Before he became the face of adventure travel on the television show Adventures with Purpose, Richard Bangs was a world-class paddler and river guide who made first descents on numerous rivers across the planet including the Indus, Zambezi, Yangtze, Euphrates and many more. One of his early expeditions took him to the Baro River in Ethiopia, which hadn't been fully navigated at the time either.

In a recent post to his website, Richard shares some harrowing tales of his adventures along the Baro, which runs for approximately 306 km (190 miles) before it feeds into the Sobat River and eventually the White Nile. His stories include encounters with man-eating crocodiles, incredible white water and unexpected tumbles over waterfalls. The title of the article is "What's Worse? Death by Drowning or Crocodile" which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this expedition. The article is a reminder of just how wild and untamed parts of our planet remain and how dangerous these expeditions can be. Definitely an excellent read for a variety of reason, as it touches on why we pursue dangerous adventures in the first place.

The video below serves as a bit of teaser for the story, but be warned, the footage is not for the faint of heart. There are some graphic images shown that some could find disturbing. If you'd rather avoid those images as best you can, I'd suggesting simply reading the article instead, although it also has a photo or two that aren't for the squeamish.

Every time vacation planning time rolls around, Roland brings up Ethiopia. He's almost persuaded me a couple of times. I sure like the food and eat at Rahel, a vegan Ethiopian restaurant on Fairfax in L.A. very frequently. And I love all that mystic stuff about Ethiopia on the History Channel (like the video up top). But between the primitiveness, the extreme poverty, the corruption, and the culture of violence that has taken root there since 1974 when the DERG overthrew and murdered Haile Selassie, there has been a state of corrosive instability and questionable legitimacy for nearly three decades. Tourism, which had started developing in the 1960s, took a great leap backwards in the 1970s and is still very primitive now.

And now there's an outbreak of deadly homophobia. Crackpot U.S. evangelical groups are spreading anti-gay hate in Ethiopia causing a climate of moral panic, forcing the LGBT community to flee the country and making it unsafe for western tourists to visit the country. They've been encouraging the introduction of the death penalty for homosexuality.

A representative, from the Ethiopian Inter-Religious Council Against Homosexuality (EICAH) organization, underlined to workshop participants that gayness is not natural and has nothing to do with human rights, but ‘a result of a result of inappropriate upbringing, identity crisis and moral decay.

‘So we have to work hard to teach our children the bible and ethics and also protect our nation from the dirty western imposed culture of homosexuality.’

Sultan Muhe, chair of Bright Children Voluntary Association (BCVA) testified that as a child he was gang-raped, an experience that ‘made him’ gay as well as a sex worker.

Muhe also stated that he was now cured (ex-gay) and now campaigns for others to be ‘healed,’ stating: ‘Homosexuality should be discouraged by whatever means and the government should do whatever it takes to stop it.'

At the conclusion of the workshop, the EICAH representative stated that the council is ‘making progress’ in convincing the government to be stricter on homosexuality and introduce the death penalty to punish ‘such acts.'

The ECIAH representative added that prospects for capital punishment being legislated against gays ‘seems promising.'

...Mercy (name changed), director of Rainbow Ethiopia, a health and support group for LGBT people, told GSN: ‘The trend of homophobia and hate crimes is increasing in Ethiopia because these organizations are creating a moral panic and feeding the public with false information and wild allegations.

‘They scare the public that homosexuals are raping children and then “recruit” them into homosexuality, which is “promoted” and “spreading” throughout the country.

‘These groups even present some of the LGBTI members of the community as a mercenaries, trained and sponsored by the West to “promote homosexuality."

‘Families, police, neighbors the community in large are turning more and more hostile; we are living in fear and LGBT community members are increasingly desperate to flee Ethiopia.

‘They put their lives at risk by using human traffickers through dangerous routes such as crossing the Sahara desert in an attempt to get to Europe through Libya or through Egypt to Israel, often killed in the attempt to do so.’

Mercy called upon human rights organizations and international community to do everything in their power ‘to cut the Western funding to these organizations, and outlaw them. However aid to Ethiopia and other organizations should continue.'

I'll get my fix of wat and injera at Rahel-- without a side order of hatred, bigotry and possible execution.

Travel can be an amazing educational tool at times, helping to engage young people in subjects that are often seen as "boring" or "unimportant." History, culture and geography all come to life much more vibrantly when students have the opportunity to make a more direct connection with a place that comes alive in some very fascinating ways.

That was exactly the premise behind the Trekking the Planet expedition, a 14-month journey undertaken by the husband and wife team of Darren and Sandy Van Soye. The duo set out on January 28th of last year and have been circling the globe ever since. During that time, they have managed to visit 40 different countries on six continents, most of which have been in the developing world. The expedition has another three and half months to go before it is done, and the Van Soye's hope to add another 13 countries to their passports before heading home.

Making this kind of journey is a dream for many of us who have longed to hit the open road for an extended period of time. And while Darren and Sandy have had numerous adventures on their world-spanning adventure, they didn't set out just for their own enjoyment and enrichment. They conceived Trekking the Planet is a tool for helping to reach out to students in classrooms and help engage their curiosity about geography more fully. With that in mind, they've established a series of geography education modules that highlight the various places that they have visited. Those lessons are designed to  work in classrooms with students ranging in age from 6 to 17 and can be modified to fit nearly any type of curriculum. Their lesson plans have been so successful in fact that they are now followed by 55,000 students in 850 classrooms spread out over 20 countries.

While on the road, the Van Soye's prefer to travel on foot as much as possible. As a result, they have often found themselves in a number of places that are far from the beaten path. Their journey has taken them to a number of remote regions, including the Mustang region in Nepal, into the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia and along ancient Bedouin trails in Jordan. This approach to travel allows them to get closer to the people living in the countries they visit and have experiences that are out of the norm. They've even had the opportunity to speak at 18 different schools along the way, allowing them to share their adventures even more directly with students in different countries.

You can follow Darren and Sandy's adventures, as well as subscribe to their newsletter, on their Trekking the Planet website.

Journalist Paul Salopek is preparing to set off on an amazing journey that he expects to take roughly seven years to complete. Along the way he'll be covering more than 22,000 miles (35,400 km) almost entirely on foot, as he attempts to trace the route that our earliest ancestors took as they migrated away from Africa and went out to settle the rest of the world. He calls this expedition the Out of Eden Walk.

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer is planning to start his ambitious project in January when he'll set out on a grand trek from the Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia. The valley is the place where most scientists believe man had his origins, spending some time there before spreading out across the globe. After departing Africa, Salopek will then walk across the Middle East and Asia before hopping across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. At that point, he'll already have covered thousands of miles and spent months on the road, but he'll hardly be finished yet. The next stage of the expedition will take him south  all the way to Patagonia at the extreme end of South America.

Salopek says that this is a very personal project for him and he intends to tell numerous stories from the road, chronically the people that he meets and the places that he sees along the way. The list of topics he intends to cover while on this journey includes climate change, the impact of foreign aid from the west on various locations, cultural change in the 21st century and much more.

The Nieman Journalsim Lab at Harvard posted a story about the journey earlier today garnering some insights into what Paul hopes to accomplish and what gear he expects to take with him when he gets underway. Amongst the items he'll be taking with him are a MacBook Air, cameras from GoPro and Sony, a handheld GPS unit and a satellite phone. Fairly standard gear for an expedition of just about any length.

This looks like it will be a fascinating journey to follow and it certainly will be long enough. I look forward to reading Salopek's reports from the road. I'm sure they'll be fantastic.

Photo © Christina Feldt-All Rights Reserved

"As far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated by other cultures, faces, customs and ways of living."

And this is in essence how Christina Feldt started her photographic career. She was not joking...she writes me that she's just back from a 9 months trip through Mongolia, Myanmar, SE Asia and Ethiopia; a trip that generated enough galleries to occupy its viewers for quite some time. She has also established a Photoshelter website which you can view here.

I've gone through most of them...starting with Ethiopia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bangkok and Singapore, and when I got to Vietnam...I paused at Christina's lovely photographs made against the yellow walls of Hoi An.

That done, I read the compelling blog post she wrote about Mai, a 31-year old Hmong woman from Sapa, who told her that her dream was to see the ocean and to be able to read and write, so she could read the text messages on her cellphone.

It's no surprise that I stopped at her Vietnam gallery...after all, this is my forthcoming destination where I'm holding a 15-days photo-expedition/workshop, and her photographs serve to reinforce the 'visuality' of Vietnam and its people.

Photo © Christian Witkin-All Rights Reserved

"You can read people's faces, you can see how they treat themselves, what kind of lives they live, it's all in the exterior." 

Here's the work of Christian Witkin, a Brooklyn-based photographer known for his advertising and editorial work for major publications, who's now returning to fine art, the foundation of his personal photographic work.

His current projects include a massive 16-year study of India, Women, Ethiopia and a Thai Ladyboy project. I was curious to see how an advertising, celebrity and fine art photographer would depict the beauty of the Ethiopian people, and you can judge for yourself how well he's done it.

I was very interested to read in article on Cool Hunting as to how Christian took a medium format camera to 14th Street (which is one of my favorites spots for street photography) in order to build his portfolio, and that he now uses a 4 x 5 Linhof Technika (a large format camera system) when he travels. He also espouses the style of rarely cropping his photographs.

The Thai Ladyboy portraits are also masterfully photographed and composed.

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich-All Rights Reserved

“Will I ever come back to Ethiopia?”

A question asked by Mitchell Kanashkevich after spending over four months in that country, crisscrossing it on a motorbike.

He doesn't ask it because of logistics, or because of practicalities...but rather he wonders if he would want to ever come back to Ethiopia. I chose to feature his post to counter balance my earlier post on Holland Cotter's Ethiopian experience because they are so divergent.

I won't go into the details of Mitchell's reasons for his largely negative personal experiences in Ethiopia since you can read it directly on his blog, but these range from onerous restrictions and regulations imposed by authorities to make some money off foreign visitors to "money hungry scheming locals" in Lalibela and other religious towns.

Mitchell Kanashkevich is amongst a handful of travel photographers who are truly intrepid, experienced and who produce consistently excellent imagery, so his experiences in Ethiopia ought to be heeded by independent travelers who want to visit Ethiopia the way he did. I'm not suggesting that travelers ought to be put off by his current mindset, but they certainly ought to pay attention to what he tells us...and prepare themselves for potential difficulties.

It is one thing to travel to Ethiopia (and wherever else) on assignment with The New York Times, and quite another to travel the way Mitchell did. Fixers, hotel accommodations, transportation are a world apart between these two.

As for the obnoxious and puerile comments that Mitchell's post seems to have generated, it's unfortunate. Some people don't realize the service that Mitchell has provided...they may disagree with it, they may not like it...but he related his personal experience, and he's free to express it as he sees fit...wherever and whenever he wants.

I traveled to Ethiopia in 2004, and my experience was different. But that was 8 years ago, and I traveled differently. However if I were to return to Ethiopia, I'd reread Mitchell's post very carefully.

Photo © Damon Winter-Courtesy The New York Times

Here's what I found to be a very well made (and thoroughly researched) feature by The New York Times titled Aksum And Lalibela: A Pilgrimage with the prose of Holland Cotter and the photography of Damon Winter.

"Lalibela was conceived as a paradise on earth."

Cotter tells us that he had longed to see two holy cities in Ethiopia: Aksum, the country's center of Orthodox Christianity, and Lalibela, a town of extraordinary churches carved from volcanic rock in the 13th century, for a long time and he did visit it recently.

The treat in this interactive feature are the panoramas of Gondar, the monasteries of Lake Tana and Lalibela. I was in Ethiopia in 2004, and these panoramic views brought it all back to me as nothing else could. I wasn't very impressed by Gondar then, but the majesty of Lalibela churches and the beauty of the reclusive monasteries of Lake Tana made my experience in Northern Ethiopia exceptionally memorable.

An exceptionally engaging article by Holland Cotter is here. He has been a staff art critic at The New York Times since 1998. Don't miss Damon Winters' dozen photographs of Lalibela, Aksum, and Gondar which accompany the articles.

And since I mentioned that I've been in that region some 8 years ago, drop by my own gallery Footsteps In Abyssinia. Oh, how I wish I had my multimedia knowledge and tools then!!!

Photo © Mitchell Kanashkevich: All Rights Reserved

 "Lalibela is Ethiopia’s answer to Jerusalem."

Most of my readers will know who Mitchell Kanashkevich is; either because they read his blog as well, or because they're read some of my posts about his work.

He's currently in Northern Ethiopia, whizzing along its bumpy roads on a motorcycle (yes, he's hardcore in that way), and has attended the Orthodox Christmas celebrations in Lalibela, which he correctly describes as the Ethiopia's Jerusalem. During his stay there, he made gorgeous photographs which are on his blog.

Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only to Aksum, and is a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. Unlike Aksum, the population of Lalibela is almost completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. The town is famous for its churches hewn out the rock, which are thought to have been built in the 12th and 13th centuries. All told, there are 13 churches, assembled in four groups. Orthodox Christianity became the established church of the Ethiopian Kingdom in the 4th century through the efforts of a Syrian Greek monk.

Reading through Mitchell's blog entry, I pause at his statement that tourists' behavior, such as giving out of money for photos, is leading some devotees to beg for money after being photographed. Having been in Lalibela and Northern Ethiopia in 2004, I was relieved then that this was not my experience...devotees, deacons and priests welcomed my photographing them with no demands. However, I am not surprised at all this has changed with all the influx of tourists who don't know any better...or don't care.

Like Mitchell, I refuse to hand out money for photographs...unless (and that's an important qualifier) I specifically ask the subject(s) I want to photograph to go somewhere else with me, and there set them up for a photo shoot. In this case, I consider these people as models whose time I've taken, and some modest monetary payment ought to be in order. Now, like Mitchell as well, I mostly photograph documentary-style, so this is the infrequent exception.

Mario Gerth traveled to 65 countries on five continents and witnessed all kinds of civil upheavals. A German part-time banker and photojournalist, he has concentrated his recent work on Africa...and the slideshow above showcases Ethiopian tribes, some in color and others in stunning monochromes. I particularly like Chapter 3 of the slideshow which consists of gorgeous square format toned portraits...conversely, I thought the panning movement all through the slideshow was a little too much.

The tribes depicted in Gerth's photographs are sedentary pastoral people living in south west of Ethiopia, on the western bank of the Omo river. Unfortunately, the survival and way of life of the tribes of South Ethiopia are under threat by various projects planned for the area, especially a massive hydroelectric dam that affects the Lower Omo River.

In an earlier post, I had written various tribes of the Omo Valley are adept in soliciting money for images and how ready they were to pose without much guidance. But the question here is what came first...the tourists with their cameras giving out a handful of birrs or the demand for money from tourists for each snap.

Photo © Thierry Riga-All Rights Reserved

Here's another case where the photographer is not forthcoming with personal details, but Thierry Riga appeared on my radar screen when he subscribed to my email newsletters. I looked him up, and except for his website, there isn't much...which is a shame because perhaps photo editors and buyers will want to know more about him after this post.

Thierry has three manin galleries on his website...three galleries with large images. The kind of large that pleases me and photo editors and buyers, because they can see them properly. The three galleries are of Buddhist novitiates from Myanmar (Burma), of portraits of deacons, priests and devotees during Timket in Lalibela and the fishermen of Lake Inle in Burma.

I choose to highlight Thierry's Lalibela Portraits for no other reason than it's one of the handful of galleries mentioned on this blog that deals with the Christian faith in Ethiopia.

Timket is the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 19 (or 20 on a Leap Year). It celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. During the ceremonies, a model of the Ark of the Covenant, is reverently carried in a procession. Timket is celebrated all over Ethiopia, but it's particularly spectacular in Lalibela, a Biblical mountain town famous for its 11 churches hewn out of solid rock over a thousand years ago. Many Ethiopians believe they were built by angels.

I recall being awakened at 3:00 am or so in Lalibela by Timket ethereal chants...enough to give goosebumps to the most secular of humans. My own gallery Footsteps in North Abyssinia has some portraits from Lalibela.

Photo © Heida Helgadóttir-All Rights Reserved

Heida Helgadóttir is a 35 years old photographer based in Lisbon, Portugal as well as Reykjavík, Iceland. She started out as an apprentice for a portrait studio photographer, and started working as a full time photographer in 2004. She worked as a staff photographer for Fréttablaðið, Iceland’s largest newspaper, from 2004 to 2007 and for Birtíngur the largest magazine publishing company in Iceland, from 2007 to 2010. She recently moved to Portugal as a freelance photographer, and continues to do freelance work in Iceland.

I liked her portraits of South Ethiopians...presumably all from the tribes of Omo Valley, such as the Mursi, Hamer, Daasanach, and the Karo. All are black and white photographs, and are beautifully composed.

The survival and way of life of the tribes of South Ethiopia are under threat by various projects planned for the area, especially a massive hydroelectric dam that affects the Lower Omo River.

Heidah also has a gallery of portraits of Nepalis, which brings me to this little anecdote. A few weeks ago, I pay for a couple of Cokes at the corner store near my building, and I tell the cashier  she could be a Nepali from Katmandu. She smiled and told me she was born in Mustang!!! Mustang!!! She was born in the remote Kingdom of Mustang, now part of Nepal, and not exactly easily accessible. My mind marvels at how someone born in Mustang would now be working in a corner store in New York's West Village. Incredible! I'll have to spend some time with her to find out how that came about.

Three ladies from the Mursi tribe

I started my adventure traveling before I understood anything about sex. In fact, the first time I ever even had sex was when an older woman-- she was 17 I think, or almost 17-- seduced me in the back of a Greyhound station in Jacksonville, Florida. I had virtually no idea what was going on and mostly all I remember were the big black rubber tires we were surrounded by. I was on my way to visit my grandparents for Pessach in Miami Beach. Later being physically attracted to a people helped determine where I wanted to visit; I've had wide tastes and see beauty in almost every kind of people. But that was a long time ago and these days I'm much more likely to pick a destination because I like the cuisine. Really.



Roland, who is really eager to go to Ethiopia (not to mention Eritrea and Somalia; he's insane)-- and knows my proclivities-- has been trying to talk me into liking Ethiopian food for just around a decade now! He keeps claiming it's "one of the great cuisines of the world." L.A. has a Little Ethiopia about half and hour from my house. There are over a dozen well-regarded Ethiopian restaurants within 2 blocks of each other. The basic building block of the cuisine is injera, a kind of sour bread that he just loves and I never really took to-- until this year. The meal consists of the injera and some wats or stews. Just when I was starting to get used to the taste of the injera I found out it's made of fermented teff, which is totally in synch with my health regime. Teff is a kind of grass, but not wheat-- which I avoid-- and it's not gluten. It's more like quinoa or millet and it's a good source of fiber, protein, iron and calcium-- very healthy.



Anyway, Roland's in Maine for a few weeks and yesterday I went to Little Ethiopia for lunch. My favorite restaurant there-- by far-- is Rahel, which is the only pure vegan place. The others-- Messob, Rosalind's, Nyala, Merkato, etc all serve vegetarian dishes, which are common in Ethiopia, but Rahel makes an art of it. On Saturday's lunch is an all-you-can-eat buffet for something like $12. There are a dozen dishes, all delicious and healthful. So Ethiopia passes the food test and we're in the early stages of planning a trip there. One of my neighbors has an orphanage in Lalibela.



In his enthusiasm, Roland has been feeding me this line about how it doesn't only have "one of the world's great cuisines" but that it's also the "land of eternal spring." I decided to double check, knowing how completely unreliable he is when he's made up his mind. He's been pushing for next June.

When to go to Ethiopia?



The main rainy season is June to end of September. Don't go then unless it is the ONLY period you can take a holiday. it rains pretty well every day-- some is drizzle but much is heavy tropical rain. Things get very muddy. IF you can only go in this period of the Big Rains try to spend some time in lower altitude areas like the Rift Valley Lakes zone, where it will be warmer and a bit less wet...



Best time to visit is mid October to mid March-- the dry season.

Since this coming December we're set on the Yucatan, it'll have to be the following Christmas. Long way... But here's a video I found with an overview of the capital, Addis Ababa, a city with 4 million people that everyone tells me to have a quick look around and then out into the country.

Photo © Jon Goering-All Rights Reserved

I am certainly glad Jon Goering chose me to review his multifaceted portfolio during the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Buenos Aires a few days ago, and so will you when you view his black & white images of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.

I guarantee you'll find these beautiful images very compelling, and extremely well composed.

Jon is a photojournalist living near Birmingham, Alabama and is the staff photographer for Shelby County Newspapers. He was awarded third place by the Hearst Journalism Awards program for News/Sports in 2008/2009 and honored for his photography of Ethiopia. At CPOY64 he was awarded two honorable mentions awards, one for International Picture Story for a story on the children of the Chinandega, Nicaragua landfill, and one for Portrait. The project was later selected by the photojournalism collective LUCEO as one of ten finalists for their student project award. Jon garnered other awards, and I predict he will continue to impress us with his future projects.

In Buenos Aires, my review of Jon's images (viewed on his iPad) quickly evolved into a conversation about Ethiopia and the profound religiosity of its people. I can't recall for certain if I told Jon this, but when looking at his images, the sinking feeling in my stomach signalled I had missed much by photographing only in color when I was in Lalibela during Timket...but it was in 2004 and what did I know then?!

So I'm happy Jon is smarter than I was, and did realize that black & white photography enhanced his visualization of Ethiopia's beautiful Christian rituals.

Photo © William Palank-All Rights Reserved

Just yesterday, I had an email conversation with Eric Beecroft on the merits of the Leica M9, and whether I viewed it as a reliable tool, despite its idiosyncrasies, for my travel photojournalism work, and if it could ever replace my Canon system. My view was that it would not replace the Canons, but it would supplement them. I used a tool analogy, and compared the Canon and Leica to pliers and pincers.

This conversation fit perfectly with the work of William Palank, and with his interesting interview on the Leica blog. As a bit of background, William Palank decided to change from a career of dentistry to that of a photographer, and started to document traditional cultures such as those of Ethiopia India and Burma.

"When using prime lenses on a digital rangefinder camera, you can’t cheat by shooting from across the street and zooming in."

Palank is complimentary of the Leica M-sytem because it allows him to get nearer to his subjects, and permits him to blend better in exotic locations. His Ethiopia images were made with a Leica M9 and a Summilux 50mm lens. More of his Ethiopia images are here.

I recommend reading the interview pretty attentively.  Palank's post-production appears to be fairly minimal. He tells us that he prefers to get the the exposure and lighting right before he clicks his shutter. In our age of Photoshop and Lightroom, this is unusual.

I have yet to test the M9 in my travels, but I am certain it will allow me to get even nearer to my subjects...and record more intimate portraits. I'm not too bashful in approaching my subjects, but the M9 will help in keeping a lower profile. Once again, the M9 will not supplant the Canon 5D2 and the Canon 7D, but will supplement them. I will share my experience and results.

When you say "Ethiopia" most people will think about the slogan "feed the world." But this East African country has more than humanitarian assistance and gnaws children. This is the only country in Africa, which has never been colonized, and people here have a strong tradition of struggle for their independence. The country is also unusual its rich Orthodox Christian heritage, while their neighbors were amenable to Islam, who came here in 7 century. Traveling to Ethiopia is hard rest, because this country does not has a developed tourist infrastructure, here you can not even check your e-mail. But here you will see stunning landscapes, hospitable people, an impressive history, and no mob rambler tourists. And, of course, residing in Ethiopia will cost you quite cheap.

The capital: Addis Ababa
The largest city: Addis Ababa

Population: 2006 estimate - 75 067 000; According to the Ethiopian national census of 1994, the Oromo are 32.1%. The Amhara represent 30.2%, while the Tigray people are 6.2% of the population. Other ethnic groups are as follows: Somali 6%, Gurage 4.3%, Sidama 3.4%, Wolayta 2%, Afar 2%, Hadiya 2%, Gamo 1%

National particularities: In Ethiopia, people talk nearly 80 languages. These languages belong to different linguistic groups. Amharic language, spoken in the center of the country, particularly in the capital, is the state language, but Tigrinya and Oromo, spoken in the north and south of the country are semi status. Oromo - the largest ethnic group in the country and it constitutes an artful Christians with Muslims and traditional animists. Amhara and Tigray use Ge'ez alphabet, which contain 231 letters. Children begin learning English from an early school age, and therefore everyone in the country, one way or another, spoke in English.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church dominates the religious life of the country from 4 century, when two brothers from Tyre began to preach Christianity with the blessing of the ruler of Ethiopia. The church is part of Coptic Church, which is headquartered in Alexandria, Egypt. The Orthodoxy combines common Christian faith in God, Catholic saints and Jesus (although it is paying more attention to the Old Testament than Western churches) and traditional African beliefs in spirits and the devil. In church services include astrological predictions and Divination. Believers post every Wednesday and Friday, not using dairy products and meat. Ethiopian literature has traditionally Christian orientation, and ancient manuscripts are translations of Greek Christian works. Alphabet Ge'ez originates in the 13 century when the Coptic, Syrian and Greek religious works were translated from Arabic. After 200 years, the monks begin to complement the original works, describing life and creating apocalyptic holy book: "Secrets of the heavens and the earth", Elucidation of Jesus. Amharic language alphabet Ge'ez took about 16 centuries.
The Ethiopian music is extremely diverse, with each of the country's 80 ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds. It is uses a unique modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes.
Holidays: Genna, Epiphany (19 January), Victory of Adowa (2 March), Patriots' Victory Day (6 April), Labor Day (1 May ), Good Friday, Id al-Fitr, Ethiopian New Year (11 September), Revolution Day (12 September ), Meskel (28 September ), Id al-Adha, and Birthday of Mohammed.
Geography: Ethiopia is located in the eastern part of the African continent and is landlocked. In the west, it borders with Sudan, in the north with Eritrea in the east to Somalia and Djibouti and Kenya in the south. Ethiopia occupies an area of approximately 1127000 km².

Climate: While Ethiopia is quite close to the Equator, at the central plateau country's temperate climate with an average temperature of about 16 ° C. Only in the east, near the Red Sea and the west, on the border with Sudan is very hot. Kremt - the rainy season begins in mid-June and ends in mid-September. And in March and April rains are rare.


Time zone: EAT (UTC+3)
Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+3)

Official language: Amhara

The currency: The Ethiopian birr

Addis Ababa

Ethiopian capital is home for 3 million people. The city was founded in 1887, and soon virtually empty due to lack of firewood for heating, it was before in the country have put eucalyptus. This is spacious town, where most streets do not have any pointers, but this does not apply to the main street of the city - Churchill. The ethnographic museum in the city is interesting for visit. Here are two main sections: local crafts and nations living in Ethiopia. This is a good place to study Ethiopia and its ethnic diversity. Here is an enormous collection of religious sites: crosses, icons and triptychs. In National museum of Ethnography there are fossils, dating back 3.5 million years old Lucy skeleton unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974, and perhaps they are the oldest on the planet. Her name taken from a Beatles song that played in an archaeological camp the night of her discovery. The Ethiopian public has seen Lucy only twice — the Lucy exhibition at the Museum is a replica; the real remains are usually locked in a vault.

The African Hall is the headquarters of the Economic Council of the UN in Africa, and he placed the monument in the form of African independence.
Mercati in Addis Ababa is the largest market in Africa. This is a huge area filled with counters in the open air, where you can buy anything from fruit to jewelers. The cheap hotels in Addis Ababa are a combination of bustling street of bars, brothels and several rooms. Foreigners typically pay two times more than local. Most hotels are located around places, where a lot of cheap cafes and bars. While the Italians ruled the country only five years, but in almost every town in the country you can dine in the Italian restaurant.

Axum

Axum is the holy city of Ethiopia. According to teachings of the Orthodox Church, the epitome of religious relics can be found here. Also in this city in 4 century AD Christianity was declared as the state religion. The casket presumably is under the Church of St. Mary, dating from age 17, but of course nobody can see it. The small church museum has an excellent collection of Bibles, crosses and religious headwear. Behind the museum is an ancient Stella field Axum, the only reminder of the bygone glory of the city. Stella - huge, indoor columns made of granite monolith; one of the pillars has a height of 23 meters. If you take a walk on the outskirts of the city, you can inspect the ruins of the Palace of the King Kaleb and then to the hill where is the monastery Pentalion. Women are not allowed in the monastery. The ruins of the Palace of Sheba also located outside the city, and during the recent excavations, it was proved that the palace 1300 years, rather than 2000 as previously thought.

Bahar Dar

Bahar Dar is situated on the southern shore of Lake Tana. Alone Bahar Dar is not remarkable place, but its vicinity has many attractions. There are many islands in the Lake Tana. Some of them have become home to monasteries. Many of these monasteries were built in the 11 century, and the rest until 16 century. The most famous monasteries are: Kidene Mehret, Kebran Gabriel (women are not allowed here) and Debre Mariam. Waterfalls Blue Nile is in the 45-minute drive from Bahar Dar. These waterfalls are 400 m width and height of 50 meters, local residents called Tis Isat. Their appearance is impressive in any season, but they look best from October to December.

Lake Valley faults

Seven Lakes Valley faults are located on a broad and fertile valley of the plateau, which is located between Addis Ababa and the Kenyan border. This is the best place in Ethiopia to observe the birds. The lakes Lagano, Abiyyata and Shala are the most popular of the seven, one is blue lake, another is silver, and the third is brown. Abiyyata is small lake and its shores clouds of waterfowl habitats. The lake Shala is in deep crater of 50 meters. In addition, around the lake there are several hotels. You can swim in the hot keys Vondo Genet, south of the three lakes. In the lakes Abaya and Chamo, which are near to the Kenyan border live variety of birds and animals, including crocodiles.

Gondar

In 750 kilometers north of Addis Ababa is Gondar, which was the capital of Ethiopia, with a time of its foundation Emperor Fasilidos in 1632, until 1886. Interesting additions to inspect Royal building, 76 000 sq m area, built in 1640 century. You can also visit the bathhouse Fasilidos, which is after 2 kilometers from the city.

Lalibela

Lalibela is famous by its delightful 12-century churches, cut into rocks. All 11 churches were built over a century, and it is believed that angels helped builders who built made at night improve human hands. Church for many centuries kept priests who have served God, a copy of the treasures, sanctifies Bibles and illustrated manuscripts.

The National Park in the Simien Mountains

In this park dwell a lot of animals and birds, which you can observe in the wild. There are baboons, ibexes, foxes, as well as birds, including birds of prey, for example, huge vulture. The park is a rocky massif, descending to the fields, is divided into narrow gorges. Pedestrian routes are calculated on the journey from three to ten days, and you can move both on foot and riding on mules. The trail lay to ancient African mountain peak Raz-Dashen. Tours begin at Debrake, which is located 100 kilometers from Gondar.