Pied Piper

Now that we have been here almost a week, we have had the opportunity to see a lot of the city because of our dog survey, and we probably average 10 miles a day. However, this doesnt sound like much until you know that Gondar is very mountainous and we are often hiking uphill on rocky terrain. The foliage here is so striking I always take more photos than Ally (the other OSU student with me) thinks is reasonable :)

A succulent plant with pretty pink flowers

The Dam near one of our surveys

"Hilly" terrain makes for difficult walking

Every time we go on our surveys we seem to collect a large crowd of children. The children are often interested in us because we are "ferengi" or "foreigners" and we are often carrying iPads, GPS, and cell phones and taking photos of the dogs we see along the way. We feel a little bit like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, collecting more children with each house we pass.The other large crowds we see are the sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, mules, chickens and Brahmin cows. 

A small herd of sheep with some lambs!!!

There have been some amazing views along our transects, and we have seen some dogs who are not happy about having their picture taken!

A little photo break at the Dam

Beautiful Gondar, in a rural living area of town

This dog did not want his photo taken!

Part of our transects have taken us to some of the more popular tourist spots of the city, and we walked near Fasil Castle, which is the main tourist lure in the city. This castle is hundreds of years old and Gondar used to be the capital city of Ethiopia and the castle was the home of their Kings. The city is a perfect location for defense due to the mountains and lakes and rivers. One cool hotel near the bus station is perfectly round, and I wish we had had more of a chance to explore it. 

The wall that surrounds Fasil castle

The circle hotel, in the heart of downtown

Many of the children we have seen are just precious, and absolutely beautiful. I wanted to share this little child who photo bombed my attempt to photograph a dog for our survey. He's a perfect example of the children we have met along the way.

Can you spot the dog?

One of the most amazing experiences so far has been our time up on the Goha Mountain, which is the highest spot in Gondar. We took a car to the base, and then walked for a few miles, before a little taxi (a tiny 3 wheel vehicle) took us the rest of the way. I didn't think it would make it!!! I'm pretty sure we could have walked faster than the taxi was able to go, but it was nice to rest our legs a little. The Goha mountain has a hotel at the top that was built during the dictatorship and meant to house important people. It is now a popular tourist hotel. Upon arrival we took pictures of the city from this majestic height.

A view from Goha Mountain Hotel

At this hotel we dined with Tamiru, a teacher at the vet school, and Dr. Hoet, one of our very own teachers from OSU. Dr. Hoet wanted to try a red wine from Ethiopia and I said I would help him (of course) This wine tasted like a thin and slightly more sour Italian Amarone, and although it did not taste like the wine you would normally expect, it was enjoyable, and complimented my pasta dish very well. Italians have a history with Ethiopia, and pasta, pizza and other Italian dishes are very common here, along with traditional Ethiopian food. 

Ethiopian Wine

Of course, I will end with the food :) Dr. Hoet played an "Ice" experiment with us and told us to put ice in the bottled water and see what appeared. As he expected, the ice contained lots of little suspicious "particles." I'm not sure if the photo will capture it too well. Luckily, English people don't really drink cold drinks like Americans do, so it doesn't bother me at all, and I in fact prefer a room temperature drink.

Dirty Ice makes dirty water

We tried Pizza yesterday and it was very good! Who knows what the cheese is (we suspect sheep milk), but apparently we enjoyed it a lot as is evidence by how little we didn't finish. I also tried Ethiopian beer form a local brewery. It tastes like a summer wheat beer from America and it is refreshing enough that Tamiru and I had three rounds. 

Ethiopian Pizza

Local Ethiopian Beer

Finally, I end with my coffee, which of course I cannot live without, so its lucky that I am in the heart of coffee country. Today I discovered that you can order a DOUBLE Macchiato, and I have pretty much entered Heaven. 

Double Macchiato!!!

That's all for now. Maria, another OSU student, arrives today and I am sure that this will increase the number and craziness of our adventures.