After breakfast, start driving further south to Arba Minch on the way visiting the different towns and tribal villages like Shasemene, Alaba Tembaro, Welyita.
Journal:
The push south continues. 300 kilometers in front of us today to get to the Paradise Lodge at Arba Minch. We know Arba Minch is the site of a lot of foreign investment including a significant American presence at the airport, so...
...I was not surprised to run into three Americans at the treehouse bar in Bishingari. All young men, buff, short haircuts, wearing tee shirts and casual clothes speaking quietly over their drinks in the corner. They must have seen me fishing and one asked if caught anything. I showed them the picture of my trophy, made a natural assumption, thanked them for their service, and offered to buy a round of beer. One of the guys spoke for all three. He said only one of them was military. The other two were on a fact finding mission to explore micro-finance investing in the country a/la Kiva. Okay. But all three drank the beer I offered.
Sigrid was feeling better by breakfast, although neither of us were eating much. The three young Americans were at the next table in the restaurant. I introduced Sigrid to them saying - "These are my banker friends I was telling you about." They laughed. Sigrid looked over at them, smiled, and said "It's always good to have some bankers around."
In consultation with Yohanes and Alxe we decide to drive directly to the destination, deferring most site seeing to the return trip a week or so from now.
I'm feeling good enough to try Injara and spicy lamb tibs again.
Yohanes demonstrates an Ethiopian drink I've not seen before - half hot tea - half hot coffee.
We stopped for lunch and spent a little time in a market, but that was about it.
The view from the Paradise Lodge is spectacular. The service is excellent. Very much a Western style lodging experience.
As expected there is a lot of construction in town, lots of contractors, lots of Americans, Russians, Chinese, Australians, and Germans at the Lodge. WiFi is available in the restaurant/bar, so I can at least get a post or two on the blog.
But first a nap.
Editiors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Ethiopian adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Since we will not have internet access for most of the trip, my hope is this will make it easier to add some pics and journal commentary if and when we run across an internet connection. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. We'll see how it goes. UPDATED
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