Agricultural & Ethiopian Coffee Tour

Highlight

Though the importance of agriculture within Ethiopia has already been emphasized, certain crops have particular cultural significance. These endemics crops are not only the directly responsible for some of the delicious foods considered essential to Ethiopian cuisine even more they has sprung around them cultural values which play a marked role in Ethiopian society.

Many believed that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee (not South America, which some believe). The indigenous coffee trees (which some experts say, are the only native coffee trees in the world) first grew in Passion “Abyssinia,” which is now present day Ethiopia. These trees blossomed in an area called “Kaffa” and the trees were called “Kafa,” which may as well be the root word for coffee. In the tenth century, coffee was considered a food.

There are several popular traditional sayings and proverbs attached to the coffee ceremony in Ethiopia.

• No visit to Ethiopia is complete without participating in the elaborate coffee ceremony.
• Coffee is served with grace and gesture of respect for the guest.
• Drinking coffee alone, is as bad as seeking fame without any accomplishment

Duration: 12 days / 11 nights
Transport: surface

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival
Arrive at the Addis Ababa Bole International airport. Be met and welcomed by Destiny Ethiopia Tour and Travel representative and transferred to Hotel.

Day 2: Addis- Ziway-Awassa
Drive through Ethiopian Great Rift valley Region and have stop over in different places to visit greenhouse (Flower growing areas for export). O/n Hotel.

Day 3: Awassa- Dilla- Yergacheffe- Yergalem
Drive through the fertile land of Sidama people and visit their cultural village along with coffee and false banana (Enset) plantation. The cultivation of enset  (false banana or Abyssinian banana) and everything which revolves around it has generated an entire culture, especially for inhabitants of Gurage and Sidama. Continue driving to Yergacheffe to visit coffee plantation. Coffee from Yirgacheffe in the south has an unusual flavour and is very popular.  Overnight Aregash Lodge.

Day 4: Dilla- Wendo Genet
Drive back again through the fertile land of Sidama region to Wendo Genet- famous with various types of indigenous trees along with many types fruit plantation including Chat- it is a plant with green leaves, cultivated throughout Eastern Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula. It contains two alkaloids (cathine and cathinone), that produce effects similar to those of amphetamine sulphate.

Day 5: Wend Genet- Bale
Drive to the highland region through the Muslim- Oromo culture and visit agricultural farms for different crops. Here there is an opportunity to visit various types of endemic plants. O/n Wabishebele Hotel.

Day 6: Bale – Assela
Drive to Assela and visit the barley and wheat plantation. O/n  Hotel

Day 7: Assela- Gonde- Addis
Drive to Gonde to visit biggest agricultural farm in the area for barley, Wheat and Maize. O/n   Hotel.

Day 8: Addis- Jimma
Heading west of Addis Ababa you will be driving to Jimma. You will stop at Walkite for lunch. En route we will be visiting the Gurage and Oromo people and their beautiful villages. On the way you cross the magnificent and picturesque Gibe gorge and the Gibe River. After driving through coffee and chat plantation, you will be in Jimma for an overnight stay in Welde Argaw hotel. Jimma was the capital of the former Keffa province. It is in this region that the coffee beans originated for the first time by a shepherd. Now Jimma is inhibited by Oromo, Kefecho and Kulo people.

Day 9: Jimma – Mizan Teferi
Driving from Jimma to Mizan Teferi 240 kms through the Ethiopia’s indigenous dense forest. The people living in this area are from Kefecho, yem and Bench ethnic groups. This place is famous in coffee, tea and spice growing region from all over the country. Overnight  hotel.

Day 10: Mizan Teferi- Bebeka Coffee plantation
Continue driving further to the west from Mizan Teferi to Bebeka and visit Ethiopias largest old coffee plantation. O/n Bebeka Guest house.

The story of coffee has its beginnings in Ethiopia, the original home of the coffee plant; coffee Arabica, which still grows wild in the forest of the highlands. Many sources indicate that the term “coffee” was derived from “Kaffa”, a region in the southwestern part of the Ethiopian highlands, where it was first discovered.

It is from this part of the country that coffee spread to the rest of the world and constituted the ancestors of the present day coffee plantations across the globe. It’s beyond doubt that there is nothing that can invalidate the popular pronouncement that Arabica coffee is endemic to Ethiopia.

Coffee is the gift of Ethiopia to the world.

Day 11: Bebeka- Jimma
After breakfast drive to Jimma through Keficho and Oromo Village and you will have stop over at Seka and you will have a 30 minute walk to visit the spectacular Gibe Fall. Continue driving to Jimma for overnight  Hotel.

Day 12: Jimma- Addis- departure
After break fast drive back to Addis through the very admirable Gibe Gorge and you can have a chance to visit the Gurage and the Oromo tribal village. Evening farewell dinner party in Ethiopian traditional restaurant with dance from the different ethnic groups and then departure back to home.