Trip Report: Bahir Dar

We have one more trip post from our first trip to Ethiopia!  After our hike in the Simien foothills, Abebe took us to the bus station and found a bus for us to take to Bahir Dar.  We sat on the bus at the station for about an hour, watching as people got on and off.  We never understood why so many people got on the bus and didn't stay.  As we were in motion, pulling out of the parking lot there were still people hopping on the bus.  The drive was about 3.5 hours to Bahir Dar.  When we arrived in Bahir Dar we were greeted with a pleasant sight - streets lined in palm trees.

We had some dinner at our hotel and then I checked my cell phone and found that our friend, Dawit, had texted us and said to let him know when we had arrived because his mom had prepared a meal for us.  Whoops!  Dawit met us at our hotel, with his sister, Diane, and we rode in a bajaj to his home.  We met his parents, three sisters, several cousins and neighbors.  Everyone else was fasting for Christmas, so Dawit and Christie and I were supposed to eat ALL of the food that his mom had prepared.  Just as we would start to make a dent on the platter, she would serve us more food in its place.  We were stuffed beyond belief, but we really enjoyed the food and the opportunity to meet Dawit's family.

The next morning we took a boat ride out on Lake Tana with a group of people staying at our hotel.  The lake was really peaceful.  We passed several fishermen out on their tankwa canoes.

 

Not long after we had gotten out on the water our driver spotted hippos in the distance!  They ducked under water before we could get very close, but we were close enough to see them flap their ears before they disappeared. 

 

The lake has many islands and each island is home to monasteries, known for their Biblical paintings.  Many of the monasteries do not allow women inside, so our tour group visited the monasteries located on the Zege peninsula, where they allow both genders to visit.  In all, we visited three monasteries and we also got to see where the Blue Nile River begins.

The following day we traveled by van to the Tis Issat Falls, east of Bahir Dar.  There is a hydroelectric dam which diverts water away from the falls and we had been warned by some other tourists that the falls had not really been flowing just a couple of days before.  The van took us most of the way and then we hiked for about 30 minutes to reach the falls.

It was another really nice hike and the falls were amazing!  There is definitely more water flowing over them during the rainy season, but the flow was really good while we were there and the water was not muddy brown, like it tends to be during the rainy season.

The guide let us up to the top where the water falls off the cliff.  You might notice my eyes are looking up in this picture.  Just as Christie was taking this photo a vervet monkey came running from out of nowhere, jumped in the tree behind Christie and ran across the branch over her head!

We walked upstream a ways and then took a boat across the river to get to an area where the car could meet us and take us back to Bahir Dar.  The boat that crossed just ahead of us was filled with kids going to school.  What a cool commute!

Trip Report: Simien Hike

We were able to see all of the sights in Gondar in just one afternoon so the next morning we had some time to spare.  We joined our tour guide from the previous day and he got a driver to take us north of Gondar to the foothills of the Simien Mountains.  We drove a short distance (about 40 minutes), parked on the side of the road, and started hiking off into the mountains.

We totally had not expected to have this opportunity so we were really excited to be getting to do this.  We hiked for a couple of hours, taking in spectacular scenery.  The pictures are nice, but they simply don't capture the beauty that surrounded us.

We had our guide, a scout and a guard hiking along with us.  From a high vantage point they spotted gelada baboons in the distance.  We headed in that direction and would stop periodically to take photos and watch them from our improved proximity.  Then we would hike a little closer.  Abebe kept telling us we were as close as we would go.  Then he would say "okay, let's go a little closer."

There were about 30 baboons in the group that we were watching.  We were close enough to see little babies jumping around and playing, and the adults showing their patterned chests.  Eventually the baboons started to move along and so we headed back.  We hiked for about 2.5 hours altogether and had a fantastic time.  As we neared the road we were joined by several kids that tagged along, congregating around Christie and holding her hands.  We were invited into the home of a woman that lived near the road.  She gave us each a glass of an alcoholic beverage made from sorghum.  We tried to decline since we don't like alcohol and everyone assured us it had not fermented long so there wasn't much alcohol.  It sure tasted strong though and we ended up giving our nearly full glasses to our guide when it was time to leave.

Trip Report: Gondar

We awoke early and took a flight from Lalibela to Gondar, stopping briefly in Axum.  Gondar is known as the "Camelot of Africa" thanks to a conglomeration of medieval castles that resemble those of Europe.  You can see the castle theme throughout town.  Even the airport has the appearance of a castle.  When we got to our hotel it was about lunch time.  After a snack lunch, we headed out to explore the sights.  The castle complex was just a short walk from our hotel.  We paid admission and got a guide, Abebe, who was our most memorable of the trip.  He told us all about the history of Gondar and its role as the 3rd major capital of Ethiopia (after Axum and Lalibela). 

The castles were built in succession by several different rulers in the 1700s, following the style of other castles built by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries.  The complex is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, just like the churches of Lalibela.  The main castle is still intact and in very good condition.  Many of the other castles and buildings were bombed by Britain during World War II in an attempt to expel the Italian invaders.  There are some really neat features to the castles, including a system of guttering leading to an underground cistern and a steam house.  Other buildings on the grounds include stables and lion cages.

Our admission also included access to Fasilidas's Bath.  This is a large pool with a castle/residence in the middle.  There is some debate about the original purpose of this pool.  Our tour guide told us that it was primarily for recreation for the royal family.  Now, the pool has become the venue for an annual celebration at Timket.  Timket is the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany, the time when Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River.  Every year on January 19 hundreds of Ethiopians travel to Gondar and come to this location to witness as priests bless the water.  Then everyone jumps in for a renewal of their baptism.  We were in Gondar just 2 weeks before Timket and they were beginning to fill the pool.  It takes about a month to fill and then it is drained about a week after the Timket celebration and is dry the rest of the year.

We hopped in a bajaj and rode over to the Debre Birhan Selassie church, famous for the ceiling painted with hundreds of angels.  The church is not large, but a good percentage of the Bible is represented in paintings covering the walls inside.  Abebe showed us each paiting and explained the stories to us.  It was really great to see this in person after having seen pictures of this ceiling so many times.

We finished our sightseeing for the day and headed back to the hotel where we got to enjoy a New Years Eve party with traditional Ethiopian music and dancing.  We were sitting right in front and had a great view of the action.

Trip Report: Lalibela

On Sunday morning we departed Addis Ababa early in the morning for a flight to Lalibela!  We could hardly contain our excitement.  Over the last three years we have been soaking up as much information as we could about Ethiopia and we have been planning this trip, hoping that when the time came we would be able to organize travel outside of Addis.  We were finally in Ethiopia and headed to the town of rock-hewn churches!

We took a short flight on Ethiopian Airlines and spent the whole flight looking out the windows.  When we arrived in Lalibela we were amazed at our surroundings.  We were really in the mountains, and there was nothing around us.

The van ride from the airport to the town of Lalibela was incredible.  All along the way there were children running up to the road, waving at us while we whizzed by at a speed that could only be considered comfortable by those who drive this road regularly.  Our drive took us higher and higher in elevation until we were finally winding through some populated areas and arriving in Lalibela.

We got to our hotel and quickly arranged for our tours for the day.  We had enough time to visit half the churches before the noon to 2 pm lunch period when the churches are closed.  Then we visited the other half of the churches after lunch.

The Bet Medhane Alem church is home to the very special Lalibela processional cross.  This cross used to be displayed on a regular basis, but it was stolen in 1997.  It was later returned and now it is guarded more closely and only shown off by a priest on Sundays.  We just happened to be visiting the church as the priest was showing the cross and blessing people with it.

The churches of Lalibela were carved with simple tools in the 12th century.  The goal was to create a "New Jerusalem" so that Orthodox Ethiopian Christians would not have to make pilgrimages all the way to Israel.  It just so happened that we were in Lalibela one week before the Ethiopian Christmas (Genna).  Pilgrims from all over Ethiopia were already arriving on foot.  Many of these people were from rural parts of Ethiopia, so they were seeing white skin for the first time when we passed each other.

 

All of the churches were beautiful.  Some were intricately carved on the exterior and others were intricately carved on the interior.

When it came down to it, there was really no question about which church was our favorite, though.  Saint Giyorgis is by far the most picturesque and memorable.  We approached the church from a hillside above and were looking down on the top, which is shaped like a cross.  It is tall and slender with a very small footprint on the inside.  It has weathered very well due to the drainage system and gutters that are set up from its roof, all original to the church.

The sides glow lime green in the sunlight from the lichen that has grown on the reddish brown rock.  It is just amazing to know that each of these churches are one solid piece of rock, carved from the top down.  The interiors are hollowed out, one chisel and chip at a time.  The intricacy of the work is just astounding.

After we finished touring the churches we took the long hike back through town to our hotel.  Along the way we talked with many locals.  There were two high school boys, Dejen and Tomas, who told us about how they are temporarily living in Lalibela in order to go to school.  Their family lives out in the countryside where there aren't any schools.  They work part of the day in order to make enough money to pay some rent and then go to school the other part of the day.  Their accommodations are very modest - a stick and mud house with a grass roof.  In the rainy season, the roof leaks and their few belongings inside the house get drenched.  In typical Ethiopian hospitality, Dejen and Tomas invited us to join them for a coffee ceremony in their home.  It was really a highlight of our trip, being invited into the home of two young men who were delighted to spend a couple of hours visiting with us.  They have access to a computer at their high school, so we are keeping in touch through email.

Our hotel was very nice and had a gorgeous panoramic view of the surrounding mountains and countryside.  Our journey out of Addis was off to a great start!