The Maasai of Kenya

I was setting up my tent behind the park office in Amboseli NP and didn’t notice a local teenager approaching. His earlobes hung down to his shoulders weighed down by special little copper-colored weights, the rest of the earlobe wrapped in beaded tubes. On his right hip was a sheathed knife, and on his left was a cellphone. “Do you maybe want to visit a Maasai village?” he asked.

Finding the Mandrills in Gabon, Africa

I ground my teeth but kept on going. Gently securing the camera on my back, and making sure more dirt doesn’t get in, I plowed through the swamp and cursed under my breath when sharp serrated grass blades cut me deep enough to draw blood. By now, I looked like I’ve been whipped. “Think about it as of an exfoliating treatment,” said my husband walking behind me. I could hear him smile. I turned around,... [Read more]

People Watching in Axum, Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s people walk the dusty streets of Axum like characters from sun-bleached pages of a biblical picture book. I catch them in mid-stride, fetching water, going to church and carrying wood. The town is big, but almost everybody is traditionally dressed. Dignified elders sit on street benches and swat flies with horse-hair brushes, their respectable heads wrapped in white turbans. Most women have exactly the... [Read more]

Visiting the Simien Mountains with the King of Africa

His eyes are in the shade of massive brows. A ridged muzzle, small angular nostrils, and a round jaw with the top lip curling back suddenly to expose sharp fangs set in wide pink gums. If I didn’t know better I’d be convinced his get-up is skillfully sewn of lion skins, so splendid is his costume, from mane to tuft. A cocked fur hat, and on his chest — a bleeding heart, set right in the middle, like a... [Read more]

Gondor’s Tresure in Ethiopia

It there was one church that won my heart in Ethiopia, it was the Debre Birhan Sellassie of Gondor. Stepping into it was like stepping into a children’s biblical storybook. Angels adorn the roof and pillars of this truly divine dwelling, while every single other holy character is depicted on the walls in fading, though still very vivid colors.

Its keeper is a frail but tough old monk with an exquisite ability... [Read more]

Birds, Poachers, and Twitchers in Ethiopia

Sometimes, it seems like Ethiopia is all lakes, birds, and monasteries. Dirty swimming water and organized religion I can do without, but after seeing a silvery-cheeked hornbill I doubt that I could keep living my life and not become a serious twitcher - a bird-watcher who tries to spot as many rare varieties as possible.

My new found obsession with birds reached its peak when I spotted a man selling lovebirds in... [Read more]

The “You” Calls of Ehtiopia

“You! YouyouYOUyouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!” There is a reason every travel report from Ethiopia comes back with the same general complaint. The call of the youcalls (a nickname coined by Russian hitchhikers late in the last century) will ring in your ears the entire stay in the country. Farangas are rare in most of Ethiopia and they seldom stop to socialize (which I am always happy to do), especially if... [Read more]

Sof Omar, Ethiopia

Never go caving with a whiner – he’ll scare off all the bats.

I entered Sof Omar cave with a mandatory guide in tow – a teenager in a leather jacket. As soon as I turned the corner my respectable guide began whining. Was I going to give him a tip? How much? “A tip,” I said, “is determined by how well a job is done,” and he, my guide, is already not doing a very good job. At that... [Read more]

Bale Mountains

Just as the little bastard had probably planned it, only a few kilometers later I’ve discovered that the basket of berries he sold me was half full with banana leafs. Cursing aloud, but smiling inside, I had admit to myself that it was kind of clever and my own fault for not checking.

I was on my way to the Bale Mountains. African scenery is often monotonous and rarely overwhelming with few exceptions like... [Read more]

Love Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the most interesting, memorable, and difficult countries in Africa, and I’m happy to say I was in love with it at first sight.

The countryside is lovely. I never knew if the subject of my next spontaneous rural shot will give me a big smile and then come see what’s on the screen, or will bend down for a rock. On that note - tired looking women with enormous heaps of straw, grass,... [Read more]

My Peak, Climbing Mount Kenya

It finally happened. I got there first. I’m never first. Not when it comes to mountain peaks. No, I’ll make it, to this day I only have one “white whale” and it stands above six thousand meters high in Bolivia. On the bright side, I now know the limits of my body when facing elevation sickness.

I’ve decided to climb Mount Kenya as independently as possible. Just with a guide, no porters,... [Read more]

“Messiah” Mara in Kenya

It hailed on the way from Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara. Tiny, but vicious hailstones bombarded the pavement, bounced of it, and lived, if only for a few seconds, to make their mark. Can one really forget hail on the African Equator?!

Later, the sky cleared in a most heavenly way, with sun rays piercing fluffy but angry-looking clouds. It looked like maybe the messiah read the address wrong, and will be beamed down... [Read more]

Camera Talk: Madagascar

Madagascar is a photographer’s paradise. Its creatures and colors are so otherworldly, even an experienced photographer might have a difficult time capturing it all with a click of their extra powerful and super sensitive apparatus. As an armature photographer, it pained me to visit such a magical place and be held back time after time by the impotence of my pathetic photographic equipment and my own lack of experience... [Read more]

Travel Africa, Amboseli Twisters

I thought it was a beginning of a tornado, but then another one appeared, and another. Pillars of copper sand twisted and grew with every spin, rising high into the sky. Some were as big in diameter as a decent sized hut, and as one of the twisters approached a village I almost jumped out of the car screaming for the villagers to take cover. But the villagers saw it coming, and as they seemed to be unbothered, I too calmed... [Read more]

Travel Africa, Nairobi Airport

Africa might not seem like a spontaneous travel destination, but rest assured that in certain parts of this continent, Kenya for example, is, even the last minute no-plans-whatsoever visitors, a place of adventure.

Coming out the gates of Nairobi airport is like coming out to a dying down protest where nobody got what they wanted but still refuse to leave until they saw those who they protested for/against come... [Read more]

Baobab Alley

Madagascar’s Baobab Alley is probably the most recognizable place in the whole country. Sadly, local children have been spoiled by tourists. The children have figured out a long time ago westerners want to take their picture but the kids are no longer interested to see their own image on the digital screen. Well, at least they are not faking it.

“Photo?” they come and ask as I photograph the baobabs.... [Read more]

Taxi-Brousse Spécial

Ah, the taxi-brousse, the punishment I must endure for being able to see Madagascar’s marvels on nobody’s but my own schedule and trying to absorb, though not suffocate in, the local culture all at the same time. I kid myself, of course, I am bound, if not imprisoned, by the schedule of the taxi-brousse. My time here is not infinite and I must move on when it obliges to peel its over-packed self off the bus... [Read more]

Paying in Madagascar

Madagascar is probably what most third-world countries used to be like before the millionth sunburned tourist demonstrated the locals what fat cash-cows first world travelers can be, thus ruining it for the rest of us who just want to see the world the way it is (or rather was). I’m fortunate enough to be here while the inhabitants of the big island are still innocent and unaware to the various milking options of... [Read more]

Sex and the Big Island, Madagascar

Though Madagascar’s tropical forests and highlands belong to its lemurs and other natural treasures, the coasts are full of other primates: French men with the gorgeous Malagasy girls draped on them. The local bars belong to them as well, the restaurants too. It was pretty much impossible to dance in a club without gagging over a senior citizen groping a young girl inches away. One might look at it all as at a yet... [Read more]

Aye-Aye, Madagascar

If Dracula ever had a pet lemur it would have been the aye-aye. Nocturnal, with long teeth and long bony fingers- its most prominent feature, this is one lemur one would be least likely to want to cuddle.

The creature is notoriously hard to see, to the point that some biologists questioned its existence. It is said aye-aye got its name when the Malagasies first saw the captured animal and not having seen one ever... [Read more]

Vazah in Madagascar

If you’ve got money you’ll travel Madagascar by plane getting a bird’s eye view of the rectangular patches of rice fields in all possible shades of green. If you wish to see what’s in between the protected areas and beaches that you most likely came here for, you’ll hire a jeep and maybe even ask your driver to slow down as you pass through a village, to take a quick picture of a local woman... [Read more]

The Chameleon in Action, Madagascar

Everybody comes to Madagascar for the lemurs. Cute and fluffy, they give acrobatic performances most mornings, unless it rains, and even include in their newborn that cling tightly across their middle like little furry corsets. I, too, look up and click away afraid to miss a moment of the gymnastic cuteness, but secretly I only count the seconds till the buggers leave and give the stage to the chameleons.

Now, there’s... [Read more]

The Cartoon Country, Madagascar

Having arrived to Antanarivo late at night, I figured it was useless to go find a place to spend the night only to get up at the break of dawn to pile up into a dusty taxi-brousse and drive endlessly to our first destination. Instead, I’ve decided to sleep in the airport terminal, but not before getting online and finding out my credit card had been charged for a flight to India I never took.

“Hello,... [Read more]

Ah, Madagascar

Ah, Madagascar. When I mention places I visit, I am often met with question marks or that sucking sound accompanied by a tense wrinkled spot between the eyebrows. But Madagascar always gets an “Ah.” An “Ah” and a dazed dreamy smile only the purest of fantasies get.

People think Madagascar is magic, and in many ways it is. In the right spot, it’s a colorful heaven –- dancing lemurs... [Read more]

Dream Dream Dream

I dream of bringing my future children to Madagascar. Who knows, maybe they’ll go against the grain and actually think their parents are cool if the family trip will make them feel like they are on some hallucinogenic drug. Hell, maybe that’ll even keep them away from real drugs!

Madagascar... [Read more]

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