OTHER PRACTICAL ADVICES
What to carry with you
- The South is very hot,
but Bale Mountains are high and cold; be prepared fot
temperatures ranging 15-40 degrees Celsius (night and
day, respectively).
- A cap if you are going
to see the Geleb, it is 7 kms far from the village and it
is very hot. As it is one of the best visits in the
South, it is worth to be prepared.
- Solar protector, the
highest available. Try to imagine the African sun near
the Ecuator!
- If yoy can, bring your
own tent. We saw horrible ones. You will also
save the price of the rent, and even may sell it after
finishing the tour for a good price.
- Sleeping bag, a good
one if you plan to sleep in Bale Mountains. A thermic
sheet, event to protect you against insects at night in
some hotels, may be useful: you may see an insect-zoo in
some rooms in Turmi or Jinka (the rest of the hotels were
good or acceptable).
- Don't think you will
find everything you need in Addis Abeba, it is better to
carry your own prepared foodstuff in order to substitute
the local one in some cases. The best option are the
fastest to be ready, because there is not much gaz
available. You can get some cookies and candies in the
supermarket, as well as Kellog's or soluble coffee.
Canned fish is quite bad.
- You must buy some
chemicals to produce drinking water. You can find
chlorine tablets ererywhere, they are usually not exactly
chlorine (it is impossible to carry in a safe way) but
chloramines, also with quite good disinfectant power.
Anyway, we brought iodine, it is useful to prepare
drinking water (2 drops of alcoholic solution 2% v/v per
liter of water) and also to disinfect small wounds.
Unlike chlorine, iodine is also effective against Giardia
and Crypto, but it gives a nasty taste to the water. The
best solution is to drink bottled water (available almost
everywhere) and to use sterilised water to cook and to
clean vegetables and wash yourself. As salads are unusual
in Ethiopia, it isn't an important problem. By the way,
we dindn't get any disease.
- Some people
recommended to us to bring ballons to the children and
shave cutters to the adults. There is any problem in
doing that, but in our opinion some pharmaceuticals will
be much more interesting: antibiothicals, disinfectants
and sterile cotton, this may save a life. Bring also
diclofenac and antidiarreics, they might be useful for
them ... and for you! Some idea about first-aid is also
important, disinfection wounds above all.
- WC paper is rare but
you can found it in Addis, anyway don't expect founding
it frequently even in the best hotels. Table-napkin is
simply unknown in Ethiopia, bring your own package; think
that even the sauces are eated whit the fingers.
- Trekking boots. Only
dust makes casual shoes unefficient, imagine when it
rains...
Some important
considerations to be taken into account before travelling to
Ethiopia
- You must get the
vaccinations prior to go. Yellow fiber is not compulsory,
but there is people in some areas dying because for it,
for example in Arbamich. Malaria is widespread, our guide
got it many times. The tse-tse fly causes the sleeping
illness, it may be important if you are attacked for a
lot of flies, but few bites are not dangerous. If you
fell bad when retournig home, tell your doctor you went
to Ethiopia. There is no vaccination against the sleeping
illness, so you must use insect repellents when entering
an infected area; this disease isn't mortal nowadays, and
an infected person will develop it after many days
(hopefully, at home), but the flyes itself are very
annoying, there will be hundreds trying to bite you (only
in the morning and the evening, not in the noon). I would
recommed to people who usually fell bad whit this kind of
problems not to go to Nechisar Park or Mago Park, only if
you can close the car's windows when passing through
infested areas. Remember this applies only in some parts of
the Omo River area, you won't have any problem in other
places!
- Change your money in
the official banks, not in the streets. Ask for small,
new banknotes of 1 birr, you shoud rekon about 200 per
person plus some notes of 5, 10, 50 and 100. If you
change 200USD per person will be enough, if you find a
very expensive item you can usually pay for it in
dollars. All the ancient objects sold in the mercato are
false, so you may reduce the initial price in about one
third, but keep in mind there are only turist souvenirs.
Ask your guide if they would change the money back into
dollars, but ask them the fisrt day and try to remember
them sometimes during the travel.
- Get an insurance, the
hospitals are so expensive that is a worth to do that for
a little money.
- Be sure that your
guide has the legal permission (includin turist taxes)
for carrying tourists, it is cheap and if you hadn't you
would have big problems with the police...
- You must reconfirm
your flying ticket, of course not calling to Ethiopian
Airlines although all the Ethiopians will tell you to do
that, but to your company.. Ask the phone number before
leaving the airport, there are telephone guides but
written in Amaric.
- Bear in mind that the
Ethiopians have a different calendar, anyway you will
manage always in Occidental dates. Last 2007 they changed
to their year 2000!.
- Ethiopia is one of the
poorest countries in the world. According to some data we
have seen, the per capita rent was about 120
USD/year in the late 80's (the same that will cost to you
hiring a 4 wheel drive for a single day) the expected
lifetime was 47 years and childrem mortality 13.5%. As
AIDS as increased a lot since the publication of these
figures, the situation has only get worse. The country
has more milions of people infected by AIDS (source:
WHO), and the wars against Eritrea and Somalia have led to a huge
number of wounded people. Respect everything,
and be concious that anyone who looks like a tourist is a
milionaire according to their standars, of course not
for all of them but in general terms. This way you will
be able to look at one culture very different than ours,
whit much more dignity than at a first glance, it is sure
you will be feel different after the travel.