Five tourists have been shot dead in Ethiopia's northern Afar region, the BBC reports.
Ethiopian State TV announced that the tourists were killed late on Monday by gunmen who had crossed over the border from Eritrea. It said they were part of an Afar rebel group trained ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Ethiopia
Tourists killed in Afar Region, Ethiopia
Five tourists have been shot dead in Ethiopia's northern Afar region, the BBC reports.
Ethiopian State TV announced that the tourists were killed late on Monday by gunmen who had crossed over the border from Eritrea. It said they were part of an Afar rebel group trained ...Opinion: Dutch khat ban smacks of racism
The Dutch government recently announced that it will ban the use of khat, a narcotic leaf widely chewed in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
I've written about khat before. I've spent four months in Ethiopia, especially Harar, a city in the eastern part of the country where ...My adventure travel year: a look back and a look forward
This was a strange year for me. I didn't see any new countries but I still had some great adventure travel. I spent two months living in Harar, Ethiopia, writing a series about it for all you fine folks. I'd visited this fascinating medieval walled city back in 2010 during ...New Book celebrates 10 years of the Tour d'Afrique
The Tour d'Afrique is a legendary cycling event that runs from Cairo to Cape Town on an annual basis. Covering more than 7500 miles, and requiring four months to complete, the Tour is a popular "bucket list" item for adventure travelers and cyclists the world over. This ...The best Italian restaurant in the world?
"Prego," said the Italian woman sitting behind an elevated counter. She waved me into one of the dining rooms, bedecked with rich wood paneling and white tablecloths draped over the half dozen tables. I was given a menu, which listed the canon of Italian cuisine: sausage ...Culinary Cab Confessions: where to eat raw meat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The cab driver didn't blink when I told him what I wanted. It might have been one of the most unusual requests he'd ever had. But he didn't even look back at me or take a glance in the rearview mirror. He pointed his diminutive blue taxi up the wide boulevard and asked ...10 best eco-friendly hostels in the world
While you can usually expect an inexpensive stay at a hostel, not all of these accommodations are alike when it comes to being sustainable and green. For your next trip, why not stay somewhere that will not only give you a social experience on a budget, but will also be good ...Somali murals: funky advertising in the Horn of Africa
One of the fun parts of travel is discovering the street art of a new place. Whether it's the elaborate graffiti of New York or Madrid, the political murals of Mexico, or the current craze of Yarn Bombing, there's always something cool happening on the street.
In the Horn ...Eating in the Horn of Africa: camel, goat and. . .spaghetti?
When my wife and I went to the Horn of Africa last year for our Ethiopia road trip, we were eagerly looking forward to a culinary journey. We weren't disappointed. Ethiopian food is one of our favorites and of course they make it better there than anywhere else!
While ...Travel Read: The Coffee Story
As a writer, I read many books by authors I know. As a traveler, I read lots of books set in places I've been. The Coffee Story by Peter Salmon gave me the rare chance to read a book about a place I love written by someone I met there.
For the record, I don't review books ...The n-word, the g-word and the hidden perils of travel
Living in Spain, I get a lot of questions about the United States. One of the most common, and certainly the most disturbing, is if it's OK to use the N-word.
Let me just say from the outset that I think the term "N-word" is silly. By using it you immediately think of the ...Photo of the day: Donkey traffic jam
Regardless of how transportation evolves, sometimes the old ways are still the best ways. New York and London have some of the oldest public transit systems in the world and while they've made a few upgrades in the last century, the original tunnels are still in use. Many ...The Obama pen: weirdest African souvenir ever?
Obama is big in Africa. There are Obama shops, Obama hotels, Obama t-shirts, even Obama: The Musical. A craze of naming babies Obama hit the continent when he was elected. Even better, the proud parents could fill out the birth certificate with an Obama ballpoint pen.
I ...Africa's new middle class benefits travel
Africa's middle class is growing.
The African Development Bank says one in three Africans are now middle class. While the bank's definition isn't comparable to the Western definition--the African middle class makes $2-$20 a day--the lifestyle is similar. Middle-class ...Ten (more) random observations about Ethiopia
When writing last year's Ethiopia travel series, I collected twelve random observations about Ethiopia. These were interesting bits of information that didn't fit in any of my articles. While writing my Harar travel series, I collected ten more.
1. The standard ...Tomoca: the best little coffee house in Africa
Ethiopia has a lot of great attractions--castles, medieval cities, even werehyenas--yet the thing visitors rave about the most is the coffee.
And why not? Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia. Legend has it that long ago a boy was tending his flock and saw his goats eating ...The worst zoo I ever saw
I feel sorry for my Harari friends.
During my stay in Harar, Ethiopia, they were so hospitable, so eager to ensure I had a 100% positive impression of their city and country. For the most part I did, and I left for the capital Addis Ababa with lots of great things to say ...The hyena man of Harar: a unique relationship between beast and man
The hyenas come just after dusk. We've been sitting in Yusuf's modest farmhouse on the outskirts of Harar talking about them when we hear their familiar yipping laugh. Yusuf picks up a big bucket of mule and camel meat, shoos away his well-fed cat, and strolls outside to ...The Argobba: visiting a little-known African tribe
Ethiopia is home to dozens of different ethnic groups and tribes. Some have populations numbering in the millions, while others have only a few thousand. One of the smallest tribes is the Argobba, a Muslim people scattered in villages across eastern Ethiopia. The Argobba ...Qat culture in Harar: East Africa's favorite legal high
Every afternoon in Harar, you see men walking along carrying plastic bags filled with leaves. Hararis aren't big fans of salads; they're chewing these leaves for a completely different reason. It gets them high.
Qat (pronounced "chat" in Harari, Amharic, and Somali) is ...
