Omo Valley and the start of an adventure

Our experience at the airport was not too far different from most chaotic airportsithe main difference was the security where we had to almost strip off and were then frisked. Our large bottles of water got through ok tho. 

The flight to Arba Minch in the Omo Valley was uneventful and once we got ourselves organised in our van we were off, in the capable hands of Beni our very careful and capable driver. 

After what seemed forever we arrived in a village of the Durze people. Here we were entertained by a family; one daughter spinning cotton, her brother weaving and Mom baby sitting another daughter’s child. 

The homes here are made with bamboo and rooved with ‘false banana’ leaves. The shape, they say resembles an elephant. Yeah right! Whatever you say.  The houses comprise one large room. A part sectioned off for the cattle and a fire down one end. Along the side is a ‘kitchen’ and everyone sleeps in whatever other space there is. I went in to take a photo but there was so much smoke I walked straight out again. 

‘False banana’ trees grow everywhere round here and do not bear bananas but they look similar to a banana tree thus the name. 
This tribe make their flat bread ‘Koicho’ from the ‘false banana’ leaves by scraping all the flesh off the leaves and burying it to ferment for a period of time. Once fermented they then mince it till smooth, mix it to a paste with water and spread it out on a false banana leaf till it resembles a pancake. It is then covered with more banana leaves and placed in a big pan over a fire. 

The end result we sampled with a choice of either a spicy paste or honey (or both together - which was the best). The bread tasted a little like our Mountain Bread and was yumm. 
We also tasted their local liquor, Hareke, made with sorghum, garlic, anise and wheat. Boy it knocks a punch but quite nice and no one fell over!!!  

It was a long drive over rough roads back to ‘normality’ but eventually we arrived in the town of Konso where we spent the night at a lovely lodge. 

We all opted out of the buffet on offer for dinner but managed to score a better deal with an a la carte menu. Spagetti with tomato for me and it was delicious. It even came with bread to slop up the sauce. Yummmmm. So much for only eating local food. Even in tiny places like this the western/european food has taken over, but still everything (except my spagetti) is served with injera. 

So far I have enjoyed the flavours of the local food but the textures and the toughness of the meat is the bit I am struggling with. I never thought I would say anuthing this early in a trip but I would love some cheese on toast, or even toast would be good. Oh well. No food orgasms this trip. 

Along the drive today Gaitor filled us in about all sorts of things about life in Ethiopia but I will summarise all that when we have finished moving around. Right now amongst the villages, in places where there is no infrastructure it all seems rather irrelevant.