Blogs from Lalibela, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 2

7th-9th Nov ’12 Lalibela It was a short one hour flight to Lalibela but the air hostesses still managed to get round us all to give us a drink and a bun before strapping themselves in just as the plane was landing! We drove up into the hillsides with views of high mountains around us and soon reached Lalibela which feels more like a village than a town. We past the newer area of town which is where all the people who lived in the traditional storey mud huts have been moved too in order to preserve the buildings, no idea about how they felt about this but I guess they didn’t get much choice! After checking into our hotel and grabbing some lunch we drove back through the town, down the straggly lanes and to ... read more

We were up at 5.30 a.m. to get to the bus station in time to get on the road early enough so that we might get to Lalibela that day. We managed to get a bus to Alamata, changed to one going to Woldia, which broke down twice along the way. From there, we got a bus to Gashena. It would be more accurate to describe Gashena as a crossroads rather than a town, but it is 65 km south of Lalibela and must be passed through to access it. We got to Gashena some time in the middle of the afternoon and fancied our chances of reaching Lalibela that day. It wasn't to be and we couldn't find any transport going there, so we had to get rooms in the only hotel around. The height ... read more

We arrived inLalibella, Ethiopia, at about 10 in the morning after an early-morning flight fromNairobitoAddis Ababa, a flight from Addis to the Lalibella airport, and a half-hour drive in an overcrowded minicab. To continue the bad luck we’d had booking last-minute accommodation on this trip (memories of arriving inDurban,South Africaat the same time as the International Conference on Climate Change), we unknowingly planned to arrive in Lalibella right in the middle of one of the biggest religious festivals of the year. It is called Tim Kat and is a celebration of the Epiphany, which of course would be of great significance to this predominantly Orthodox Christian area of the country. We were lucky enough to find a room at a reasonable price, as we’d heard that some hotels were charging up to 200 USD for a ... read more

ETHIOPIA: Timket in Lalibela...Seeking Enlightenment. What is a mozaic of colour...a rugby scrum of thousands...a plethora of satin umbrellas...the most ornate crowns adorning heads one could possibly see...a pulsating rhythm of sandled feet...hours and hours of Geez...days of frantic passion...of faith...of faces...smiling or heavenward...and robes of white & red...of black & gold...of purples...of blues...of every colour imaginable...in a magic, exotic locale? Welcome to Timket in Lalibela...it is all of those things...and more. A three day festival to honour the Epiphany...the baptism of Christ... Ethiopian style. In Mali our adventures were all leading to the Festival in the Desert...from Bamako to Timbuktu...to "the most remote music festival in the World"...dancing all the way...rewarded by "Our Tuareg Wedding" in the Sahara...recommitting for ... read more

(I found this while cleaning the computer. Apparently I was not impressed with it 8 months ago. This may still be the case, but if I ever reread any of these things in my dotage, it should be with the rest. good or bad.) Disentangling mythology from history is a tricky business. Perhaps one that is not even possible. Napolean said that history was only “the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon”. So, what is history, and consequently, what is true, depends on who you ask. What outsiders might consider myth or apocrypha is for Ethiopians, indisputably, historical fact. They have resoundingly agreed, and for a couple millennium have been fleshing out the story, working out the kinks, and tying up loose ends. For Ethiopians, the legitimacy and foundation of the ... read more