Simien Mountains, Ethiopia, November 27-28, 2015

It was a 2.5 hour drive to the Simien Mountains-

where I had signed up for 3 days and 2 nights of trekking.  Why you ask?  Good question.  I hate hiking, trekking, mountain climbing, whatever you want to call it, I hate it.  Needless to say, I came home after the first sleep and this morning's walk to the waterfall.  My knees were starting to hurt from all the up/down business so I packed it in.  

I could urinate more than what this waterfall is doing-

The Gelada Baboons are pretty cool.  There are about 20,000 in the park-

 and they are not afraid of humans.  They eat grass and the bugs they pick off of each other-

Males-

have up to 12 wives who have 2 babies/year-

This one just finished nursing-

Both males and females have red chests and 4 nipples.  The males have 4 'bumper pads' on their butts but the females only have two.  At night, they find a cliff in the ravine to stay safe from jackals, hyenas and the odd, very odd, leopard.

Other wildlife includes the thick billed raven who has a white spot on its head-

The aloe plant has a pretty  flower and the wild tomato is poisonous and used for laundry soap-

Most people don't have cars so government run, public transportation looks like this-

Birthday cake for breakfast?  Sounds great to me!

Donkeys, sheep, people, horses and carts are all over the roads.  Our driver is continuously honking as a warning that we are passing.  The area is very arable and fields are small but well looked after.  It appears they get at least 2 crops/year and all work is done manually.  There are a lot of rocks everywhere, especially in the towns where they are used for fences and just piled in front of homes and shops.  It's a crazy place but the people are super friendly and non hasslers.  I am enjoying it here.