It was only when land was in sight and we were about 15 minutes from the port that she relaxed enough to join the boys in their close examination of the tossing waters. End score: Nicholas:10, Casey:7, Harold:6, Erin:1 and Linda took Dramamine and passed out for the duration of the trip. Finally, we arrived in our new little haven: the Twisted Palms Resort in Bwejuu, Zanzibar. A lovely joint run by a friendly older Italian couple. Once again, Erin had her small bed in the corner and the boys shared their romantic King. Haha. It was here that we were finally able to relax - free from large, dirty buses with only the occasional dalha dalha (basically, a flatbed truck with benches in the bed that serves as the major public transportation for relatively short distances throughout Africa) and a water truck to be used as our transportation other than our feetsies. We spent several lazy days on the white sand beaches, eating delicious (inexpensive) local food and soaking up the sun (ask Casey about this later...)

(P.S. Casey just smelled his shirt and looked up happily and noted at least this one doesn't smell like sourdough..it is difficult to do laundry out here when you are traveling on a bus every other day. T-I-A.)

A few days of travel back east in TZ and we arrived at one of the most beautiful, warm beaches complete with white sandbeaches, and crystal clear water that was about 78 degrees farenheight. We camped at a super cute little resort (you could camp or stay in bungalos - being the spend thrift campers we decided to make use of the tent Casey had hauled across the country and back and camp on the beach. We only spent one night in this little slice of heaven because the next morning at 6 AM we were on a tiny hand hewn dhow across the Indian ocean on our way to the mysterious island of ZANZIBAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahh the Serengeti - in Masai it means "endless plains." We saw a dikdik!!! We love those little guys - but then who doesn't love something that could easily be confused with a 12" tall gazel? What other wonders could be found on those plains, you ask? Let us just list them for you: a lionness, and then another lionness and another with her babies, and the daddy lion looking fat and lazy, then two teen boy lions walking right down the middle of the "road," 200,000 zebra migrating with their "wildebeest" or "wilderbeest" buddies, tall giraffes and their babies, monkies, baboons (their bums aren't as red as Casey thought they would be), hip-hiphop-hiphopapotomus (lots of them and they run FAST!!!), buffalo, elephants (and a special couple who decided to consumate their love for eachother about 50 feet from our car... ummm... WOW), all sorts of gazel and impala along with other splendors that are just too many to mention here. :) Over all the safari was a bit of an adventure... rather rough and tumble adventure. In an effort to get back in touch with our "wild" camping side we decided to save money and not hire a cook (as is common protocol with these types of African adventures)and we decided to eat top ramen, canned beans and veggies along with pb and nutella sammies...maybe an occasional sucker and candybar... yes we were eating from a gas station... obviously, not the healthiest choice but T-I-A. In total we spent 2 days in Serengeti and one in the famous crater, Ngorongoro. AMAZING! OHh we also saw what is commonly believed to be the oldest human footprints - cool, huh?!?

The gorilla naming ceremony took place the day after our trek. This is a pretty big deal, honored by an extravagant all day celebration of musical performances and speeches. With no previous knowledge of this event, we obviously didn't have tickets but were told that we could still attend along with the rest of the community. To our disgust and disappointment we realized that this ceremony was geared solely toward the individuals who gave money to the gorilla fund - more than 90% of these individuals were white. The stage was blocked off so only this group could view the performances. Careful measures had been taken to ensure that the individuals from the community were kept separate from the honorary group. There were abundant armed guards lining the perimeter of the park and even more dispersed throughout the crowd of roughly 100,000 of locals. Guards with night sticks kept the children grouped together closely and away from the perimeters but as 3 white American we were free to walk where we pleased. Upset by the inequality of the situation we decided not to support it and leave the ceremony. By that evening we found ourselves back in Kigali.

Another eventful day of battling locals for semi-fair travel prices we arrived in Mwanza. Here we organized our safari adventure. We met a gal on the gorilla trek who was working in an orphanage in Arusha. Apparently, the orphanage owner also ran a safari company whose profits go to benefit the orphanage. Our friend, Mandy, told the owner that we were close friends of hers (close friends – just met... ehhh details...) Long story, short – we were able to arrange our safari at a nice discount. But friends, please remember that old saying that "you get what you pay for."

After a great night's rest – Erin in her own twin bed and Casey and Nick in their romantic king bed we woke and waited for the private car we hired for an exorbitant cost to drive us the quarter mile down the road to the park headquarters. Once there, we were shuffled into groups of 8, then our designated guide told us the story of the gorilla family we were to trek and about an hour later we were back in our “private transport” heading up the mountain. We have to take a minute and explain the absurdity or “private transport.” When we got the permits for the gorilla trek (something that has to take place months in advance) we were told that we must hire a private car to drive us the 15 km from the park head quarters to the site where we were to initiate the hike. Apparently, they say this to everyone so that nearly each individual hires his or her own vehicle. Ridiculous! As a result our group had at least 5 nearly empty Land Rovers... The cool thing about Volcanoes National Park is that the crap ton of money you spend to possibly see the gorillas all gets dumped back into the park, the crappy thing is that none of that money gets put into the surrounding communities. With this in mind, an American tourist can try to justify paying the crazy high cost of the unnecessary private transport because that money does go directly into the community. Our guide explained the various noises that we were likely to hear from the gorillas and then gave examples of the grunts that the guides and guards were likely to make in return... a rather humorous event, listening to several large African men grunting and pretending to be gorillas... After five hours of hiking up, down, over, under, back tracking, and then a bit more of the same, we were informed that the family we were tracking had been engaged in a major battle with another family earlier that morning and had been on the move ever since. Apparently, it is difficult to track a band of roaming, angry gorillas through a jungle... who knew? When the gorillas finally chilled out and decided they were hungry enough to hang out for a bit, we were able to catch up with them for one breathtaking hour. For the next sixty minutes we sat with and observed the gorillas from inside their natural habitat, while these majestic creatures regarded us as little more than just another bit of the bush. We stood in awe and fear as the great silver backs walked past us, brushing our legs. Their gentle demeanor was such a contrast to their mass and obvious strength, a contradiction of which we were very grateful. This family was quite large (17 gorillas – several babies, the mamas and other women folk, a few black back males and 4 silver backs – the largest of these was the number-one -big-daddy). It was absolutely amazing and worth every penny!

Ok, where did we leave off? Ahh yes, nearing Rwanda... We had another adventurous escapade with African public transportation complete with buses overcrowded with livestock and 50 lb sacks of rice and to top that off our cell didn't work as we were told it would, once we crossed the Rwanda border. Thankfully, we had befriended a kind young man who helped us navigate the Rwanda public transport and locate Nick once we reached Kigali. Once we got over the frantic joy of finally seeing a familiar face we realized that we hadn't eaten in the past 12 hours (unless you count the peanuts and grody cookies full of hydrogenated oils that we purchased from children through the bus windows). Nick took us to a place in the center of the city that served American food and we all ate delicious hot sandwiches and washed them down with soda make with real sugar (not corn syrup or that fake sugar crap) – yum so good! That night we even got hot showers – a rare luxury. And a wonder because the water isn't heated in the traditional sense that we are accustomed, it is actually heated by the shower head that is plugged into the wall outlet... hummm... safe? Maybe they have a different type of electricity out here, the kind that doesn't use water as a conductor and won't electrocute you... The following morning we set out to Kinigi intent on seeing the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. After several hours of nearly glamorous public transit we found ourselves with our luggage strapped to our backs and fronts, riding on the back of 3 boda boda (motorbikes), whizzing past the villages just outside Volcanoes National Park with visions of silver back gorillas dancing in our heads.