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We have a long day ahead of us today so Chris wanted to leave at 7 AM to avoid the morning traffic. It turns out Addis is like any other major city as it has bad traffic problems.

Everyone is going in this southern swing except for Kevin who headed home today, so our group size is 16. We are using the same 5 vehicle caravan but with new drivers except for the lead driver, Tommy.

We managed to exit the city without any major delays and made our first stop by 9:15 at the Tiya historical archeological World Heritage site to view some 12-14th century (before Christianity arrived) stelae (stone grave markers) found there. We were met by a local guide who toured us around the facility and explained what we were seeing. These markers are indeed grave sites. Exploration in 1974 found 54 skeletons (29 men , 15 women) buried behind the stelae in a fetal position. On the male stelae markers are carved swords thought to identify how many the person killed, to circular rings to indicate it was a man, symbols to indicate ribs and also a symbol of the traditional head rest used by men,  of all things. The stelae range in height from 1-5 meters. The female stelae are carved with obvious female characteristics like breasts and a necklace.  We spent about 45 minutes there before moving on.

Around 11AM we stopped at a hotel in Butajira for a comfort stop and coffee/soda. By 11:30 we were on the road again, rotating seats so everyone did not get stuck in the middle.

The landscape gradually changed as we were in a big valley. Our progress was hindered by potholes in the pavement that the driver had to avoid and the many animals that decided they liked walking on the roadway as they moved from one location to another. One of the big changes we saw was that we were entering an area where the majority of the inhabitants were Muslims. The clothing of the women changed to burkas. The driver said this was the major settlement for those of Muslim belief. 90% of the people living in this area are Muslims.

Near the town of Warabi the vehicles stopped along the roadside and we proceeded to visit the home of a Muslim family who lived there. The homes here are round with thatched roofs. As was the case last week we were invited into their modest home where the couple lived with their 6 children. Five were in school at the time so only one small, very shy boy clung to his mother while we were there. They sleep on dirt floors and cook meals inside. There is no “chimney” in the roof so the entire house ends up having a smoky odor. It wasn’t intolerable but it was noticeable. There was even an area for their livestock to live inside; they provide heat for the family. Next to the round house was a more traditional rectangular adobe home we have seen in most other areas. This will be their new home soon. Because of the lack of thatch for roof material people are migrating away from the old ways of living.

 

We also started seeing a lot of Boxer motor bikes (made in China), more than we had ever seen before. It seemed to be a prime mode of transportation for young males. The other obvious observation is that virtually every young child who saw us waved, and as good tourists we tried to wave back. I asked our driver why this was. He said the kids recognize this type of vehicle and know it contains tourists, so they wave.  OK by me.

Our lunch stop was in the town of Halaba where we ate pre- ordered dishes. Several of us ordered minestrone soup. What we got was not traditional minestrone soup; our soup was white, not red, and contained rice and carrots. No one had a good answer why it was called minestrone. However, it was tasty and filling.

By 5 PM we were near our destination for the night, Arba Minch ( which means 40 springs- which there are nearby),  having passed through a rich area where they grow bananas, mangoes, avocados and tomatoes. We saw large trucks being loaded with bananas to be driven to Addis Ababa.

Our hotel for the next two nights is in the town of Arba Minch. It is one of the chain owned by the famous Ethiopian long distance runner, Haile Gebrselassie.  It is gorgeous and makes up for the poor hotels we stayed in earlier in the trip. Located  on the side of a hill it overlooks the distant lake and mountains. The good news is we will be here two nights! By 6:00PM we were in our rooms. Dinner is a buffet (what else) and the bar area looked promising. Cal, a former Eastman Kodak employee, is on the trip and happens to be a Manhattan drinker so I volunteered to see if they could make us one. They only had Jack Daniels but that will do in a pinch. There was sweet vermouth also ; however there was no bitters and the bar tender had no clue what it was. I decided to pass and instead ordered a glass of white wine from South Africa. I got a generous, i.e. to the top of the glass, for $4.50.

As I said the hotel is beautiful but, alas, the internet is not. I had hopes of adding more entries to my blog but I had trouble connecting to the outside world, so my blog gets a further delay.

Trivia for the day: Lalibela means “honey eater”.  As famous as it is, Lalibela is not a large city; it’s population is only about 25,000. It lies at an elevation of 2630 meters. It was the capital of the Zagwe dynasty in the 12-13th centuries.

Today is the feast day of the Epiphany, celebrating the baptism of Jesus. It is THE major religious holiday in Ethiopia and Lalibela is one of the major cities for the celebration.

As we arrived around 7:30AM the stands were 90% full, and the priests and deacons were milling around, with hundreds of locals. We maneuvered/pushed our way through the crowd and found we had awesome seats right by the cross-shaped pool and about 8 rows up, so our view of the proceedings was superb. We agreed we would have to give the local guide an additional tip for what he arranged (we later learned he was there at 3 AM to secure the prime seating). There was a lot of chanting by the priests and deacons who were dressed in their Sunday best. This went on for awhile and then the higher level priests marched in with colorful parasols and marvelous vestments and joined the priests at the pool.  There was more chanting, now led by the newly arrived contingent. About 8:15 the chanting turned into drumming and dancing. We began looking at our clocks as we had to be back at the hotel by 8:45 to join those who did not come to this “option” and proceed with the itinerary of the day, a visit with a local guide (“call me Lulu”, as his real name was long and complex) to the famous rock churches of Lalibela. We did have to leave right after the high priest blessed the water in the pool and we did not get to see them “sprinkle” the crowd (and probably us) with the blessed water. All in all it was a dramatic viewing of the pageantry and I am glad I got to experience it.

We were to view the world famous churches in two batches, visiting the NW group of four (of the seven there) churches in the morning, breaking for lunch, then the remaining SE group in the afternoon. We were warned that the afternoon group would be more “challenging” so people can opt out if they do not feel up to it. As it turned out about half our group opted out the afternoon visits. We were told to bring a flashlight, a shawl for women and our  “church socks”.

The rock churches of Lalibela are an OMG experience. Eleven churches were ordered built by King Lalibela in the 12th century. It is said he wanted to recreate Jerusalem here so people did not need to make the long, dangerous trip to the real one. The churches and surrounding areas all have biblical references to places in Jerusalem. What is rather amazing is all of the churches were built in 23 years! Local tradition says that this was accomplished with the help of angels working at night. The rest of the people feel it was due to the work of some 40,000 workers!

The most famous of the churches, i.e. the one most photographed, is the church of St. George which happened to be the last church built so it is the most ornate.

My pictures do not do justice to the sights of the Lalibela rock churches. You have to experience them to fully appreciate what they represent.

To visit the churches requires walking on uneven rocky surfaces, up/down rock stairs and occasionally narrow passages. At each church Lulu briefed us on the characteristics of the church, who it was dedicated to, is it monolithic (completely separate from surrounding rock)  or semi-monolithic ( one wall still attached to the base rock) in construction, the religious relationship to the construction details ( everything has a religious meaning, like 12 pillars to represent the 12 apostles), etc. We would then remove our shoes and hand them to a “shoe watcher” that Chris hired to watch over our shoes while we were in the church and assist us if needed to get them back on. Occasionally he had to transfer them to another location as we would not come back to where we entered. It worked like a charm and everyone was grateful for the assistance when needed.

The churches are an engineering marvel. Some were carved from the top, starting on the outside going down, then from the bottom up on the inside. Others were done differently. Each is dedicated to a particular saint. The walls inside the churches are mostly bare, but there are always some free-standing large religious pictures in the church.

It was quite a morning; one I will always remember and treasure.

We went back to the hotel for lunch. Those interested could go see the second set of churches in the afternoon. We were warned they might be more challenging to see so some people chose to stay behind. We were told to bring flashlights because one of the passageways between churches included a pitch dark tunnel 30 meters long. This tunnel was meant to simulate the path through hell. This group of 4 churches are not as elaborate or famous as the church of St. George, but they are examples of fine carving skill. The second largest and best carved church (monolithic) of the whole area is the church of Emmanuel, which was thought to be the private chapel of the royal family. When we came to the area where the dark tunnel was located we found that there were kids playing in tunnel and it was decided it would be too dangerous to go that way. Normally there is someone to chase them away but that was not the case today. There was an alternative, easier way to see the connected churches so we got to see all of them anyway.

Once we got back to the hotel We received some good news; most of us got reassigned better rooms in the hotel for this second night, although my toilet still leaked onto the floor because of a bad seal. Oh well, we were warned this was to be and adventure tour!

Dinner this evening was off site and turned out to be a real treat, as it was a restaurant  (Ben Abeba) that was perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking a spectacular valley. It was outdoor eating and we got to see a wonderful sunset while enjoying a great meal. It was a perfect ending to our visit to Lalibela and the Timkat Festival.

Tomorrow we fly back to Addis Ababa.

Today is basically a travel day. We had to leave Mekele at 6AM in the dark as it will be a 7 hour drive to Lalibela which we wish to reach by 2 PM.  The reason for this is the Timkat Festival begins today with a parade before the feast of the Epiphany tomorrow.

Surprisingly we are only 105 miles from Lalibela but it is slow driving. There are no straight roads. The houses have become constructed of sticks and mud again. The landscape starts out barren  but then turns green and lush with terraced pastures everywhere. Our first comfort stop comfort stop was by a field of cactus at 8 AM. Men on one side of the road; ladies on the other side

By 9 am the towns were hopping again. It was just another day even though it is Sunday. The cattle on the way to grazing have much bigger horns than seen earlier in the trip. They must like a different breed here. There are quite a few dry, wide riverbeds along the way. They must really be something to see during the rainy season of June to August. It makes me think of those in Arizona.

By 10 AM we were in the small town of Woldia for a 30 minute comfort stop at a local hotel. I walked with Chris to a nearby small mini-mart and bought a little bag of “Sun Chips”, which turned out to be potato chips. I was in the mood for something salty.

Around noon we pulled over on a hill overlooking a farming valley where we ate another of our hilarious lunches (sandwich, boiled egg, boiled potato) while sitting on the ground and/or a nearby rock. The seating was not very comfortable but the surrounding scenery made up for it..

 

We did arrive at at Lalibela around 2 PM as we had hoped. Supposedly the hotel (Lal Resort) we were in was the best hotel in Lalibela and it was in an ideal location to see the afternoon procession as it is directly on the procession route. Awesome!

Now the bad news. When we checked into the hotel most of us got rooms that bordered on being uninhabitable! My toilet tank would not hold water; it leaked out onto the floor. The shower was simply a small shower head that spilled water onto the floor; there was no curtain. The sink, when turned on, leaked water onto the floor as it was Improperly plumbed into the wall. There was no hot water. I alerted the hotel and they sent two men to fix the toilet; they simply made it worse!  Some people complained of sewer smells in their room and one room did not even have a toilet seat (and they did not have a spare). Welcome to Ethiopia. It was obviously we had been placed in rooms that were rarely used. We were scheduled to be there two nights;Chris was immediately alerted but the hotel was full today; they promised to change as many rooms as possible tomorrow. It was not a good start!

The celebration of Timkat was scheduled to begin around 4PM with a procession through the town when the various churches bring their replica Arks to a central location for the baptism celebration slated for the next day, January 20. A local guide led those of us who wanted to be up close and personal with the procession, i.e., milling around with the hundreds of locals who will line the streets as the procession passes by. Others were told they could simply go to the roof top deck at the hotel and watch from there. Most of us chose to walk the short distance to the town center and await the arrival of the procession.

Actually it is a series of processions as each church who participates arrives with singers and dancers to accompany their priests with their replica of their Ark to the nearby celebration area. The first to arrive are young men, carrying long sticks who chant and dance in tight circles. At first it looks intimidating but it was simply a joyful gathering. Following them are deacons and chanters dressed in church finery. Lastly are the priests who carry colorful parasols that are used to shield the Ark, wrapped in colorful cloth, from view. There were men who were laying down long strips of red carpeting for the priests to walk on. They continually moved the carpet strips to stay ahead of the procession.  It is a joyous, chaotic, colorful spectacle. Surrounding this are hundreds of local people, mostly dressed in white, some with elaborate decorative  designs, and we tourists. It was crowded with a joyous noise. We joined the procession for a short while then some of us fought our way back to the hotel so we could watch the procession march past the hotel from a bird’s eye view.

Then suddenly it was over and the street was empty once again.

At dinner we were given the opportunity to get up at 5 AM and go to reserved ($10) seating near the pool where people will be blessed in an elaborate religious ceremony that occurs around 7:30 when the pool water is blessed and the crowd is sprinkled with the holy water. It attracts hundreds (thousands?) of local people and tourists.  Plan B would to go to the area where the blessing occurs (only about a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel) around 7 AM and try to mingle with the crowd to get a view of the proceedings. It will be very crowded according to Chris. No one wanted to get up at 5AM and sit on concrete bleachers for that length of time. However at that point the local guide offered to get someone to reserve some seats for us and we would not have to be there until about 7:00. Well, with that option, about 1/2 of us bought in.

After dinner at the hotel Chris offered to take us over to the area where the baptism ceremony would take place tomorrow and a few of us went. By this time it was dark and we took our flashlights to light the way. The park we went to had a cross shaped pool filled with water. The area was filled with maybe one hundred people sitting/laying on the ground, who were listening to a priest in a nearby tent chant, pray and preach. This would go on all night and most of these people would stay there the entire time. We stayed awhile and walked back to the hotel to see if we could survive the accommodations. Oh, and by the way, the chanting heard in the distance would continue non stop throughout the night. Would it bother our sleep? (In my case it did not, I slept right through it).

Tomorrow is the formal celebration of Epiphany when the lengthy religious ceremony is held. We have a full day of activity planned as part of the celebration, including seeing the famous rock churches of Lalibela. This is the reason we all came to Ethiopia.