We wanted to go to Bale Mountains National Park, and discovered that we couldn’t rent a car to get there (more on that in the next blog), so we took a fairly stress filled bus ride to get to Awassa, a near by town in the Rift Valley Lake District. The bus ride itself was ok, getting to the bus terminal was challenging, even for our taxi driver, who had to call several people, including the bus driver, to figure it out, and we were late. Luckily, in this kind of culture, they’re ok to wait for you. Shew.

Then when we arrived, we no sooner got off the bus than one tuk tuk driver grabbed Benoit’s bag and walked off in one direction and another took mine and walked off in the opposite. What?!

We didn’t even have time to discuss what to do, I just took off after my guy and Benoit after his.
Honestly, I don’t even remember what I did. Bali and China can be a huge hassle like this, so usually I don’t even look at taxi drivers in this situation, I just hold my bag, ignore the questions, and plow through the throng. I know I don’t want a ride from anyone who does this, and there’re alway more chilled out drivers hanging out not far away. What I do remember is that I in about 30 seconds I had my bag and was walking back towards Benoit who was being much more polite than I had been. He saw me coming, got his and we walked away to regroup. Ok. Welcome to the Lake District. Luckily, the rest of our stay in Awassa (also spelled Hawassa and Awasa) was polite, friendly and very nice. We even made a friend here that we still keep in touch with. You’ll meet him later.

It was here, in Awassa, that we celebrated my 50th birthday. We stayed several days, and spent most of it by Lake Awassa, watching the fishermen, soaking in the view, and admiring the wonderful water birds. We also got haircuts, a Benoit travel tradition.

My 50th birthday!

The days that followed…

Ethiopian Christmas started the day we left Awassa.