Heading SOUTH... (July 7)

....Bright and early we meet our driver and little did we know - he was soon to become our very GOOD friend, Tsegaw.  We grabbed a little breakfast from the Riviera Buffet and consumed as much coffee as we possibly could before we were out the doooooor....

 (My fave - coffee with milk - better than a latte) :)

One of our first stops along the way was in Wolencheti - where we met some school children! Tsegaw stopped so we could talk with them, they like to practice their English and we gave them a bunch of ball point pens for school and some candy! YUM! :)

 

 

As we continued south a HUGE Camel herd was crossing the street in front of us and three little boys were herding them...

....Stopped again along the way to purchase some onions for HH - we also purchased the BEST tasting GREEN oranges ever from a local vendor in Methara.

 

 
...Our next stop was Awash National Park

 

It was AWESOME to see a more rural Ethiopia, I was a little surprised not to see more animals at the National Park - I was thinking it would be a little like Kenya - seeing animals ALL over... We did see some beautiful birds, baboons, and a lot of antelope.  Our guide's name was Demberu... He was AWESOME! I loved to hear his stories...

We drove to the Awash Gorge and Tsegaw had made HAMBURGERS for us for lunch (that had been in the car all day - :) ha! ALLLLLL was goooood - we didn't sick - and they were delish!!!! :) We ordered a coke had a BURGER and sat dazed above a BEAUTIFUL Gorge!

 

...our next stop was the AWASH River Fall  :)

 

 

It was breathtaking! (...not the baboons booty by the HUGE waterfall! :) hehehe!)

 Back on the road again... we stopped to purchase some watermelons to take to the big kids at HH - from a local village in Adama. We met these sweet girls and talked to them for a little bit.

....We had a REALLY great day! I totally enjoyed stopping to talk to the people and getting out to purchase what they are producing, we saw and learned a lot... Tsegaw drove us back to Nazarath and we checked in at the Maya hotel... We met up later for dinner... 

Tsegaw was trying to find the Frank Hotel and so he yelled out his window and asked this boy to hop in the van and show us where to go! ha! Seriously. Funny! Then he directed us down the road and we asked some other people, then we turned around, yelled out the window and asked some more people, then we get to another spot, chat with a few more locals and then the sweet boy ran down the street to confirm that Frank Hotel is there! HA! WOW! Tsegaw gave the boy some birr and we parked and went in for dinner... :)

Erik and Tsegaw liked the meat. So we got beef tibs and something else (i forgot what it's called - looks like hamburger) it was good.  The next thing I know, Tsegaw is saying it is Ethiopian Culture to feed you! Aaaaah! :) So, he grabs the injera, loads it up and Erik and I had about 6 HUGE mouthfulls fed to us by our friend Tsegaw... I finally had to say - Thank you soooooo much - but, I'm starting to get a little FULL! ha ha! :)

Went back to the hotel, had a St. George with Tsegaw, talked about our eventful day and we were off to bed! ....Exhausted but thrilled we got to see and experience so much...