Jan 15-16, 2012. Enroute to Ethiopia.

I am sitting in the Dubai airport (3:00am Monday morning here--I left NYC at 10:30pm saturday) on my way to my adventure in Ethiopia. The air travel to get there was a little convoluted, but only because I wanted to utilize my frequent flier miles. The airline with which I had the miles didn't have a partner that flies into Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. So.....I took Royal Jordanian through Amman, Jordan to Dubai, and then bought a ticket on Emirates Airline from Dubai to Addis Ababa. So saved some real bucks. As an aside, the people in the Amman airport were extremely friendly, so I've moved Jordan further up on my future travel list.

So, why Ethiopia.....well, hopefully, after you follow my blog for three weeks, you'll know why!

But, first it was an opportunity to travel with a good friend, Janet, who first brought this trip to my attention. We've been trying to hook up on a trip together for years! We signed up with a group called Journeys International, so we will be traveling with 7 or 8 other folks, whom we will meet at dinner on Tuesday.

While we are in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians will be celebrating their Timkat Festival, which is a celebration of the baptism of Christ. They believe that Jesus did not become a part of the divinity until he was baptized, resulting in his "Epiphany." So that's the focus of their celebration, rather than his birth. In planning for this trip, I was surprised to learn that Ethiopia is about 63% christian (34% are muslims). So this major celebration is the initial purpose of our trip, but we are here for a total of 22 days, so we'll be covering a lot of the country....including the famous rock churches, the markets, the villages....from the capital city to the Simien Mountains to the lakes to the Blue Nile to the Southern Omo Valley........

Adventure, here we come!!


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Location:Airport Rd,Dubai,United Arab Emirates