Coffee Ceremony

Coffee ceremony is one of the features of Ethiopian hospitality, and visiting Ethiopia you will most certainly be invited to attend to it. The ceremony begins with scattering the fresh grass on the ground, and incense is burnt in front of the guests. Coffee beans are roasted there, and you smell the smoke and make appreciative comments about it. Next the beans are crushed into powder and then brewed in a clay coffee pot. Coffee will be served in tiny china cups and if you are not in a particular hurry, you must accept three cups of coffee, because the third one is considered to be a "blessing" or "berekha".

Kaffa is considered to be a birth place of coffee. Ethiopian coffee is of Arabica strain. It is grown in different regions of the country and is considered to be the best quality coffee in the world. In the beginning people of Ethiopia did not drink coffee. They used to chew roasted coffee beans or mixed crushed beans with butter and some salt to eat it like a sort of porridge. Today coffee is one of major export items of Ethiopia, accounting for about 70% of Ethiopia's foreign revenue.

Our tour agency organizes special tours to visit coffee production places in various parts of Ethiopia: Jimma (Kaffa), Yirga Chefe (Sidamo), Harer (Harerge) and many places.

Museums in Addis Ababa

National Museum

National Museum contains some very important and interesting archaeological finds of stone age, pre-Axumite, Axumite, and Gondar periods. The star of this museum is Lucy, the 3.5 million year old fossilised hominid discovered in 1974. Another interesting collection is that of female statuettes in the pre-Axumite room, dated 5th c. B.C., believed to be fertility icons decorated with inscriptions in southern Arabic language. Also there is a fine collection of Ethiopian art and ethnographic exhibition.

Ethnographic Museum

Every visitor to Addis Ababa simply must visit this museum, one of the best ethnographic museums in the world, located in the territory of Addis Ababa University, in the former palace of HIM Haile Selassie I. Ethnographic Museum of Addis Ababa displays a variety of artefacts relating to most ethnic groups of Ethiopia, a collection of old Ethiopian icons and crosses, and a fine selection of traditional musical instruments.

St. George Cathedral and Museum

St. George Cathedral, founded in 1896 to commemorate victory of Menelik's army at the battle of Adowa, is decorated by paintings and mosaics of Afework Tekle and other know Ethiopian artists. You should also visit the museum of his cathedral with various objects related to history of the Ethiopian Orthodox church.

Other important places to visit in Addis Ababa are Museum of Natural History, Addis Ababa Museum, Postal Museum, Holy Trinity Cathedral with burial place of Emperor Haile Selassie, church of St. Mary and Menelik Mausoleum.

Visiting these museums is a part of our Addis Ababa City Tour program.

Bird Watching in Ethiopia

Bird watching in Ethiopia is a truly wonderful eperience for and amateur as well as a professional ornithologist. Ethiopia's location near to the equator and its great habitat diversity are two factors contributing to a great variety of bird life. Over 850 species for birds live in Ethiopia, out of which at least 24 are endemic to Ethiopia. The best birding circuit lies to the south of Addis Ababa and includes the following areas: Rift Valley lakes, Bale highlands, Negelle Borena and surrounding areas, Yabello area, Nech Sar National park and Awash National Park. Please check some of the photos of Ethiopian birds in our Photo Gallery.

We offer bird watching individual and group tours to our guests.

Ethiopian Food and Spice

The staple food of Ethiopia and a source of most carbohydrates in Ethiopian diet is injera, baked like a large pancake, served with a variety of wat sauces. These sauces come in two basic varieties: kai wat (kai means red) which is very spicy made with hot red pepperand alicha wat prepared without without pepper. Wat can be made of meat, fish, vegetables or lentils.

Popular meat dishes in Ethiopia are kai wat (hot spicy sauce with beef or lamb meat already mentioned here), siga tibs (fried meat). siga kikil (boiled meat), and kifto (something like a steak tartar).

During the fasting days you can taste a special dish (very much recommended for vegetarians) named yetsom beyeainetu, consisting of a selection (classically 12 choices) of excellent Ethiopian vegetarian dishes (see photo).

Popular breakfast dishes you might want to try are injera firfir (pieces of injera served with hot sauce), chechebsa (impossible to describe, you just have to try it), and ful (a spicy bean dish made with garlic)

In Addis Ababa there are many traditional restaurants which serve wonderful selection of Ethiopian dishes and also offer dance shows in the evening featuring dance and music of various ethnic groups of Ethiopia. Our tour agency includes a visit to one of such restaurants into our programs.