http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lump/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Lump en-us Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:46:34 +0000 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:46:34 +0000 Only a second the span separating a drink from a sip. It slipped into that space effortlessly. Just an innocent question. The kind you ask a memory that has disappeared into an incomprehensible life elsewhere.How is NYC How is it to be back in the USAThe Question. The returnees kan the sound of one hand clapping.Sooner or later it always comes but no one really wants the complicat http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-770694.html Hundreds of bodies litter the killing field. Many still twitch as the cherry red blood bubbles out of slit necks and pools in the mud. Bloodsplattered butchers hunch over the bodies their axes methodically rising and falling as they hack through flesh and bone. Others peel away the skin with long curved black bladed knives. Cows that had fifteen minutes before been chased across the field by squ http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Southern-Nations-Region/Turmi/blog-752768.html Less than ten minutes into the student orientation for the Harvard Summer intensive English program the third cell phone rang. Actually it didnt ring. It made the shut down noise. Voldermorts names have been changed to protect the not so innocent head whipped up like a vulture startled from its scavenging. Glaring with beady predator eyes into the darkness of the auditorium she snarled http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Cambridge/blog-741294.html A light drizzle falls from a slate sky. It is colder than expected. Inside the percussive tremulous flurry of flamenco guitar rattles the bars tinny speakers. Tapas spread across the low wooden table viridescent garlicky olives thinly sliced jamon serano fatrippled chorizo honey drizzled manchego cheese sprinkled with ground coffee and a steaming plate of golden fried anchovies. The tap http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Arcos-de-la-Frontera/blog-712663.html This all started a few months ago. I was in the Gambella region of western Ethiopia bouncing down a road to visit a Nuer village one of the indigenous tribes of the area. For miles all along the newly graded road the forest was being enthusiastically dragged down piled up and burnt. Clear cutting toward a better future. Rounding a bend a enormous piece of John Deere industrial farm equipment http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/blog-694721.html A couple of the emails said Rwanda . . . huh. The skepticism was palpable. The messages plainly implied that this decision was significant in so far as it indicated deteriorating mental capacities and an alarming uptick in questionable decision making.Opravas email was more blunt Christmas in Rwanda sounds like well hell but what does the white man know.Precisely. What does the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Rwanda/Province-du-Nord/Parc-National-des-Volcans/blog-682173.html In the old stories mountains were the navels of the world the axis mundi the abode of the gods. Where there was no Kailash Fuji Olympus or Sinai people built their own the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia the pyramids of Egypt Teotihuacan Chichen Itza and the Empire State Building in the Americas. The mountains connected heaven and earth. They were a conduit for the flowering of myth http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Central-Province-/Mt-Kenya/blog-681377.html Sinking into his chair Haptu a corpulent Chinese buddha looking Ethiopian lifts his steaming cup of tea and smiles broadly. What we do is go look at those people. Haptu smelled opportunity. In Ethiopia tourists follow the highland historic circuit to Gondor Axum and Lalibela or go south to see the tribes of the Southern Peoples. Western Ethiopia bereft of historicalmythical tie http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Gambela-Region/Gambela/blog-680781.html Suddenly voices break through the crackling static. Unintelligible but clearly voices. Then a moment later they are gone. White noise again. I go back to probing the radios circuit board with the two tiny wires while slowly adjusting the tuner knob. Ten or fifteen children and a couple of adults have gathered to watch and seem greatly encouraged by the short burst of audible evidence. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/blog-658977.html http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-651249.html I found this while cleaning the computer. Apparently I was not impressed with it 8 months ago. This may still be the case but if I ever reread any of these things in my dotage it should be with the rest. good or bad.Disentangling mythology from history is a tricky business. Perhaps one that is not even possible. Napolean said that history was only the version of past events that people http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Amhara-Region/Lalibela/blog-566478.html Most days like most people the routine of life doesnt warrant a lot of notice get up. eat cold toast. drink coffee. talk to carly. talk to cat. read. take bus to work. work. take bus home. eat dinner. talk to carly. talk to cat. read. sleep. Repeat ad nauseam and ad infinitum. By and large life isnt much different in Addis Abeba Ethiopia than Santiago Chile or Kansas Ci http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/blog-608675.html We were lost. We had come down from the caldera of the Fentale Volcano but were now zigzagging across the surrounding foothills looking for the road. Our guide was a random kid we had picked up out of a nameless village about 10km west. What was clear is that he knew the difference between up and down so he had figured out how to get to the top of the mountain. Getting back to where we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/blog-572221.html In between bouts of serious depression about losing the cat I have been trying to write about Egypt. We went there. I dont really know what to say about it. It was amazing. It was exhausting. In addition to the touron imperative to mainline the land of the Pharaohs in ten days there was the other thing. The other thing has to do with authenticity trying to glimpse the humanity of a pla http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/blog-560470.html The Great Ethiopian RunStupid is as stupid does. Consequently I dont run. Alcohol fear tear gas or a frisbee may compel me to do so but as a rule running is moronic. For anyone running marathons to cope with midlife I would humbly recommend brushing up on your history. Nota Bene Pheidippides collapsed and died. Please refer to first sentence. Given my animosity to running I was http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/Addis-Ababa/blog-548819.html http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/Addis-Ababa/blog-539873.html The minibus is jostling through rural Tigray in northern Ethiopia. Rock outcrops of striated sandstone tower above the flat of the land. Fields of undulating green spread out from the base of the cliff walls broken periodically by squat houses of stacked stones fenced in by prickly pear cacti. We pass a few tiny towns but largely it looks like Zion only greener.Stepping out into the blinky http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Tigray-Region/Mek-ele/blog-533558.html There are over 85 million Ethiopians seventyfive percent live on the equivalent of 2US a day. While lives on and earn may be quantitatively different the guards Tomas and Johannes are not making a lot of trips to the bank. The security company is paid 3600 birr 266US monthly. Tomas and Johannes take home 350 birr each less than 30US. Anyone paying attention to all the n http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/Addis-Ababa/blog-531901.html Riding the Blue DonkeySaturday is culture day. This entails venturing forth into the chaos of the city. Needless to say hunting culture is tiring work. Well caffeinated to face the day we walked to Bole Road to catch a blue donkey. Blue donkeys are blue and white Toyota minibuses with three rows of seats in the back. Though their final destination is often mysterious they are the most co http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/Addis-Ababa/blog-526077.html Sometime around sunrise the plane began to descend through the clouds towards the dark city that lay below. I was a strung out mess of nerves and exhaustion after a frantic last week in Santiago and two overnight flights. In Chile I had been doing a pretty good job of mentally not dealing with anything other than the present. The logistics of leaving one continent was enough. Thinking about l http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/Addis-Ababa/blog-522679.html