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Published: December 8th 2014
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Well, Day #5 and we are really enjoying Ethiopia. Some of our first impressions are – overall people are very friendly and helpful. And that makes everything easier! Also, how it always take some time to get back in the travel mode . And as always, time slows way down when on the road. But even more so here. Timelessness. There is such a feeling of it, particularly outside the cities. Driving down the dusty road late afternoon, the road is filled with people coming in from the fields, and you feel as though this is a scene that has been repeated for the past 2000 yrs. The men are dressed with their white shawl and all carry a staff. There are donkey and horse carts, many loaded down with wood or cut grass. The countryside homes are mostly single story wood or metal frames. Since so far, we have only been in a vehicle, I have not yet taken any good photos of it, but it is absolutely amazing to see.
We spent one day in Addis, just to meet with Ethio Travel and Tours and basically firm up our itinerary. Addis is a very large city and
we really did not see anything of it. It seems as though every road has been torn up for construction and they are in the midst of completing a light rail down the center of the city. We were told it should be completed in two months, and all of this work has been going on for 10 yrs. Our impression, it is a dusty, chaotic mess. The Chinese have been replacing all the roads throughout the country, and are now finishing up in Addis. There is also a lot of building construction going on at the same time. We are told there are a lot of Expat Ethiopians returning to their country with investment dollars. One comment made to us, ‘we have been asleep for 19 years, but we are now waking up’. Overall, there does seem to be a lot of energy and enthusiasm. But, as someone else told us, the city has been around for along time, and just keeps growing. Perhaps it might have easier to just build a new city.
Our meeting with ETT went very well, once we finally found them. We were told it was about a 20 minute walk from
the hotel we were staying at. But a combination of sleep deprived mistakes on our part, it took us about 2 hours to finally find them!
We had a basic idea of what we thought we wanted to do and see, but they helped us tie the schedule with market dates and timing of events and 2 trips we wanted to do with them. Then it was off to the ATMs to pay for it, no one takes credit cards. There is always an element of trust when travelling, as you hand over a wad of cash (the largest currency note is 100 Birr = $5, so it truly is a wad). And then after turning over the cash, hope that you will see them 10 days later, as you have agreed.
But it has worked out incredibly well. They were able to book us on a one hour flight to Bahir Dar for the next day, at a third the cost which saved us a 10 hour bus ride. They took us to the airport the next morning, and much to our surprise, they had a representative in Bahir Dar airport to pick us up and take
us to our hotel. They also gave us a cellphone to use, when they found out we did not have one. We assumed it was to use only if we needed them, so where quite surprised when the next evening the representative showed back up at our guest house and told us Bisrat had been trying to reach us. When Ed called him, he said why are you not carrying your cell phone? He had left several text messages. The last one to tell us he could give us a free ride the next day to the city of Gondhar. Perhaps we paid a little too much for the other tours, but we are loving the service!!
Bahir Dar is a very pleasant tree lined streets, on the edge of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. We stayed at a great 3 room guesthouse with a lovely garden area and tons of birds. We could have stayed here much longer than the 2 nights, as the town was very comfortable to wander.
We took a tour to the Blue Nile waterfalls, it was a rough one hour dusty
road, the Chinese have not gotten to the side roads yet. But the fascinating views of all the people were worth it. It is low season for the waterfall, but still pleasant to see.
The next day we took the boat tour to a couple of monasteries on the lake. There were about 20 people on the boat, a UN sample of people – and as usual the amazing comradery that occurs. There was a Swiss woman completing her 3 month project working with street children in Addis, a British gentleman selling small construction tools to the Sudanese, an American guy finishing up his 6 mth around the world tour, Three Germans assessing their agricultural economic development projects they have been monitoring from Germany, Jeffrey from New Caledonia, (yes we had to look it up, too)on a 2 wk vacation, and 2 families from Addis on vacation.
The 2 monasteries we visited were actually on a peninsula, but best accessible by boat. Ura Kidane Mihret, built in the 16th century, known for the amazing murals painted on cotton using natural dyes. It was our first, so as we walked up to the relatively unassuming round wood structure, we
unprepared for the massive number of brilliant colored murals, all depicting various aspects of Christ’s life and Bible stories. The second monastery Azuwa Maryam, built abit later in the 18th century, again with more beautiful murals. Also, all of the surrounding areas for both monasteries are protected, so the forested canopy had been left in tact and provided a welcome relief from the hot sun. But by the end of the 5 hour trip we were hot and hungry.
The day before our guesthouse nephew Zedu showed us a lovely restaurant right on the lake with about a 100 gorgeous pelicans nearby. It was a beautiful setting and the food good. After the boat ride 7 of us returned for a late lunch, with Liz (from Nairobi, working in BD) joining us. Our plan to visit the Central Market changed when Liz offered to take us to Hallie Salasie’s palace which had a lovely view for Sunset. Then it was off to Pelican Winery to sample the mango wine, that was quite good.
Yesterday, we arrived in Gondar, founded in 1635, once the capital of Abyssinian (Ethiopia) known for Fasil’s 16th century castle which is
a beautiful structure in the middle of the city. Gondar is a sprawling city running up one side of a hill and down the other, @ 185,000 people ?, and much busier than BD. WE spent the afternoon touring the 5 acre castle complex with each of the 5 generations needing their own castle. Dinner was at a beautiful restaurant and we finally enjoyed the more traditional food. Today was a rest day,( hence the long blog) as we prepare for our 4 day Simien trek. Liz from Kenya told us it is ‘jaw dropping scenery’. Sounds good !
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