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Photo: Original uploader was Sfkdn at en.wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The tours seem popular with locals and foreign tourists alike. If you are lucky, you see many hippos, or you may just see their ears if they are resting. It's about 500 Birr for a boat (as of 2013), but you can fit several people to share the cost. Alternatively, if you have the time, sit on a quiet spot next to the lake, sometimes the hippos come over for food.
Lake Hawassa or Awasa, is an endorheic basin in Sidama Region of Ethiopia, located in the Main Ethiopian Rift south of Addis Ababa, the capital city of the country. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the lake is 16 km long and 9 km wide, with a surface area of 129 square kilometers. It has a maximum depth of 10 meters and is located at an elevation of 1,708 meters. It is located inside the Awasa Caldera.
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