Simien Mountains

By now I feel like I've taken enough busses in third world countries that not much surprises me, but this morning I took a particularly nasty one from Gondar to Debark, Ethiopia, the starting point for treks into the nearby Simien Mountains. When I first read about arranging a trip into the mountains, the whole idea seemed a little outrageous to me. According to park regulations, anyone who hikes in the area must first hire a guide to keep them on the trails, as well as a scout armed with an old dirty rifle (who knows what that is for). On top of that most people also hire a cook, then to carry all the stuff a mule is necessary and a mule handler to slap the animal on the backside whenever it gets lazy. Fortunately for tourists labor is cheap in Northern Ethiopia and the combination of the guide, the scout, the cook, the mule, and the mule handler can be hired for about 25 dollars per day.On the bus I met a Basque couple from San Sebastian, Spain named Txomin and Nagore. The two of them were planning a short trip to the Simien mountains as well and we all agreed to hike together and split our costs. Splitting the costs turned out to an awesome deal for me. Not only did it save me about one hundred dollars when we had to pay up this morning, but I realized that I didn't change nearly enough money in Addis Ababa to pay for the trip myself if I had to. The Basque couple did me a huge favor today.

After leaving the Simien Mountain Park Headquarters, the three of us spent the morning with our cook shopping for food. First we stopped at an Ethiopian-style quickie mart. Our cook picked out some pasta, cooking oil, and a few other necessities at the place, then it was on to the local outdoor market. We walked through a narrow alleyway that opened up into a huge muddy clearing in the town. Directly in front of us were hundreds of sheep, mules, goats, and roosters for sale and behind them were countless stalls spread on the ground in all directions staffed by Ethiopian women selling everything from wheat, rice, and spices to soap, kid's toys, and kerosene.Txiomin summed the place up in a nutshell... “This is Africa.”

The cook picked out a load of potatoes and veggies, filled up a four-liter canister with kerosene for our stove, bought thirty small loaves of bread, then called it good and we all headed for the mountains.I saw something completely random in Debark this morning. An Ethiopian man was pushing himself in a wheelchair, and as he passed by I noticed a circular logo on the back. I read the text along the top of the logo and really could hardly believe what I was seeing... “Latter-day Saint Charities”. Yeah, the chair came from the church. It's incredible to me that after traveling to an obscure African village half-way around the world I'd see something like that that came right from Salt Lake. It's good to know that the church's stuff really does get around and that it gets to the people who need it.Hiking was a lot of fun today, but as we reached the lodge late this afternoon I realized that the Everest Base Camp hike was plenty for one trip. I'm glad to be in the Simien Mountains and I'm excited for this hike and everything, but I'm just glad it's not a long one. I'll be up here a total of three days and two nights, and that will probably feel about right.

I'm still surprised by how green Ethiopia is. As we hiked out of Gondar the town disappeared to reveal bright green rolling hills in every direction. We crossed a stream several times then passed by a few Ethiopian huts and some local kids taking care of small herds of sheep.Scenery is great but what I really came for is the gelada baboons. In a Biology class that I took at BYU a few years back a friend of mine gave a presentation about gelada baboons and the Simien Mountains, and ever since I saw that I've wanted to come here and see the wild creatures for myself. In 2006 I saw a small herd of them at the Singapore Zoo. That was a nice teaser, but actually being here in the Simien Mountains in Northern Ethiopia feels completely out of control. Unfortunately we didn't see any baboons today because we didn't get high into the hills until late in the afternoon, when they've retreated back into their caves. According to our guide though, the animals are everywhere in the mountains and we should see hundreds of them tomorrow. I really am so excited.

A small catastrophe happened today. I gave my bag to the mule handler to load up and haul to camp. When I got my bag tonight and turned on the laptop, the entire LCD screen was cracked and busted. Luckily there is still a tiny square about a few inches wide and a few inches long that is only a little bit distorted, so I can still use it to type with, but it feels like trying to drive a car in the winter after only scraping a tiny peephole in the ice that's collected on the windshield. As I type this tonight I can only read about half of a sentance; the rest of the monitor is covered in black blobs of liquid crystal that used to be my screen. Hopefully the thing will survive at least in it's current state until I can get home and junk the thing. Until then I have to deal with the peephole effect and try to write in coherent sentances while only being able to read a few words of what I've just written.