Ethiopia




The garden view from our hotel room the first night in Addis Ababa.  But after 1.5 days of travel, we weren't awake long to enjoy it.




Jacaranda tree and storefronts in Addis Ababa.




Ethiopia is a nice place for vegetarians.  Amanda with her plate of "fasting food" in front of her, and the skyline behind her. 





After placing fly traps in the highland town of Dodola, we went hiking in the mountains far above town.





Lovebirds.




Impressive rock formation, unique endemic plant, and herders on horseback.




Yellow flowers find a refuge from the grazers. 




A striking plant unique to this region, favored by sunbirds.





A close-up of one of the birds.





Part of the view from a mountain hut where we stayed overnight.






A picture of Amanda taken from about the same spot as the one above.





A colubus monkey peers down at us from the braches of a weeping juniper tree.





Baboons are a frequent roadside sight.  This baby seems unsure about the visitor.





The other place we collected flies from was a lakeside town called Ziway.  Here marabou storks and other birds pick amongst fish heads.





It started innocently enough.  Along the main rift valley road, I saw a little boy herding camels with two babies.  So of course I took a picture.  But the boy took off running, and we soon found out why.





The boy shouted something to these guys who were further up the road, who quickly unrolled their makeshift roadblock.  They had a weird look to them - not just the hair, they looked a bit strung-out on khat or something.  One of them came alongside the truck, briefly grasped Amanda's arm through the window (though he relented at my insistence), then wielded his knife (though somewhat half-heartedly) as I rolled up her window.  I had no clue what they demanding from the driver, as several other vehicles stopped behind us.  Later I learned they had demanded money because of the camel photo (this seems like their ready made tourist-trap, or rather ambush), and that the driver gave them a lesser amount.   This bizarre incident was our Christmas eve sendoff from Ethiopia - we flew to Rwanda the next day.