Awasa, Ethiopia - Day 122 - Boots on the Loose

On the way to Awasa stopped at the tabernacle in Shashemene which is a Rastefarian village setup in the 1930’s. Headed by “Papa Rock” who left Jamaica to return to the motherland, he gave an interesting overview of the religion. Told us Robert Nester Marley was a prophet, women should always wear dresses to be beautiful, he likes Canada because we helped slaves from America, the African drum is saying, “Do good… do good”, and that we need to change “famine to farming” in Africa. Interesting fella.

Awasa is actually a very nice little university town on the shore of Awasa Lake (one of the Rift Valley lakes). Checked into our hotel in time for the usual lineup of sunset, dinner, drinks and music.

Next morning we went to the fish market on the edge of town; upon arrival got invited to share food on the grass and next thing I knew I was chewing the biggest, meanest mouthful of raw fish you can imagine. Dozens of Maribous flying around, and they’re not shy so I finally got some good shots of the shoulder-height bird from 10 feet away or less. Just behind the market there’s a little grove of trees where a few dozen monkeys live so we got some bread to feed them and stood around watching them play for a bit. The cutest was the moms with their babies hanging on to their undersides as they jumped between trees.

Headed to Wondoganet after the market which isn’t far from Awasa, and was to be our last stop on our trip to the South. About 3km from our pension was a nice hotspring that according to Papa Rock, Bob Marley used to go to. Spent a good hour walking up the mountain behind the hotspring, and saw where all the chat is grown. Headed back down to make a spectacle of ourselves with our shirts off in the hotspring. Was actually quite nice, and ended up meeting some cool guys that go to university near by.

The day was a sunday; the last day before the 55 day fast that most Ethiopians do every year. They still eat food but it has to be veagan while fasting (and is actually very good stuff). So tradionally people eat raw meat on this day. The girls would have no part of the suggestion (which I can’t blame them for) but Jamie and I had to go along with it. 1kg of beef between the 4 of us, 1/2 raw, 1/2 cooked. When the dish was placed in front of us and it became apparent how much we had to get through, I felt the blood drain from my face. But after a couple bites, it turned out to be not so bad (imagine the rarest steak you’ve ever tasted, then multiply the cooked factor by 0). The cooked 1/2 was some of the best meat I’ve ever tasted! (all with the usual injera bread, and delicious sauces).

That night back at the hotel learned how to play Karamboola after a few beers (a game that everyone here plays in the bars); it’s much more difficult than it looks, but is a lot of fun! (it’s pretty much a cross between billiards and boche).

And on our last day into Addis we stopped at Lake Langono for a few hours. Apparently the rule of thumb: “never swim in fresh water in Africa” doesn’t apply at this lake, so in we got. Looked gross and muddy but was actually copper in the water and ended up doing wonders for our skin 🙂

Back in Addis around dinner; nice to return to a few “comforts” (such as power after midnight, and water doesn’t randomly run out as happened in Konso), but sad to be done with the South.