Our last long drive of this trip.
We headed south and I watched the landscape morph from mountainous rock to near tropical green to flat grasslands.
On the way, we stopped at Tiya. This is a collection of more than forty stelae, dated between the 12th and 14th centuries. These mark the graves of males and females who died when they were between 18-30 years old. They were buried in a fetal position, not laid out, so they were pre-Christian burials.
The symbols on the stalae were simplistic, but quite beautiful. They think that the swords indicate how many enemies the person buried there killed. The round circles indicate a male (the guide said that represented the male chest - they think the little symbol between them indicates ribs), but it could represent something a little lower down the anatomy, in my opinion.The female graves have long pointy breasts on them.
Our guide was so enthusiastic. His t-shirt had "2012 Graduate" on the back, and he was just so damn eager. He was like Vanna White: "And here we have another stalae, can you guess what these symbols might mean?" He posed in the fetal position to illustrate exactly what that meant, then laid in a Christian grave to show us the difference. He also mimed the female stalae with a bizarre warrior stance, and talked about how the phallic stalae were uncircumcised...which proved they were pre-Christian. He ran he finger around the top of the stalae and said, "Other phallic stalae are cut here, they are circumcised." I hope he got a good tip.
Yes. I realize what happened there, but I meant it.
And this is also where I encountered the truly scariest bathroom thus far. In a metal shed there was a hole in the ground with probably a hundred mosquitoes swirling around it. I just kept imagining describing to the malaria doctor how I had come to pick up the disease in that particular localized area. Shudder.
As we drove along, the style of houses changed dramatically as well. We saw some that were elaborately painted, and we got to stop and see inside one. The women are in charge of painting them, using natural colors. The inside was also painted brilliantly. I was simple, but bigger than it looked, and very tidy and clean. They had a little solar panel on the outside to heat water.
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. Until we got close to Arba Minch. Then we started seeing all these amazing birds. A Double Crested Eagle, a Roller, and an Abyssinian Hornbill. They were lovely.
As we approached our next town, Lake Abaya appeared, disguised as a dust storm. The lake is the second largest lake in Ethiopia, and is also known as Kai Hayk (Red Lake) due to its rusty appearance. It did not appear to be liquid as we drove closer, it just looked like a wall of red dust. It was spectacular.
We arrived in Arba Minch. It is in the foothills of the Rift Valley wall above a cliff overlooking the slice of mountains that separate Lake Abaya and Lake Chamo. We are staying at the Paradise Lodge, and the view is spectacular. Although Lake Abaya looks slightly less red from this high up. The malaria infested Nech Sar National Park sits at our doorstep. So it is deet and mosquito netting from here on out.
We headed south and I watched the landscape morph from mountainous rock to near tropical green to flat grasslands.
On the way, we stopped at Tiya. This is a collection of more than forty stelae, dated between the 12th and 14th centuries. These mark the graves of males and females who died when they were between 18-30 years old. They were buried in a fetal position, not laid out, so they were pre-Christian burials.
The symbols on the stalae were simplistic, but quite beautiful. They think that the swords indicate how many enemies the person buried there killed. The round circles indicate a male (the guide said that represented the male chest - they think the little symbol between them indicates ribs), but it could represent something a little lower down the anatomy, in my opinion.The female graves have long pointy breasts on them.
Our guide was so enthusiastic. His t-shirt had "2012 Graduate" on the back, and he was just so damn eager. He was like Vanna White: "And here we have another stalae, can you guess what these symbols might mean?" He posed in the fetal position to illustrate exactly what that meant, then laid in a Christian grave to show us the difference. He also mimed the female stalae with a bizarre warrior stance, and talked about how the phallic stalae were uncircumcised...which proved they were pre-Christian. He ran he finger around the top of the stalae and said, "Other phallic stalae are cut here, they are circumcised." I hope he got a good tip.
Yes. I realize what happened there, but I meant it.
And this is also where I encountered the truly scariest bathroom thus far. In a metal shed there was a hole in the ground with probably a hundred mosquitoes swirling around it. I just kept imagining describing to the malaria doctor how I had come to pick up the disease in that particular localized area. Shudder.
As we drove along, the style of houses changed dramatically as well. We saw some that were elaborately painted, and we got to stop and see inside one. The women are in charge of painting them, using natural colors. The inside was also painted brilliantly. I was simple, but bigger than it looked, and very tidy and clean. They had a little solar panel on the outside to heat water.
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. Until we got close to Arba Minch. Then we started seeing all these amazing birds. A Double Crested Eagle, a Roller, and an Abyssinian Hornbill. They were lovely.
As we approached our next town, Lake Abaya appeared, disguised as a dust storm. The lake is the second largest lake in Ethiopia, and is also known as Kai Hayk (Red Lake) due to its rusty appearance. It did not appear to be liquid as we drove closer, it just looked like a wall of red dust. It was spectacular.
We arrived in Arba Minch. It is in the foothills of the Rift Valley wall above a cliff overlooking the slice of mountains that separate Lake Abaya and Lake Chamo. We are staying at the Paradise Lodge, and the view is spectacular. Although Lake Abaya looks slightly less red from this high up. The malaria infested Nech Sar National Park sits at our doorstep. So it is deet and mosquito netting from here on out.
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