Turaco Tours

11/09/2023

እንኳን ለአዲሱ ዓመት አደረሳችሁ!
በአዲሱ ዓመት ያለሙትን እንዲያሳኩ፣ የተመኙትን እንዲኖሩ ፣ እንዲሁም በደስታ የተሞላ ድንቅ የስኬት ዓመት እንዲያሳልፉ እንመኝልዎታለን! 2016 ❤️

23/08/2023

Ashenda (Geez/Tigriniya/Amharic: ኣሸንዳ), also known as Shadey, Ashendiye, Solel, and Engicha, is an annual festival celebrated in Northern Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. This festival is celebrated annually, typically between August 16th and 26th. It is a major event for Ethiopian people all over the world, particularly Tigrayan, Amhara, and Agew women. Ethiopian women and girls wait for this Girls' Day festival all year. The name "Ashenda" is the term for the tall green grass, estimated at around 80–90 cm minimum height, that the girls make into a skirt and to wear around the waist as decoration. The holiday originated as a religious one, marking the end of the 2-week fast known as Filseta, commemorating the heavenly ascension of the Virgin Mary following her dormition. It has now evolved into a cultural holiday that is celebrated by girls of all religious backgrounds.

(Celebration )
Leading up to Ashenda, women and girls will prepare to adorn themselves with jewelry, dresses, henna, and diverse cultural hairstyles. On the first day of the festival, Ethiopian girls gather together and make the journey to their local Church of St. Mary (or any other Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the community), playing music and dancing. They then go around the entire village, expressing their thanks to each household in the community. The Ashenda girls spend around 20 minutes at each house, entertaining families and themselves, before being bid farewell usually with gifts of money, food or drink. After the door-to-door celebrations, the girls find a suitable field in or near the village, spending between a day to a week dancing and playing in the field while passing men are urged to provide gifts of money.

All money and gifts collected over the course of the celebration are then donated to a charity, the Church or other events.

13/04/2023

The Abyssinian catbird or juniper babbler (Sylvia galinieri) is a species of bird in the family Sylviidae. (It is unrelated to other birds with the common name catbird). It is endemic to Ethiopia where it is found in highland forest and scrub. The Abyssinian catbird is a fairly small, mostly grey bird with black lores, whitish forehead and chestnut vent.

The Abyssinian catbird is a small-sized babbler. Its body is round with relatively short wings and legs. The bird's belly is white, but its upper parts are a lighter shade of grey that gradually fades to a darker shade moving to the backside of the bird. The head of the bird is a light shade of grey with dark highlights surrounding the eyes. The eyes themselves have a scarlet iris surrounding dark brown pupils. The beak is short pointed and black. Its wings are the darkest parts of its body having parallel bars of black along its length with the rest of the wing being grey. Its underside from its legs to its tail is a distinct orange that gives way to a tail that is about half the length of the bird itself.Abyssinian catbirds measure around 19 cm (7.5 in) in length. The bird was formerly the sole member of the genus Parophasma, and its taxonomy is still inconclusive. It is not yet certain if they are more closely related to babblers or warblers.

13/04/2023

The Ethiopian oriole was originally described in the genus Turdus. Alternate names for the Ethiopian oriole include the Abyssinian black-headed oriole, Abyssinian oriole, black-headed forest oriole, dark-headed oriole, Ethiopian black-headed oriole, Ethiopian forest oriole and forest oriole.

Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized:

Omo black-headed oriole (O. m. meneliki) - Blundell & Lovat, 1899: Originally described as a separate species. Found in southern Ethiopia
O. m. monacha - (Gmelin, 1789): Found in northern Ethiopia, Eritrea

09/01/2023

Ruspoli's Turaco (Tauraco ruspolii)
Date: 23 Dec 2022
Distribution: Endemic to Ethiopia and it is found in S Ethiopia, around Arero, Bobela, Sokora, Negele and Wadera.
Location: Arero, Ethiopia.
Photograph courtesy of Merid N Gabremichael

07/01/2023

Ethiopian Christmas at a glance

Unlike the Christmas you might be familiar with, the Ethiopian variety has a noticeable lack of tangled tinsel, red bobble hats and flickering, multicoloured lights intertwined amongst conifer branches.

Ethiopian Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January on the Gregorian calendar, or the 29th of Tahsas on the Ethiopian calendar.

In the run up to Christmas, practitioners are expected to partake in a 43-day fast known as Tsome Nebiyat or the ‘Fast of the Prophets’.

During this period, believers must abstain from all non-vegan products and psychoactive substances, including alcohol and can only consume one meal per day.

Beginning on the 25th November, the fast is believed to clear the body of sin, allowing those who partake the opportunity to cleanse the spirit in anticipation of the birth of their saviour, Jesus Christ.

22/11/2022

The traditions of the Omo Valley tribes are deeply embedded, and each tribe’s identity is vividly clear, even to outsiders. Researchers have noted that this extraordinary wealth of traditional human cultures and small tribal groups exhibiting an amazing wealth of body decoration and adornment was due to their long isolation. Most travel advice websites, such as Lonely Planet, strongly recommend visitors to experience the fascinating culture of the ethnic groups settled in the Omo Valley by visiting traditional Daasanach villages, watching Hamer people performing a Jumping of the Bulls ceremony or seeing the Mursi’s mind-blowing lip plates.
Afropia Tours , as a specialist in organizing tribal and cultural trips, offers from 4 to 10 days full package trips to this a site.

19/11/2022

Bale mountain natural park

National Park

Bale Mountains National Park is an incredibly scenic park, also if you don't really care about the endemic animals and birds. As there are a lot of biologically keen people and birdwatchers who want to know this. We customize to our clients, and if you want something more general, don't hesitate to ask. We make it work for you! So let us give the naturalists what they want to know, but don't get discouraged. We will give you the time of your life in this fabulously beautiful national park.

The mountainous conditions and the variety of elevations make Bale Mountains unique. The high elevation in an otherwise very dry region, causes relatively high annual rainfall, varying from 1,000 - 1,400 mm at the higher elevations and 600 - 1,000 mm per year at the lower elevations of the park, while evaporation is relatively low due to the much cooler conditions in the mountains. As a result, the Bale Mountains are the main source of water for 12 million people and for a hydroelectrical dam downstream from the mountains.

12/07/2022