It’s mid April, which is the hot, dry summer in Ethiopia, but up here at 11,500 feet the mornings are cool in the thin air. My accommodation for the night has been a stone tukul – the local style of round stone house with a thatched roof. Five of them are clustered on this outcrop overlooking the town of Lalibela about 3500 feet below. The camp is the work of TESFA (Tourism in Ethiopia for Sustainable Future Alternatives) a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable community tourism at several sites in northern Ethiopia. Their treks are an incredible experience and a great way to interact with the people of Ethiopia.

The Mursi tribe live in the remote part of southwest Ethiopia. These people are part of what national geographic calls the "last frontier' and had no notion of the outside world until the seventies. They have extensive cultural features . The women show their beauty and status by piercing their lips and ears and wearing large plates in them. The men demonstrate their strength and courage in stick fighting ceremonies. Even though the look so different from us they showed us similarities to our culture _ love of family and love of traditions . They were as curious of us as we were of them and yet warm and receptive.

In the northern Ethiopian city of Lalibela, extraordinary stone-craved churches dating back to the 12th century are chiseled four stories down into the earth. Certain members of the priesthood live within the boundaries of these churches, sleeping and studying in tiny caves carved into rock.

Commerce spills out of alleys and backstreets onto virtually every public space in and around Harar's medieval walled city (also known as Jugol). At the far end of the Christian Market, which is loosely centered around Showa Gate, there is a line of women doing a blistering trade in qat leaves. Qat chewing is a longstanding tradition in the Horn of Africa. The leaves, when chewed, produce a mild stimulant effect. A friendly guy on a bus demonstrated for us that if you want to give qat a try, fold the leaf in half and pull the stem off. To get to Harar, you can take a long bus ride (check with Selam Bus) or fly into Dire Dawa and then take a one-hour minibus ride, which costs between birr 40 and 60 ($2 - 3.50 US, depending on exchange rates and the whims of your bus driver).

Tulu Gudo Island is the largest island in Lake Ziway and is a must-see for anyone interested in Ethiopia's history or culture. Once home to the Ark of the Covenant, Tulu Gudo's Maryam Tsion Monastery still houses a fascinating collection of ancient relics dating back almost 1,100 years, including the beautiful Gedle-Kidusen manuscript, a parchment book written in Ge’ez, the ancient language of Ethiopia. Visitors to Tulu Gudo also have the chance to immerse themselves in the unique culture of the Zay people. Though just 900 of them live on the island, their culture and language are completely different from the surrounding Oromo people. Visitors pass through the village and meet the community, experience the local way of life, and discover their traditional weaving.

Drinking coffee in Ethiopia is not a very Starbucksian experience. You won't necessarily ever have to utter a phrase like "Venti, half-caf, non-fat, no foam, extra hot latte." At least not if you go to a traditional place. The beans are roasted right in front of you, then crushed, and (finally) brewed, the entire experience taking about 20 or 30 minutes. Coffee is often served with popcorn. In other parts of the country, different snacks, like barley, appear with a cup of java.

Beginning of May 2010, Dominique Soguel, Veronica Ferreri & I took off on an extreme adventure to the Afar region - Danakil Depression of Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea. First stop, Dallol, a beautifully surreal expanse of bubbling sulfur, salt and moonscapes, yet one of the most inhospitable places on the planet due to soaring temperatures that can reach up to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily for us, it was only a mild 110 degrees! We were the only tourists there due to the intense heat. As a journalist reporting on gender issues, Dominique, met with local women in the Afar village of Kursawa we stayed in, to discuss the ongoing practice of female genital mutilation. In Hamed Ela, the school there comprises of wooden sticks & woven mats precariously assembled to form a hut & has no supplies such as papers, pencils, books or desks for the 102 students. Memorization is their primary way of learning. The village has no electricity or sewage/latrine system. We traveled with Pangean Safaris, run by a husband-and-wife team, Christos & Liza Andreou. They expressed interest in starting a grass-roots campaign to help distribute school supplies to this tiny remote village in the Danakil. Back home, we raised funds for a year's worth of school supplies (notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpeners) for 102 students along with 20 boxes of nutritional biscuits, hydration solutions & water cleaning tablets. Thanks to Pangean Safaris for partnering with us on the surprise distribution!

Simien National Park is filled with wild baboons, which typically travel in large packs, even into the hundreds. While hiking to our campground on the first day, we spotted a lone baboon hanging around the edge of a 2,000 foot cliff. With little place for him to go, he seemed content to hang tight as we passed by, just a dozen feet away.

On our way to Tanzania we had a 12 hour layover in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines provided a shuttle, room for the day, meals, and day visas (at no charge) to me and the group of students I was taking to Tanzania. After driving through a city and seeing 6 story buildings under construction using hand lashed wooden poles for scaffolding, people on cells phones walking with goats down the street, and hunched over women carrying 12 foot long bundles of sticks for fuel on their backs with satelitte dishes in the background, we reached the Beshale Hotel. From our window we could see a large mosque, traffic heavy roads, dirt paths, people, animals, and this large ferris wheel. The incongruity of modern and primitive, with this piece of colorful frivolity smack in the middle of it all, stuck out like a sore thumb in a place where it seemed nothing would surprise us anymore.

Tucked inside the walled city of Harar, Ethiopia is a wonderful market loaded with local Berber spices, fresh coffee beans, herbs, and incense. The smells and sights are terrific, but the friendliness of the people sets this shopping area apart from others I've visited. Everyone seems to be happy to stop and talk about their products, your travels, etc. If you have time to chat with vendors but you don't speak their language, find a tour guide to act as an interpreter. For the best experience, stay at a Harar B&B for a few days. The houses inside the wall are intimate and affordable. You'll wake up every morning to the sound of the muezzins and the smell of newly brewed coffee! For the nicest place to lay your head, I like Rewda Guest House. You can find Rewda's current number via online travel websites that list motels, etc. When you arrive, be open to staying at her sister’s place (Zubeyda Waber Harar Cultural Guesthouse) if your room is no longer available. Reservations in Ethiopia tend to be suggestions, not promises...so be flexible and gracious and the locals will help you out. Cost of a single room: about $20 per night. Make the market tour a part of each day. On Thursdays the place expands beyond the city's gate where you can buy everything from fresh breads to fruit and handmade baskets.

I stopped here to buy oranges in the Addis Ababa suburb of Lafto. The storekeeper took great pride in his produce array, and the artfulness of it, and charged me to take a photo in front of it, but I didn't mind. The colors were superb. The oranges were not.

Harar, Ethiopia, is a magical place for those who like aimless wandering and getting a bit lost. We strolled through Jugol, the medieval walled city at the heart of Harar, for a few days, straying down alleys and up winding lanes, but one of the places we purposely came back to again and again was the spice market near Showa Gate. It seems almost too clichéd to say that the air was redolent with spices, but it honestly was - particularly Ethiopia's ubiquitous berbere powder. A tip for those considering a visit to Harar: If you want to hire a guide to show you around, it's not a bad idea - they can help give you some context and help you get your bearings. But you should absolutely spend a day exploring on your own - it puts a different spin on interactions with people and lets you move at your own pace.

Toward the end of a three-day trek through the Simien Mountains, we stopped for a break in a village on the way out of Simien National Park. The hosts offered us a homemade beer, which they served out of metal vegetable cans and which tasted like a mix of mostly dirt and water. That didn't stop anyone, especially our guards, from sampling the concoction, perhaps a little too much.

Gondar's Royal Enclosure houses an incongruous collection of medieval castles started by Emperor Fasilades in the early 17th century. The Italians hid out here when they briefly occupied Ethiopia in the late 1930s and early '40s and damage from British bombing is visible. Gondar also figured prominently in the Ethiopian Civil War. Travel around the Northern Ethiopian Historical Circuit can be done in weeks by bus or in days with inexpensive and efficient flights with Ethiopian Airlines.

If you're in Ethiopia and markets are your thing, get yourself to Bahir Dar's with a quickness. On Saturday in particular, the place is a riot of energy and has a richness of goods on offer unlike anything else we saw in the country. After we made an initial pass through the market, a young man named Habtamu took us under his wing and took us a little deeper inside. With his guidance, we saw and experienced far more than we would have on our own, and this silver jewelry is the perfect case in point. Down an alley of stalls crafting new goods out of used tires, around which hovered a cloud of black dust, Habtamu led us to two silversmiths, who store their beautiful wares in knotted lengths of cotton fabric. To get to the market, walk down the main road stemming off the traffic roundabout in the heart of town for about four blocks or so (not that the blocks are of consistent size). It'll be on your right - just dive right in.

I visited Lake Hora, a resort that locals vacation, camp and honeymoon. The lake was near a wildlife refuge and the views of the hillsides around the lake (a volcanic crater) were amazing, with tropical birds, and parrots flying among the trees.

Thankful for an experienced guide, we walked our way through the maze of tunnels and passageways that belong to Lalibela's rock-hewn churches. The amazing architecture and beauty of our surroundings made for exquisite photography opportunities. I had planned to have the subject turn around to pose for the photo, however, I was fortunate to snap the picture before he could turn, making for a much better result. I love the effects of the natural light casting an almost 'heavenly' glow on the photograph.

While exploring Konso, tourists can enjoy a guided tour of the Gersale village nursery and can select a seedling to plant in a nearby degraded area. After instructions from the guide and a blessing from a village elder, tourists then plant the seedling. Not only does this help restore the land’s fertility, but it also generates income for locals who water and maintain the newly planted trees. The donations are be commemorated with a locally-crafted name tag and the seedlings are logged in a Tree Registry so that tourists can find their trees in the future. The project is run through the highly regarded Konso Development Association (KDA), an NGO founded in 2000 with the primary aim of planning and implementing integrated development activities in order to improve the livelihood conditions of the Konso People.

Ethiopian wine? An unlikely pairing of words, for sure, and an unlikely beverage that you may regret having ordered while traveling around this fascinating country. I was at Castelli's, a famous Italian restaurant in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The restaurant is a relic from Italy's failed attempt to colonize the African country. The food may be forgettable at Castelli's, but this wine is even more so. Some day, perhaps, "Ethiopia" and "wine" may have a more congruent appeal. Just not any time soon.

I've loved Ethiopian cuisine since the first time I tried it. Until I visited Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, I'd never heard of kitfo. This delicacy, which can probably be found at some Ethiopian restaurants in the United States if you look hard enough, is raw meat, eaten, of course, with injera, the spongy bread Ethiopians use to scoop up their food. The next day when I met up with an Ethiopian friend, I told him about my raw meat adventure. "You didn't eat it completely raw, did you?" I nodded affirmatively. "And you're okay today?" he asked. I nodded affirmatively again. It was delicious and I'd eat it again--yes, raw--on my next visit back to Addis Ababa.

I popped into a coffee house while traveling through Yirgacheffe in southern Ethiopia. The women inside probably weren't expecting a foreigner to walk in and they were initially shy. We didn't speak the same language but after I took this photo and showed them the results, we became fast friends and mimed our way through coffee.