Day 11: Public Transit Musings and the Hornbill (March 22)

Ah, public transit: something I should have experienced sooner if I wanted to spend wisely. The cab driver gave me a quick primer. The bus station is a busy place, so always securely watch your bags and pockets (less worried about money, pickpockets would have to get under my shirt to snag my money belt and so would have to be a bit more committed to robbing me). There are people everywhere, and look for people repeating the word "Wolisso" to find the right bus.

A ride on a public bus

As it turns out, things were made simple. As soon as the cab pulled over and I paid up, green-shirted men with identity tags swooped down. They're bag handlers. For 100ETB they will hustle your bags over to the correct bus (and one which is almost full, and therefore close to departure) in a quick and aggressive manner. It wasn't like I was going to walk away from the guy when he had my laptop case, so I should bloody well hope he brought me to the right bus! It turns out he did.

When you use public transit, the language barrier is more prominent. I suppose the aggressive bag handlers really helped, as did a passenger who seemed to understand enough English to let me know when to pay and how much. 36ETB for a three hour ride is better than the earlier-experienced 700ETB for a five hour ride, and there wasn't even a flat tire this time. To be fair as I refer to the Lalibela trip, the roads were rough and public buses didn't seem to be going all the way there.

Many laughs were had, but I can't say I had any idea what was going on. A gaggle of young women seemed to be asking after me. For all I knew they just wondered what the lone Canadian was doing at the back of the bus, but they wondered in a manner that was apparently hilarious.

Negash Lodge

Unfortunately, I'm not riding on any ponies or doing anything with the Crater Lakes. I asked after this attraction. They told me the only two options were to go to the bus station and hire a car independently, or pay 1500ETB and have everything arranged for me. It's possible that the pony ride was included in their "everything arranged" cost; I don't know, they didn't mention it.

At last count, my money belt contains 1153ETB (or roughly US$67). This doesn't count the money set aside to pay the Lodge for one night there or to pay the Family Cozy on my last day, as I have secured that part of the prime directive. It does count laundry, food and transportation for the remainder of this trip. Most importantly, the remainder probably must be converted to US$ and cover the shuttle fee to get from Dulles over to Reagan when I briefly return to Washington. If there's a baggage check fee once I'm back in North America (one bag now has some souvenirs and the nature of them means the bag must be checked) that has to be covered too.

At this point, I would just prefer to get home soon. I can think of one day I could have trimmed out of the Lalibela segment had I scheduled things a bit better, and perhaps one could have been subtracted from Gondar as well. I say this because everything I did could have been fit in two days in either case; if not, anything I would have missed was not in the original plan. Ten days total would probably have worked better for me. In any case, the round-trip airfare is booked, and I can find things to do until 10:15 PM on the 24^th.

I can enjoy all the Lodge has to offer. It's basically a gated guarded compound, most luxurious; if I wanted to swim, there's a pool. I'm going to check out the Business Center and see if they have wifi at a reasonable price and passable bandwidth. For instance, will Facebook actually load, or will the server hang up on me?

And wouldn't you know it? As I was heading to the desk to inquire about the Crater Lakes excursion, there was the hornbill, standing on a rooftop. And there I was, camera at the ready. The funny thing is, though it's nice to get that hornbill at last, the bird is just the opening act for other wildlife at Negash Lodge.

The place has a couple different colonies of monkeys. There are smaller grey ones, plentiful and hyper, and then there are Gureza (Abyssinian black-white Colobus Monkeys). As much as I miss the lake attraction and riding a pony, this is twice in the past ten days that I've had the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of non-threatening monkeys or apes. They're magnificent.

I have about 11 pages left to edit in my manuscript. I'm going to finish that up, then go to the luxurious bar for dinner and pound back a beer. Or I could eat, pound back a beer and then edit the 11 pages. There's always fun to be found.

D. Madeley