Search results for

Get Admirals Club access plus 100,000 AAdvantage bonus miles with the current offer on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®.

In wine country, a group of innovative chefs have ignited a culinary renaissance–and restored cultural pride.

The Spirit of Istanbul

We’d read about the Hyena Men in Harar before our trip, and there was no way we were going to pass up the chance to see them. Harar started out with just one Hyena Man, but now there’s a second, and they both keep up a nightly tradition of calling to the animals and feeding them scraps of meat. Legend goes that this got started in an effort to keep the hyenas from picking off livestock, and even people, under cover of darkness. A short bajaj ride outside of the city wall brought us to where this Hyena Man was starting his evening feeding. He shouted names into the night and the hyenas came forward. Visitors are able to join in on the feeding, if they want. I did. I walked into the light being thrown by a 4x4 and knelt down next to the Hyena Man. I held out my hand to take the stick from which he’d been feeding them. He snapped it in half and gestured for me to open my mouth and take the stick in my teeth. It was quite the “Oh what the hell” moment, but I did it. He placed a shred of meat over the end of the stick, and the hyenas that surrounded us closed in from all sides. One came close enough to snatch the meat away, and then the Hyena Man reloaded the stick, again and again, as each hyena grabbed its treat. Then he held meat over my right shoulder, so that the hyenas body checked me in the attempted to get it. I got to finish out the experience by holding the basket that contained the last scraps and letting one hyena stick his head in it to polish them off.

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).

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.

Across the street from Scottsdale Quarter is another outdoor mall called Kierland Commons, a Main Street-like promenade known for its high-end stores like 42 Saint, Harari, and Juicy Couture. If you’re not into the fancy-name brands, cruise into Francesca’s for some more unique, decently priced threads. I used to work nearby and Francesca’s was a daily lunch hour stop for me. Even if designer clothing isn’t your thing, Kierland Commons is still a great place to enjoy a nice walk. There’s almost always some kind of live music event happening.

There are over one hundred thousand tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe. From February through August each year, the Harare tobacco floors are where farmers, auctioneers and buyers representing China, South Africa, and several European Union countries meet and do business. The tobacco industry has a long history of being one of the top export crops of Zimbabwe, but the industry (along with most agricultural production) took a hit after President Mugabe forcibly removed white farmers from their land, redistributing it back to black landowners in early 2000. Domestic investors are once again funding the large-scale production of the crop and production has rebounded.

Within the Arundel Village shopping complex in the suburb of Mt. Pleasant you’ll find Alo Alo, a small cafe with an outdoor patio. It’s the perfect spot to have lunch and take a rest after doing a bit of shopping. Local beer, fresh coffee, and toasted open sandwiches are all good options here. If you’re staying in the city center, this shopping center is just a quick 10 minute cab ride away.

The Book Cafe began in 1997 and was one of the top cultural venues in Zimbabwe. Over the years it helped launch the musical careers of many famous African artists. It was a place where locals and foreigners alike gathered to watch live music, poetry, and dance performances. In late 2014, the original founder and Creative Director, Paul Brickhell, passed away. The group struggled to pay the bills and ultimately, closed their doors in 2015. Though the venue is closed, it’s spirit lives on. The non-profit organization now hosts concerts, discussions, and other pop-up events around the city. Check their Facebook page for updates if you’re interested in live music, poetry and cultural events during your stay in Harare.

If you’re looking to try authentic local food in Harare, PaGokoro (meaning ‘meeting place’) is where you’ll want to go. The idea for the restaurant came out of the desire for a place for the owner, Judith, to meet with her friends that wasn’t as crowded as other restaurants in the area. After saving for some time and what felt like an impossible search for just the right venue, she came upon this house in the Highlands neighborhood in 2011. Dining is casual here - dishes like sadza and beef bones in vegetables are eaten with your hands. You can sit a table or in the cozy ‘cushion room’, where beanbag chairs surround a lower table.

“Zimbabwe” means “the house of stone” and is named after the 11th century kingdom and trading city we now call Great Zimbabwe. This National Monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the southeast corner of the country is one place not to miss when driving between Harare and Bulawayo and is only a couple hours from Pamushana Lodge. Walls made of stacked stones balance on top of boulders - the remnants of a Shona king’s fort. Here, look for the shouting cave, designed such that anything yelled into the space will echo down into the valley below. During your guided tour, you’ll also visit the Great Enclosure which is thought to have been a temple. There is not much wildlife in the area (due to poaching), so you’ll want to visit nearby Masvingo National Park to see wildlife while you’re in this part of Zimbabwe.