As we go through life, we carry many of our friends with us. Those beautiful times when we were young and life was fresh and all things seemed so simple.

The African country that borders Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, and Eritrea is not on every traveler’s must-see list. Landlocked in the Horn of Africa, it’s not a travel agent’s dream vacation. Politically and geologically rocky and diverse, Ethiopia can sometimes be dangerous to your health. But if you want an offbeat experience in a 3-million-year-old civilization, you can find ancient Abyssinia much like your yirgacheffe spicy, risky, romantic and bold coffee.

Today there is a thriving art scene in the capital, Addis Ababa, with the Zoma Center for Contemporary Art (ZCAC), the NETSA Art Village, and the Makush Art Gallery to name a few. Recognized in the 1960s for his murals, mosaics and stained glass, Afewerk Tekle (1932-2012) remains one of the country’s most celebrated artists and one I remember especially when I remember Ethiopia.

A story older than history

The Ethiopians are a beautiful creative people with an ancient history that differs from any other African nation. Except for the brief Italian invasion by Benito Mussolini’s forces early in World War II, when the British drove them out, Ethiopia is the only African country that was never colonized.

An ancient Abyssinian culture originating in present-day Yemen, recent reconstruction of human prehistory from DNA studies traces Ethiopia’s beginnings to 1000 BC. Made up of many ethnic tribes, the Oromo and Amhara are the most populous and the official language is Amharic. Since the 1975 cold-blooded assassination of former Emperor Haile Selassi by strangulation in the basement of his palace, Ethiopia has oscillated between the absolute rule of God-King Selassi, the totalitarian Marxist militia that brutally executed him, and the current Revolutionary Party of Ethiopian people. Democratic Front (EPRDF) with a prime minister and a constitution.

The last Emperor

When I was assigned to our embassy in Addis Ababa in the mid-1960s, the country was relatively peaceful, the city very dark, and Emperor Haile Selassi was my next door neighbor. I had a front row seat to the 1965 royal visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as they were paraded through the crowds at the palace gates. Since my apartment house was right behind the royal palace, sleeping was a challenge. At night, the emperor’s pet lions roamed freely in the palace gardens, scaring off would-be marauders and stirring up peacocks. So I went to bed every night to the “high C” screech of nervous peacocks, and the growls and growls of those noisy cats.

Small in stature with an epithet ten times his size, “Emperor Haile Selassi I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Chosen of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia” claimed direct descent from Menilek I, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Saba. As an absolute ruler, he reigned for 45 years and helped bring his country into the 20th century. And here lies the story of the old little king.

The short story according to the Ethiopian/Arabic biblical tradition

Once upon a time in the mists of time, the beautiful, rich and well-educated Queen of Sheba lived in southern Arabia. When she heard about the wise and wealthy King Solomon of the Hebrews in Jerusalem, she decided to go on a pilgrimage to meet him. With her caravan laden with spices, gold, and precious stones for the king, Sheba made the 1,400-mile journey to Jerusalem and stayed longer than she had anticipated. Solomon fell in love with the exotic queen, but made her promise that she would not take anything from her palace without her permission or impose a penalty. One night, after a deliberately excessive spicy feast, the queen developed a terrible thirst and reached for a drink of water. When a servant observed her drinking water without permission, Solomon was informed whose punishment was a night of lovemaking in the royal bed. From this union Menelik I was born, and Haile Selassie claimed to be his direct descendant.

Before Coffee – Injera and Wat

Experience the geological diversity of this country as you fly over the Entoto Mountains to the 8,000-foot-high capital of Addis Ababa, where the earth seems to rise up to meet you. Outside the city, eucalyptus forests, high canyons, steep gorges, desert scrub, and frozen lakes are idyllic spots for hikers and campers. Traditional food is spicy. Injera Y watthat you eat with your fingers. Injera it is baked with a sourdough and placed on the table or brass tray like a giant pancake. wat is the bravo stew that is served in the center of the Injera. Tear off a piece of Injera and use it to pick up the stew (chicken, beef or vegetables). Cold beer helps.

legendary hyena man

In the 1960s, television had not yet reached this part of the world, and our embassy tennis courts were not lit at night. With the exception of a crowded nightclub and a second-rate hotel, there wasn’t much going on in the evenings. Getting around meant driving carefully and walking cautiously. With few streetlights, the city at night was a dark and deserted place where wild hyenas brazenly entered the city to prowl for anything they could catch in their noxious jaws, dead or alive. Hyenas are not picky about what they eat, including humans, when the victim is sleeping rough. But don’t fear. A mysterious entity lived in our town: a scruffy recluse who had an uncanny alliance with nasty predators. Lonely and harmless, the man wandered the shadowy alleys whistling, humming, virtually luring animals out of town with bits of meat. They followed him as the Pied Piper of Hamelin. We called him “the hyena man,” and that’s all we knew about him. Today’s local “entrepreneurs” have turned that rare experience into a thriving act performed for tourists.

The Blue Nile Falls, a bridge to the sun

Walter, a former US Air Force pilot, was among our small group of expats hanging out together. At the request of the Ethiopian government, Walt had been hired by USAID to spray malaria-infected areas. Returning to Addis from a trip to the ancient capital of Gondar, I hitchhiked with Walt to photograph the Blue Nile Falls. We take off in his single-engine Cessna T-210, heading for Bahir Dar and Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. The river gets its name from the waters of Lake Tana, which are bluish-black in color at high tide. From there it flows into Khartoum and then into Egypt and the White Nile, whose sediment gives it a light gray hue.

When we got to the falls, Walt didn’t fly over them, he flew into them. A stunning rainbow colored bridge towards the sun filtering through the mist. I opened my window, took some photos and my face was filled with water. With my hair soaking wet, I wanted more photos, so I asked Walt to do another pass. Looking up at me through the dense foliage: the white-fringed face of a silky black-and-white long-tailed monkey. The graceful colobus monkey is the only type of its species without a thumb and a natural wonder of the East African world.

As we banked to head home, a hail of bullets tore through the fuselage and hit Walt in the butt. We couldn’t see the gunmen, but he knew they wanted the Cessna. Despite the pain, Walt wasn’t going to let anyone take his plane, or us, as hostages. With Walt yelling obscenities and me praying, he managed to hold the plane steady as his blood seeped into the floorboards. We returned to Bahir Dar with Walt’s pride as wounded as his anatomy. After medical attention and a few whiskey belts deprived of him, Bush’s pilot was back on cloud nine.