The first time they saw the hyenas of Harar was starvation.
The city was not then nothing more than an encampment of nomads, and chickens and goats roamed among the tents. A sumptuous meal and easy for those nocturnal hunters, who increasingly began to raid cattle, often without getting any scruples to attack even human beings.
Long before the Arabs think of building a wall, some of the nomads who lived in the city occurred an unusual pact, a treaty of non-aggression: so they learned to feed the hyenas, and hyenas to trust them ( and only them). It was the fourteenth century, from father to son the tradition has been continued until now: the men of hyenas are there, just steps away from us, and move the animals from small pieces of raw meat sticks. Then it's up to you, and hyenas at the end of the first suspicious agree to be fed by a stranger if introduced and accompanied by their human confidant. E 'emotion impressive, coming face to face with a predator to its natural state, while in the dark night of the barking dogs frightened resonate within the walls.
Harar was this, plus a white medina of the Arabic-influenced and markets one of the most colorful I've visited, thanks to the colorful clothes of women Harare. Among the stalls all the ethnic mix of Eastern Ethiopia, the Somalis with their gaudy earrings, the skin stripped from afar for ornamental reasons (as well as hierarchical: in men, scarification by counting the number of enemies killed in battle) , and the flavor of this border city so different from the rest of the country was also witnessed by Rimbaud, who spent two years running away from here Francia borghese.
Il paesaggio che la circonda, arido e collinare, è impreziosito da quella che gli italiani occupanti battezzarono la Valle delle Meraviglie, dove pinnacoli di roccia si innalzano, spesso in bilico l'uno sull'altro, da entrambe le sponde di una valle ricoperta da una bassa foresta di cactus (e ovviamente noi a farne le spese nell'impresa di arrivare in cima).
Da un estremo all'altro, dopo Harar ci siamo diretti nel profondo Sud del paese, per tastare un po' di quell'Africa tanto inflazionata fatta di praterie, savane e animali esotici. Il panorama che ti si staglia davanti sulle alture di Arba Minch (città polverosa e anonima) è di quelli che ti si imprimono nella retina: on the one hand the mirror of reddish water (high concentration of iron minerals in the water) known as Lake Abaya, its opposite the blue waters of Lake Chamo, in the middle of what locals call The Bridge of God, or a series of hills covered with lush vegetation that divides the two lakes. The wonder is that right behind those hills lies a vast savannah known Nechisar, white grass in Amharic, and home to one of the most diverse and spectacular natural parks of Ethiopia.
So off to the frames: the shining herds of hippos from the skin that you can not get near the boat because of their extreme aggression, the pink flamingos in flight against the backdrop of the mountains multicolored zebra a bit 'secretive that stand out on the myriad of Wavelengths yellow prairie, the shy dik dik hiding in the bush (the deer, not the group), they ignore the baboons Turning to the first height, pelicans that line up in the air against the sun, the majestic spiral horns nyala and the jackal in the night takes you to the exit of the park in front of the jeep running away but too curious to disappear in the vegetation surrounding the track.
Without doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, but the main attraction has not yet been mentioned. In a bend of Lake Chamo, for reasons mainly due to the seabed in that area that provides presence of large fish, is in fact what the Oromo of Arba Minch Crocodile call the Market: an unnatural concentration of Nile crocodile populations because those banks, and get there by boat is an adventure.
These animals, the largest reptile in the world-they can easily reach seven meters in length, are the undisputed top of the food chain of the park, feeding on zebra as big fish, antelope as a bird lake, and often attack the fishermen of the area (even the year prior to our arrival had killed a reckless pair of German tourists). A knowledge of this, it is easy to hear the uncontrolled increase dell'adrenalina al passaggio di questi sauri a meno di un metro dalla barca (già un po' instabile per conto suo), o sobbalzare quando nell'affollamento della zona uno di loro sbatte contro il fondo in ferro un po' arrugginito.
Un'ultima esperienza difficile da dimenticare, per accomiatarsi da questa fantastica esperienza etiope.
Poi fu il volo, e immediatamente Londra. Durissima ambientarsi, durissima comprendere perchè tanta fretta, tante luci, tante persone: l'Etiopia ci aveva estraniati dal nostro mondo.
A forza di pizza e spaghetti, come di calcio e vecchi amici, ci stiamo ora riprendendo...ma difficilmente questo complesso, meraviglioso e tanto provante viaggio Africa will not remain in a corner of our memory as a definite milestone.
And there's no time to breathe: a new year full of projects scalp to start ... and we will do with Africa in the eyes.
Big hugs again tricolor
Tommy and Jaka
RETINA OF AFRICA IN ETHIOPIA, ANNO DOMINI 2002 
Happy New Year to everyone from Lalibela to the world that is often forgotten in Ethiopia. E 'on 11 September 2009, but for all the inhabitants of the country instead of Menelik is the first day of New Year, which appears to be on the Ethiopian calendar year 2002.
There is a festive atmosphere on the streets the city wants to rebirth and spicy aromas coming out of houses.
Tomorrow we start again, to Addis Ababa and then the East, the Islamic region on the border with Somalia. Tomorrow percoò greet the plateau, the Ethiopian plateau that we have now traveled from one end.
There has unexpected surprises: not everyone can gather to walk in the fog at 3500 meters, including dwarf trees from the Gothic style, and discover themselves suddenly surrounded by a flock of over 600 gelada baboons placid intent to comb and fight to defend own harem. Simiens dei Monti, as well as sensational views, but we brought with us too. But it was only the beginning: the tappa successiva era carica di storia, e il suo nome suona noto a tutti gli italiani. Passando da Adua (sede della famosa battaglia che l'Italia di Crispi perse clamorosamente generando un evento di cui gli etiopi tutti vanno ancora molto orgogliosi, cioè la prima sconfitta di un esercito coloniale della Storia) siamo infatti arrivati ad Axum, antica capitale di una civiltà tanto potente quanto per secoli misconosciuta (si stima fosse l'impero più importante esistente tra quello Romano e quello Persiano, ma sia i primi che i secondi ne ignoravano l'esistenza), che del culto delle steli -incredibilmente ancora in piedi, sebbene misurino più di 24 metri- ha fatto la sua eredità.
Da lì ci siamo spostati ad Adigrat (Border town, dust, and camels), passing a monastery charm extreme: Debre Damos.
Perched on a flat-topped mountain ( Amba, in Amharic), can be reached only by climbing 20 feet up a vertical cliff face, aided by a rope with a rope and milllenaria skin of an ox-drawn Monaco at the top as a skeletal single security apparatus. My hands still sweat at the thought of doing so (while the wise Jaka, recovering from a stomach rebel, chose to stay on the ground), but once I understood how the top was worth it: a world of isolated, self-sufficient and alien to everything around him, came alive in front my eyes nell'idialliaco village that is home to 200 monks in the church and that is the center and heart of life.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the adrenaline would have soon ceased to move: The next day we rented car and driver and we started to explore the wild region of Tigray: canyons, gorges, Ambe, villages of mud and a sun to bend the trees.
tigrina But the real attraction is its churches, often carved on the sides of the mountain and almost unattainable: to admire the frescoes of Maryam Korkor we climbed a steep gravel, we climbed on rocks without safe and unsafe areas we have climbed parallel to the rock cliffs that I prefer not to rethink.
Once again, the result was worth the effort: from the top of the mountain, next to the church, stretched before us an infinite horizon, which crossed Eritrea and there inside was lost.
Another exhausting journey of breathtaking scenery and between all shades of green countryside tigrina, and here we finally come to Lalibela, where the Ethiopian religious architecture reached its zenith undisputed: the underground church (that is carved into the rock) City are perhaps the highlight of the whole plateau, and during the holidays to get the New Year has assured us a mystical atmosphere worthy of their beauty. Hard to forget the stylistic perfection of Beth Yorgis, with a Greek cross and carvings from the refined, as it appears at the bottom of a huge artificial basin dug into the tuff.
Un'Etiopia spectacular and charming then, but in every aspect that is affected by a deadly virus: the isolation faced for millennia. An isolation that has allowed him to preserve artistic treasures of great value, but that on balance has rather damaged, not used to dealing with foreigners like the people close to them (Ethiopia is one of the African countries with the lowest rate immigration, as if they are not call centers in order to bring the family back home), the Ethiopians are often naive and insistent, if not annoying and harassing.
Too busy to be proud of what we have, most (obviously not all) of them is curious about the world beyond national borders, and even the official guides show incompetence also frightening when compared to the standards of neighboring countries .
The same isolation has also exacerbated the religion, which becomes punishing more than saving, and enhances the dogmas in order to preserve the power of the clergy, in Ethiopia there are 6000 priests every 60 doctors. As always, fortunately, is an exception to every rule, and we met many Ethiopians did appreciate the best side of these people. But this does not mean that in 2002 is very difficult to be a faranj in Ethiopia. Let's go ahead anyway
exploration and the new year has begun in the best possible way, a fiery red sun is fading on the gentle slopes surrounding Lalibela.
A hug plateau
Tommy and Jaka
BETWEEN MUD AND POWER 
While the resin incense burning in spreading the scent in the air, coal stove heats up in the feet of Belenesh. When the beans are roasted, their smoke is pushed towards us, and the aroma is so intense as to be unknown even to an Italian.
It 's the coffee ceremony, welcome in a house of Ethiopia.
Belenesh invites us to help you grind the beans in a mortar and pestle to prepare the brew tanks that will be served three times in imitation of porcelain cups with at least two tablespoons of sugar each. Horn of Africa, exactly the Ethiopian region of Kaffa -hence the name-is in fact the original plant whose fruits are much appreciated throughout the world.
The Ethiopians know that and I am proud, as are the fact that Lucy, the first hominid (to be precise austrolopitecus afarensis, but here called Dinqinesh , or "you're beautiful") has been found in their land giving it the name of the cradle of humanity.
Jaka and I are here only for a little over a week, but we're absorbing as much as possible of Ethiopia, flooding in its history, its people and its traditions.
Above all, perhaps what marks us at the moment, the raw ambivalence of what the UN considers the fourth poorest country in the world.
Ethiopia is not in fact a tourist destination, and the few who choose it as such rely on package tours organized by European agencies rather than from independent to savor the everyday reality as well as landscapes. And if Thus the ill-concealed surprise at the sight of the few Ethiopians faranj (white-skinned foreigners, in Amharic) often turns into frenzy to get to know and practice the little English (at best) or groped to sell some item or service (at worst), we also discover when we go totally independent travelers from all their interpretative scheme, arousing interest and curiosity exaggerated.
With all the good but also the hassles that may arise, we are never alone.
Despite this, we quickly learned to dribble unsolicited bids, and so far we are able to enjoy all that Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar e Gondar avevano da offrirci.
La capitale, un confuso caotico e rumoroso miscuglio di fango e potere (che lascia lo spazio di una strada tra una delle principali baraccopoli e il lussuoso palazzo del Primo Ministro), ci ha aiutato a prendere le misure di questo paese a noi nuovo, regalandoci la vista dello scheletro di Lucy e l'emozione di assistere alla preghiera cantata al mausoleo di Beta Maryam (il credo etiope, unico al mondo, è un cristianesimo di derivazione copta egiziana vissuto intensamente dalla popolazione e spesso pervaso da un forte misticismo).
Una volta sull'altopiano, Gondar ci ha sorpreso svelandoci un'Africa di castelli seicenteschi dalle torri merlate e dall'atmosfera medievale, a surreal experience lived so far from Camelot. But it was definitely Bahir Dar on the shores of Lake Tana, for us so far left an indelible mark: to share the daily life of an Ethiopian family who hosted us for three days in his mud house without even the bathroom, was the more faithful mirror of a reality only photographed back in the tourist brochures.
The injera (a type of flatbread made of a local grain called Teff that Ethiopians use as a dish and pour on which various types of condiments) of Belenesh, wine Yordanos craft, stories of childhood tigrina the householder Kidane, ambitions and hopes of us Aizier have catapulted us into daily life far away, in contact with the earth and from her employees.
In those days, the wonderful painted monasteries of Lake Tana and Blue Nile Falls (the source of which we have been bugged by a rotund hippopotamus among the papyrus) were just wonderful side dish.
We are going to leave, to a trek to the mountains Simiens populated by herds of gelada baboons we know new surprises in store for us and spectacular views from its more than 3000 meters.
Our Horn of Africa continues, and so the portarvici with us.
Big hugs anointed injera and shiro
Tommy and Jaka
