The latest from Venus Adventures Tours for Women – Ethiopia

I am just back from a quick trip to Germany where I went to meet up with Firew Ayele, our Ethiopian guide. Firew is an intelligent, interesting man, who is passionate about his country and people – it is a privilege to have him on a trip, and anyone who meets and spends time with him is usually deeply impressed.

Anyway, Firew has regular groups from the German YMCA who come over to work on various projects – being such a popular guy, they sponsored him to come visit Germany for 2 weeks. It is Firews first time outside of Ethiopia (besides being captured and imprisoned by Somalians as a child…but that’s another story), so I just couldn’t miss the opportunity to go to Germany and drink a large German beer with him (see photo)

When I met up with him, he had already been in Germany 2 weeks and the Germans had of course been plying him with lots of beer and Wurst (although there was still no sign of a beer pot developing). I asked him what his impressions were…he said when he was staying with a family in a village, there was virtually no one on the streets (all inside watching tv no doubt), it was like a ghost town, which made him quite uneasy (in Ethiopia there are people outside all the time). Also, he went to an outdoors shop to buy some equipment – the assistant spent at least an hour with him showing and comparing different tents etc – he said in Ethiopia they would have just told you to buy something or leave! :-

Ethiopia is a fascinating country with amazing scenery, great food (yes, you may even put on weight whilst there!), fascinating tribes, friendly people, astounding history, and …the best coffee in the world! We hike in the Simien mountains, visit bustling African markets, mingle with the locals, see tribal dances, feed hyenas, visit old castles and monasteries, visit local charities (Fistula Hospital) and lots more….We will be back going back there most likely in October 2010, so let me know if you are interested so I can keep you posted. Link to Venus Adventures.