Day 1: Addis Ababa – Jinka
Transfer to Addis Ababa Airport for your flight to Jinka. On arrival visit the South Omo Research Centre and museum which focuses on the various ethnic groups living in South Omo. You also visit Arivillage to watch how the Ari distil their own liquor from sorghum, garlic and maize.andJinkamuseum.
Day 2: Jinka – Turmi
This morning head into Mago National Park on the east bank of the River Omo home to a wide range of ethnic groups. Visit a Mursi village and learn something of their unique habits including lip plates and large decorative ear plugs. Afterwards continue to Turmi, home of the proud Hamar tribe. If today is a market day there will be an opportunity to wander around the colorful market in the Omo Valley.
Day 3: Turmi
This morning you’ll journey south, driving 75 kilometres (47 miles) to Omorate, a river town where the Ethio-Kenyan border located. Pass through acacia forests, where you will see Hamer tribespeople herding cattle. Arrive at Omorate and cross the Omo river and then, visit a Dassenech tribe. Both the Hamar and Dassenech tribes here are fiercely independent and culturally unique - you may witness evidence of scarification practices and body modification in both tribes. The Dassenech live a traditional way of life, abandoning the irrigation systems.Return to Turmi in the afternoon and after a break you’ll visit a nearby Hamer village and learn more about this tribe. The women roll their hair into dreds called goscha using fat and dark red ochre, and their arms are wrapped in beads and copper bracelets. The tribe practice scarification, with women having scars cut into their arms or shoulders to make themselves more beautiful and as a display of their strength. They wear beaded goatskin frocks over their upper body, and married women wear thick copper necklaces. The men are also adorned with scars, for beauty or traditionally representing the number of enemies they have killed, and courageous men wear clay hair buns on their heads. The Hamer have annual ceremony, a young man must jump back and forth on the backs of bulls to prove himself worthy of the family's pride and of a wife, while women are ritualistically whipped in voluntary support of the initiate.
Day 4: Turmi – Arba Minch
This morning after breakfast drive to Arbaminch. En route you will view the beautiful terracedagricultural fields of the Konso people who are well known for their intricately terraced hillsides which are registered by UNESCO as a world heritage site. You will walk in the village and visit fine woven materials, the carved totems with which they decorate their graves and their unique house. This afternoon enjoy a boat trip on Lake Chamo for an opportunity to spot hippos and Nile crocodiles. Late in the afternoon transfer to your Accommodation at Arbaminch.
Day 5: Arba Minch – Addis Ababa
This morning drive up into the hills to visit to the village of Chencha, home to the Dorze who are renowned cotton weavers whose tall beehive-shaped dwellings are among the most distinctive traditional structures to be seen anywhere in Africa. Their weavings and the shama cloth produced around Chencha is considered to be the finest in Ethiopia. Transfer to Arba Minch Airport your departure flight back to Addis Ababa.
Day 6: Addis Ababa– Departure
In the morning you will start your visit in Addis Ababa. Begin your exploration of Addis Ababa at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, a monument to the country’s liberation from Italian occupation during World War II and final resting place of Emperor Haile Selassie. Next drive deeper into Ethiopia’s rich cultural diversity at the Ethnographical Museum. Conclude your excursion at the National Museum, seeing the authentic, Lucy’’ skeleton, a significant anthropological revelation. Later, gather for a welcome dinner at your hotel and get acquainted with your fellow traveler.Tonight you will have a wonderful cultural evening at a local Restaurant. Witness a performance displaying some of the country’s many diverse cultural dances and costumes, and enjoy a traditional meal with a drinks. Then transfer to the airport for your departure flight.
